Donauri was a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 noble family to which belonged two ruling princes of the eastern province of Kakheti

Kakheti

Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...

 in the ninth century, and which gave origin to the latter-day noble family of Vachnadze

Vachnadze

Vachnadze was a Georgian noble family, a principal line descending from the early medieval Donauri dynasty of Kakheti. Their offshoots were the Beburishvili . The family has produced several notable religious, military and cultural figures.The Vachnadze fief was centered at the village Kardenakhi...

, and, possibly, to that of Babadishvili

Babadishvili

Babadishvili is a Georgian noble family claimed to have sprung off the royal Bagrationi dynasty of Kakheti in the 17th century.Prince Ioann of Georgia reports that the Babadishvili descend from the Kakhetian ruler Imām Qulī Khān , “corrected” by some modern genealogists to Joseph, a supposed...

 (Beburishvili).

According to the medieval Georgian chronicles, the Donauris originated in the district of Gardabani

Gardabani (historic district)

Gardabani was a region in medieval Georgia, in the extreme southeast of the country, centered at the fortress of Khunani. This land roughly corresponds to a district lying south of Tbilisi, west of the Mtkvari River....

 and grew up to virtual independence as the princes of Kakheti with the title of k'orepiskoposi (a title adapted from the Greek chorepiscopus, normally a rural bishop). The two princes of the Donauri family were: Samuel

Samuel of Kakheti

Samuel , of the Donauri family, was a prince and chorepiscopus of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 839 to 861. After the death of his predecessor Vache, Samuel was elected as prince by the Gardabanian nobility who dominated the politics of Kakheti at the time...

 (r. 839-861) and Gabriel

Gabriel of Kakheti

Gabriel , of the Donauri family, was a prince and chorepiscopus of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 861 to 881. He succeeded on the death of his uncle Samuel. His reign was marked by the vigorous religious building spearheaded by the Kakhetian-born priest Illarion the Georgian...

(r. 861-881).