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16
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. IX.
found in South Canara, Kadûr and Shimoga. The original meaning of the word Alupa or Aluva is probably a ruler,' from the Dravidian root dl, to rule.'
A few individual names of kings are preserved to us. The Sorab plates of Vinayaditya were issued at the request of Gunasagar-Âļupendra's son Chitravaha-Maharaja, who was in possession of the district (vishaya) of Eḍevolal in the N.E. of Banavasi in North Canara. According to the Harihar plates of Vinayâditya, which are dated two years after the Sorab plates, another village in the district (bhoga) of Eḍevolal, forming part of the Vanavasi-mandala, was granted at the request of Aluvaraja, i.e. perhaps Chitravâha-Maharaja. The same two princes (Gunasigara and Chitravåha) may be meant in an inscription at Kigga in the Koppa tâluka of the Kadûr district, which states that, when Aluarasa, whose second name was Gunasagara, was ruling the Kadamba-mandala, Aluarasa, (his) great queen and (his son) Chitravahana made a grant to a local temple. Another inscription (Kp. 37), which is on the other face of the same stone, is dated while some Chitravahana was ruling Ponbuchchu," the modern Humcha. Finally, an inscription at Mâvali in the Sorab talaka of the Shimoga district states that in the time of Prabhutavarsha Gôindarasa, i.e. the Rashtrakuta king Govinda III., a certain Chitravâbana ruled the Aluvakhêḍa six-thousand, while Rajâdityarasa ruled the Banavâsi-mandala.?
If the Chitravahana of the first Kigga inscription was really the same person as the Chitraváha of the Sorab plates, it would follow that the Alupa or Alua prince Gunasagara was governor of the Kadamba-mandala, i.e. the Banavâsi province, in or immediately before the time of the Western Chalukya king Vinayâditya, and that Gunasagara's son Aluvaraja Chitraváha or Chitravahana (I). granted two villages in the district of Eḍevolal, which formed part of the Banavasi province, during Vinayâditya's reign. Consequently Chitravahana I. seems to have succeeded his father Gupasagara in the government of Banavâsi. In the time of Govinda III., however, the Banavâsi-maṇḍala had been taken from the Alupas and was entrusted to Rajaditya, while the Aluvakheḍa six-thousand was administered by a second Chitravâhana, who on the strength of his name may be assumed to have belonged to the Âlupa family. To judge from the Mâvali inscription, he proved troublesome and had to be coerced by the force of arms. That Chitravahana, whom the second Kigga inscription mentions as residing at Humcha, may or not be identical with this Chitravahana II., but must be distinct from Chitravahana I., whose capital was most probably Banavâsi. If this identification is correct, Ponbuchchu, the modern Humcha, would have been the head-quarters of the Aluvakheḍa six-thousand, which in a later record is mentioned as Ålvakheḍa among the boundaries of the Poysala kingdom."
Mr. Rice's volumes contain many records of certain later families which seem to be connected with the ancient Âlupas. These are the Changálvas, Kongalvas,10 Naḍāļuvas, 11 Sântaras,19 and the rulers of Kalasa and Karkala.13
In the course of a tour in 1901, Mr. H. Krishna Sastri, B.A., discovered a number of archaic Kanarese pillar inscriptions of the Âlupas at Udiyâvara near Uḍipi in the South Canara
1 Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 147. A facsimile of the Sorab plates has since appeared in Ep. Carn. Vol. VIII. p. 92 of the Translations.
2 Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 302, and Ep. Carn. Vol. XI. Dg. 66.
A further remark on the same inscription will be found below, p. 21, note 3. The Kanarese text has pindweedle for Ponbuchchadle in the Roman text. See p. 17 below.
1 Ep. Carn. Vol. VIII. Sb. 10, with Plate facing p. 3 of the Roman texts. Ep. Carn. Vol. VI. Cm. 160, line 5.
Id. Vol. IV. Introduction, p. 16; Vol. V. p. viii; Vol. IX. p. 19.
11 Id. Vol. V. p. vii.
Ep. Cars. Vol. VI. Kp. 38.
10 Id. Vol. V. p. vii; Vol. IX. p. 18.
12 Id. Vol. VI. p. 10; Vol. VII. p. 17; Vol. VIII. p. 6. Compare Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 458 and note 2.
1 Ep. Carn. Vol. VI. p. 19. Compare above, Vol. VII. p. 109 ff. and Vol. VIII. p. 124 ff.
