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No. 18.]
KULIDIKKI INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYA NANDISVARAVARMAN.
growing power of the Gangas. Incidentally the record also mentions the relationship that existed among the three powers, viz., the Pallavas, Western Gangas and the Baņas who came into conflict with one another too frequently in the 8th century A.D.
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For a clear understanding of the record, the position of these powers during this period must be understood.
Nandivarman Pallavamalla accepted the Pallava monarchy when quite young at a time when the Pallava dominion was threatened with destruction. He had to contend against Chitramaya, another aspirant to the Pallava throne. The Western Chalukyas who were the hereditary enemies of the Pallavas took this opportunity and, under Vikramaditya II, they even succeeded in capturing Kãñchi and driving Pallavamalla to the south, where again at Nandipura near Kumbhakōņam, the latter was besieged by a confederacy of Southern powers, from which his general Udayachandra saved him. Pallavamalla soon retrieved his position and established his power in the south also as is evidenced by his copper-plate records, nearly all of which come from the Tanjore district. He was attacked on all sides which necessitated his general Udayachandra to bestow the whole kingdom many times on the Pallava' monarch. The whole of his reign was crowded with military exploits as he came into conflict with all the neighbouring powers, viz., the Pandyas, Rashtrakutas, Eastern and Western Chalukyas and the Gangas. Here we are directly concerned with his relationship with the Gangas.
Regarding the Pallava-Ganga relationship, it may be pointed out that the Pallavas claimed overlordship over the Gangas by claiming to crown the Ganga kings. The Western Ganga kings Harivarman and Simhavarman or Madhava III were crowned by the Pallava monarchs Simhavarman and Skandavarman." When the Gangas were subdued by the Western Chalukyas," the former must have come into conflict with the Pallavas along with the Chalukyas, their overlords. Bhüvikrama, the elder brother of the Ganga king Sivamāra I., claims to have defeated the Pallava king in the battle of Vilanda and also to have captured the whole of the Pallava dominions. Probably as a result of this battle, Sivamāra I. claims to have kept in his charge two Pallava princes.7 When the Western Chalukyas were overthrown by the Rashtrakutas, the Gangas under Sripurusha tried to assert their power, but soon the Rashtrakutas and the Pallavas vindicated their claim for overlordship by claiming to crown Sivamara II Saigoṭṭa.
The contemporary of Pallavamalla on the Ganga throne at the time of our record was Sripurusha (725-788 A.D.) in whose time the Gangas tried to expand their dominions. He seems to have extended his conquests as far as Kulidikki where the present inscription is found.
1 Käsäkudi, Tandantōṭṭam, Patṭattālmangalam or Korrangudi plates; the Udaiyendiram plates alone do not belong to the Tanjore district.
S. I. I., Vol. II, p. 372.
This is said to have been performed in due form, i.e., according to customary rights (yatharham) (above, Vol. XIV, p. 333).
Above, Vol. XIV, p. 332.
A record of Vinayaditya, dated in 694 A. D., speaks of the Gangas as the hereditary servants of the Western Chalukyas (Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 303).
Rice: Mysore and Coorg from Inscriptions, p. 37.
Ep. Carn., Vol. III, Md. 113.
Ibid., Vol. IX, N. 60. Though this is a spurious record, the late Dr. Fleet did not find any impossibility in the truth of the statement that the Rashtrakuta king Govinda III crowned Śivamāra II.
His inscriptions are also found at Oddanpatti in the Salem district (Nos. 211 and 212 of 1910 of the Madras Epigraphical collection).
