Epigraphia Indica Vol 06

SR No.: 032560
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 482
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 123

92
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VI.
warlike exploits of Vishnuvardhans teed not be discussed here, as they have been treated at great length by Dr. Fleet, who also was the first to identify king Paramardideva with the Western Chalukya king Permádi-Vikramaditya VI., the feudal lord of Vishņu. vardhana.
Vishnuvardhana's son and successor was Narasimha, who married the noble Échaladevi (vy. 18. 19). Their son was Vira-BallAls II, to whom the rest of the eulogy (vv. 20-36) is devoted. He is said (v. 20) to have acquired the kingdom by worshipping Vajreśvara. This term seems to refer to Indra; but, as vajra is occasionally used also with reference to the chakra of Vishnu, Vajrêsvara may possibly be meant here for Vishpu. At any rate it is stated in another record that he had gained the empire by being the favourite of Vijaya-Narayana, and in the present inscription also he is represented as an ardent worshipper of Vishņu (v. 24). After A series of laudatory verges (20-33) and the general statement that the Angas, Kalingas, Vangas, Magadhas, Chôļas, M&lavas, Pandyas, Keralas and Gurjaras were in fear of him (v. 34), the Inscription gives in verses 35 and 36 a more detailed account of two of Ball&la's campaigns : And by force, he, the strong one, defeated with cavalry only, and deprived of his sovereignty, the general Brahman whose army was strengthened by an array of elephants, and who had conquered sixty tusked elephants with a single taskless* elephant, when, on account of an insult to his father, he was tearing the royal fortane from the fimily of the Kalachuris, And cutting off Jaitrasimhs who was, as it wers, the right arm of that Bhilleme, he, the hero, acquired also the sovereignty over the country of Kuntala.'
The general Brahman mentioned in the former verse was the councillor and general of the last Chalukya king Sômēsvara IV. His name occurs in several Chalukya records from A.D. 1184-85 to 1186-87,5 and in one of them he is called 's fire of death to the Kalacharyas. Like his father Káma or Kavana, he had originally been in the service of the Kalachuryas. Kavana is mentioned as the dandandyaka of king Sankama in a Harihar inscription, and again as the commander-in-chief of all the forces of that king in a Balagårve inscription of A.D. 1179, and as the dandandyaka of Abavamalla in a Balagánve inscription of A.D. 1181.0 And Brahman himself is called the mahápradhana, sénadhipati and dandanayaka of king Søvidêva in a record of A. D. 1175. The reason for his rebellion is given in our inscription in the words
nyakkárena pituh.' Dr. Fleet renders them in contempt of his father, but I doubt that the words admit of such an interpretation. I can only translate them as I have done above, and, considering that the records make it highly probable that Kåvapa was still alive when Brahman revolted against his sovereigo, I see no difficulty in assuming that the account of the motives of Brahman as given in our inscription is correct. As to Jaitrasimha, by whose conquest Ballkla is said to have acquired Kuntala or the southern Maráthe country, there can be no doubt that he is identical with the Jaitasimha mentioned as the minister of the Yadava king Bhillama in the Gadag inscription of Saka 1113.7 On the other hand, I see no cogent reason why this Jaitrasimha should be identified with Bhillama's son and successor Jaitugi or Jaitrapala. The names, it is true, are similar, but if Jaitrasimba had been Bhillama's son, one should certainly expect that
1 See e. g. Mysors Isacr. p. 162. · Ibid. p. 266.
• Bhujabhrit seems to be an equivalent of bhujabala, and is apparently used here in allusion to Balilla's biruda Bbujabals, just as obra is used in the next verse.
For tdbara the dictionaries give the meaninge 's bull without horns; a beardless man; & eanach ;' here it evidently denotes toskless elephant as opposed to dantin, the tooked elephant. A revised translation of the verse was given by Dr. Fleet in his Dyn. Kan, Distr. p. 484. I differ from bim only with regard to the words ayakkariņa pitu. .
• For this and the following dates soe Dr. Fleet, Dyn. Kon. Diatr. p. 464. • Mysore Insor. p. 117. 7 Abone, Vol. III. p. 217 ff. . See especially Dr. Bhandarkar, History of the Dekkan, p. 106.