The appearance of the terms "Rathika", "Ristika" ("Rashtrika") or "Lathika" in conjunction with the terms "Kambhoja" and "Gandhara" in some Ashokan inscriptions of the 2nd century BCE from Mansera and Shahbazgarhi in North Western Frontier Province (present day Pakistan), Girnar (Saurashtra) and Dhavali (Kalinga) and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many later inscriptions had prompted a claim by Reu that the earliest Rashtrakutas were descendants of the "Arattas", natives of the Punjab region mentioned in the text of Mahabharata who later migrated south and set up kingdoms there, while another theory of J.H. Fleet points more generally to north western regions of India. Based on this theory, the Arattas may have become natives of the Deccan having arrived there during the early centuries of the first millennium.