Bhandárkar (Deccan History, 9) the tribal name Ratta or Ráshtra enters into the still more famous Dakhan tribal name Maharátha or Mahrátta. So far as present information goes both the Rattas and the Great Rattas are to be traced to the Rástikas mentioned in number five of Asoka's (B.C. 245) Girnár edicts among the Aparántas or westerners along with the Petenikas or people of Paithan about forty miles north-east of Ahmadnagar (Kolhápur Gazetteer, 82). Whether the Rástika of the edicts is like Petenika a purely local name and if so why a portion of the north Dakhan should be specially known as the country or Ráshtra are points that must remain open. [455] The explanation that Kúta the second half of Ráshtrakúta, means chief, has been accepted in the text. This is probably correct. At the same time the rival theory deserves notice that the name Ráshtrakúta is formed from two tribal names Kúta representing the early widespread tribe allied to the Gonds known as Kottas and Kods in the Central Provinces North Konkan and Delhi (Thána Gazetteer, XII. Part II. 414). In support of this view it may be noticed that Abhimanyu's fifth century Ráshtrakúta inscription (J. Bo. Br. R. As. XVI. 92) refers to the Kottas though as enemies not allies of the Ráshtrakútas. At the same time certain details in Abhimanyu's grant favour an early Ráshtrakúta settlement in the Central Provinces, the probable head-quarters of the Kottas. The grant is dated from Mánapura and is made to Dakshina Siva of Pethapangaraka which may be the Great Siva shrine in the Mahádev hills in Hoshangábád, as this shrine is under the management of a petty chief of a place called Pagára, and as Mánpur in the Vindhya hills is not far off. Against the tribal origin of the word Kúta is to be set the fact that the northern Rattas are also called Ráshtrakútas though any connection between them and the Kotta tribe seems unlikely.