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Dhruva deposes Govinda II

VictorPrince Dhruva and his supportersDhruva Dharavarsha
780vs
King Govinda II and his alliesGovinda II, with help sought from the Gangas, Vengi, Kanchi and Malwa

Govinda II, the victor of Vengi as a prince, proved a careless king. His younger brother Dhruva took over the government, then the crown, beating a coalition the king had called in from outside.

Date: c. 780 CEWhere: The Rashtrakuta kingdom in the western DeccanType: Revolt
Photo: Shishirdasika · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite

MLA

“Dhruva deposes Govinda II.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/dhruva-deposes-govinda-ii/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Dhruva deposes Govinda II. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/dhruva-deposes-govinda-ii/

Result

Dhruva defeated his brother and his allies and took the throne.

01Brother against brother

Rashtrakuta grants of Dhruva’s line say that Govinda II gave himself to pleasure and left the kingdom to others, and that Dhruva, who had been managing affairs, was then pushed aside. Govinda, fearing his brother, asked the kings of Gangavadi, Vengi, Kanchi and Malwa for help. Dhruva struck before the allies could combine, defeated the king’s forces and was crowned. Some Rashtrakuta records quietly leave Govinda II out of the list of kings altogether.

02Settling accounts

Dhruva then turned on the kings who had backed his brother. He imprisoned the Ganga Shivamara II and took Gangavadi, forced the Pallava Dantivarman to pay tribute in elephants, and made Vengi submit again. In the north he crossed the Narmada and beat both the Pratihara Vatsaraja and the Pala Dharmapala in the doab. In a reign of about thirteen years, the usurper made the Rashtrakutas the strongest house in India.

Why it matters

It brought to power Dhruva, the first Rashtrakuta to march into the Ganga valley.

Places near the battlefield 4

Devagiri (Daulatabad) FortRuined
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Devagiri (Daulatabad) Fort

The capital of the Yadavas of Devagiri, a conical hill scarped smooth all round so that no one could climb it. Its fall to Alauddin Khalji’s armies between 1296 and 1318 opened the Deccan to the Delhi Sultanate.

Kailasa Temple, Ellora (Cave 16)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kailasa Temple, Ellora (Cave 16)

A whole temple, with its shrine, Nandi mandapa, towers and elephants, carved downward out of a single basalt hill under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. Nothing was built; everything that is not temple was cut away.

Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga, VerulRebuilt
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga, Verul

The twelfth Jyotirlinga, a red-stone temple in the village of Verul, a short walk from the Ellora caves. Destroyed in the wars of the Sultanate and Mughal centuries, it was raised again by Shivaji’s grandfather and then by Ahilyabai Holkar.

Paithan (Pratishthana)Standing
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Paithan (Pratishthana)

Pratishthana on the Godavari, capital of the Satavahanas and one of the great cities of the ancient Deccan, later the home of Sant Eknath. Its silk sarees still carry its name.