Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 428

No. 57-NOTE ON DIDGUR INSCRIPTION OF KATTIYARA
G. S. Går, OOTACAMUND (Received on 26-11-1958)
The inscription which comes from Didgur in the Haveri Taluk of the Dharwar District, Mysore State, was published by Fleet in the pages of this journal, Vol. VI, pp. 251-53. It refers itself to the reign of a king named Kattiyara under whom a certain Dosi was governing the Banavāsi twelve-thousand province. The record is not dated but Fleet assigned it, on palaeographical grounds, to about 800 A.D. As regards the king and the governor, he wrote, "The names of the king and of the local governor are not known as yet froin any other records. It seems impossible to explain the existence of this record in the Rashtrakūta territory and in the period to which it must be referred, except on the supposition that Kattiyara was one of the twelve confederate kings and princes, headed by Stambha-Kambayya, who shortly after A.D. 794 sought to dispute the sovereignty of the Rashtrakūta king Govinda III. And, in my opinion, that is certainly the explanation of the matter."! Further, from the emblem of boar found at the top of the record, he suggested that Kattiyara was a Chalukya, descended from the Chalukya house of Bädämi, and that he might be the same Kattiyaradēva mentioned as an ancestor of the later Chalukyas of Kalyana in the Managoli inscription of 1161 A.D. Thus, according to Fleet, Kattiyara of the Didgur inscription was a Chalukya chief of the Bādāmi house, who flourished about 800 A.D. during the time of the Imperial Rashtrakūtas.
Now palaeography is only an approximate test and, as will be shown below, we shall not be wrong even if we refer the Didgur inscription to about the middle of the 8th century A.D. Tben the question arises whether there was any king named Kattiyara at this time and in this region who. as stated in the record, was 'ruling the earth' indicating tñereby his sovereign status. And the only supreme king about this period was Kirtivarman II (744-45 to 757 A.D.), the last ruler of the Chālukva dynasty of Badami. One is therefore led to identify the Kattiyara of the Didgur inscription with Kirtivarman II and it is not difficult to see that the name Kattiyara is only a colloquial form of Kirtivarman. This identification is supported by the fact that Kirtiv: eman I (566-96 A.D.) who was the sixth king in ascent from Kirtivarman II was also called Katt-ara sa as revealed by his Godachi plates. Just as the imperial Răshtrakūta kings Dhruva, Krislığa and Govinda were also called Dhöra or Dhörapparas., Kannara and Gojjiga or Gojjigadēva respectively, Kirtivarman I as well as Kirtivarman II were called Katti-arasa or Kattiyara. The palaeography of the Didgur inscription does not militate against this identification. The characters of the record resemble those of the Adur and Pattadakal' stone inscriptions as well as the Vakkaleri?ard Kendur plates of Kirtivarman II. We may, for example, compare the letters n, d, y, 1, 6, etc.
1 Above, Vol. VI, p. 252.
Ibid., Vol. V, pp. 15 ff. . Ibid., Vol. XXVIIT, PP. 59 ff.
The name Kattiyara is only the shortened form of Kattiyarimit
Ind. Ant, Vol. XI, p. 68. . Above, Vol. III, pp. 1 ff. * Ibid., Vol. V, pp. 200 ff. • Ibid., Vol. IX, pp. 202 f.