Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

Author(s): Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 27

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XV.
died in s. 1368, Kebaya-samvatsara. There is no ground for believing these conclusions, which are based exclusively upon only one document, the Satyamangalam plates. Excepting this solitary record, there is none which bears out the conclusions; there are a large number of inscriptions which give the genealogy of Devaraya II, in none of which is he said to have had a younger brother named Pratápa-Dövarāya. The following are the reasons against the tenability of those conclusions :
1. No other inscription beside the Satyamangalam plates mentions a younger brother of Dāvarāya II, named Pratāpa-Dēvarāya II. Evidently the engraver of this grant has mis. written the expression pratāpa-Davarāyāna instead of pratāpa-Devarāyasya (in l. 36).
2. In many inscriptions belonging to Dévarāya II he is referred to as Vira-pratāpaDevarāsa, and it is unlikely that his younger brother also bore the same name.
3. In the same Saka year 1346 (which is also expressed by the same chronogram tatvāloku), and during the same cyclic year Krodhi-samvatsara, there lived and governed the province of Marakatanagara pranta another younger brother of Devaraya II, named Srigiri-Bhäpäla. This overlapping of the governorship of the same province by the two younger brothers of Dēvarāya seems to have driven Mr. Venkayya to identify Pratäpa-deva-Raya, the imaginary younger brother, with Srigiri-Bhūpāla, the real brother of Devaraya II.
4: Both Devaraya II and his so-called younger brother Pratāpa-Dāvarāya died in the year Ś. 1368, Ksha ya-samvatsara (ride No. 4.5 of Kielhorn's Inscriptions of S. India).
If, as has been surmised by Mr. Venkayja, Pratäpa-dėva-Rasa be the same as Srigiri. Bhāpāla and this younger brother was the assassin of Dēvarāya II (as recorded by Abdur Rassak), Pratápa-dova-Raya alias Srigiri-Bhūpāla should have been slain on the day he atteinpted the life of Devaraya II, that is, in A.D. 1442; for we are told by Abdur Rasark that this event took place some time between November 1442 A.D. and April 1443 A.D. Dovarāya died in S. 1368 (1446 A.D.), that is, he survived this event by three years. So it is impossible for both Dévarāya II and his brother Pratāpa-dēva-Raya to have died in the same year. Nuniz has it that the king Dēvariya II died in six months from the effects of the wounds inflicted by the villain. Nuniz is certainly incorrect in his statement; for Abdur Rassak had audience with the king in December A.D. 1443, more than six months after this dastardly attempt on the life of the king. From a number of inscriptions we learn that Vijaya-Rāya II alias Immadi Dēvarāya or Mallikarjana had already succeeded to the throne and was ruling as emperor at Vijayanagara in s. 1368, Kshaya-samvatsarai-a fact which corroborates my conclusion that Dövarāya II died in the year s. 1368, Kshaya.
An aggressive war against Vijayanagara was waged by Alā-ud-din in A.D. 1435, according to Ferishta. And Abdur Rassak states that Dannaik (that is, Lakkaņoa Daņdanāyaka) "departed on an expedition to the kingdom of Kulburga, of which the cause was that the king of Kulburga, Sultan Ala-ud-din Ahmad Shāh, upon learning the attempted assassination of Deo Rai, and the murder of the principal officers of State, was exceedingly rejoiced, and sent an eloquent deputy to deliver this message: 'Pay me 700,000 varāhas, or I will send a world. subduing army into yone country and will extirpate idolatry from its lowest foundations." The expedition of the Dannaik might perhaps be in retaliation for the previous incursions of Ald-ud-din into the Vijayanagara territory
Dövarāya II was succeeded by his son Mallikarjuna, otherwise known also as Vijaya-Raya II, Immadi Dēvarāya and Praudha Dēvariya, in the year $. 1368, Kshaya. He was born to Dāvarāya II by the grace of the god Mallikārjuta of Sriparvata (that is, Srisailam) and was therefore named after that god. His mother was Ponnala-deri. The chief minister and 1 Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, pp. 306 ff.
• Ep. An. Rep. for 1906, p. 82, para. 45. Ep. Carn., No. 107, Sr., My.
• A Forgotten Empire, p. 75. Ep. Carn., No. 65, Nr., Sb.