Epigraphia Indica Vol 29

SR No.: 032583
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1951
Total Pages: 432
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

Page 152

No. 8]
KALIDINDI GRANT OF EASTERN CHALUKYA RAJARAJA I
The text of the present inscription falls into four divisions: I. the genealogical account of the Eastern Chalukyas up to Rajaraja I; II. the narration of the circumstances in which the grant was made; III. the description of the boundaries of the village which is the subject of the present grant, and IV. the imprecatory verses together perhaps with the names of the author of the prasasti and the scribe.
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I. This part further divides itself into two sub-sections :-(a) legendary, and (b) historical. (a) The legendary genealogy opens with Narayana, Brahma, Atri, Chandra, etc., and proceeds without a break up to Udayana, the son of Satanika. Then comes a hiatus which the composer of the genealogy bridges up with fifty-nine nameless kings who are said to have ruled at Ayodhya. The sixtieth, Vijayaditya by name, migrated to Dakshinapatha, where, in an encounter with Trilochana-Pallava, he perished. His posthumous son, Vishnuvardhana, however, restored the fortunes of his family and established his authority over the country between the Narmada and the Sētu.
The first point that has to be considered here is the origin of the legendary genealogy. No traces of it are to be found in the numerous records of the Eastern Chalukya monarchs till we come to the time of Vimaladitya's accession. Certain features of this legendary genealogy are found in some contemporary records of the Western Chalukya kings of Kalyani.' The reign of Vimaladitya marks an important stage in the development of the prasasti of the Eastern Chalukya kings. The records of the early monarchs of the dynasty from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana to GunagaVijayaditya III embody, with some small variations, the prasasti found in the inscriptions of the Bādāmi Chalukyas, and mention generally the immediate ancestors of the donor without giving any particulars about them. With the accession of Gunaga-Vijayaditya III there sets in a change; while the preamble retains its original form, the part relating to the donor and his parentage undergoes a change. The names of his immediate ancestors yield place to an elaborate list of all the past kings of the dynasty, in which are set forth the most notable of their achievements, the order of their succession and the exact duration of their reigns. With the passing of each generation, the list increases in length and the prasasti is soon transformed into a family chronicle. This form was adhered to for a long time; and no further change is perceptible in the charters of the subsequent period until the accession of Vimaladitya, when, as pointed out already, a further change was introduced in the form of a long Puranic or mythical pedigree in place of the short preamble embodying their lineage and götra. The circumstances under which this change was introduced are not known. It is not, however, unlikely that it was due to the Chōla influence on the Eastern Chalukya kings since the restoration to power of the main line in 999-1000 A. C. The latter had political as well as matrimonial relations with the Chōlas.
Another point that deserves consideration is the historicity of Vijayaditya, the ancestor from whom the Chalukyas are said to have descended in the later Eastern Chalukya records. It is believed by some scholars that this Vijayaditya was a contemporary of Trilochana-Pallava and Karikala-Chōļa; but the evidence on which the belief is based is quite late and untrustworthy. The Chalukyas of Badami, the parent stock from which the other families branched off, do not refer to Vijayāditya as the progenitor of their race. They trace, on the contrary, their origin to Jayasimhavallabha of whom very little is known. Similarly the Chalukyas of Kalyāņi make no mention of Vijayaditya in this context. The Kauṭhem grant, no doubt, mentions Vijayaditya, not, however, as the founder of the family, but as one of the two additional names or epithets
1 The Kautham grant of Vikramaditya V, dated 1009 A. C. mentions for instance the rule of fifty-nine nameless kings at Ayodhya and the subsequent migration of the family to Dakshinapatha (Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, p. 23).
The present writer who had subscribed to this view formerly finds it untenable on further investigation. See K. A. Nilakanta Sastri: Cola Studier, pp. 57-61.
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