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No. 44.) BALSANE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF KRISHNA ; SAKA 1106.
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As regards the identification of this king Krishna, Banerji has rightly pointed out that he cannot be the Rashtrakūţa or the Paramāra prince of that name, as their known dates are far remote from the period of the present inscription.
Mr. Sachindra Chandra Majumdar," who has further discussed this inscription, follows Banerji's account. According to him, Krishna belongs to the Nikumbha-vamsa. Two inscriptions of this family have been found at Patan, near Chalisgaon, in the East Khandesh District. According to them there were two kings of that name in the Nikumbha family. Mr. Majumdar identifies the Krishna of the present inscription with Kfishnarāja II of the Nikumbha family, who was alive in Saka 1070. He seems to suggest that the Balsaņē inscription is a posthumous record of Krishnarāja II. His arguments in favour of the above identification appear to be farfetched and based on several suppositions. He takes it for granted that the matha was not repaired during the reign of Krishna. He also suggests the possibility of Sömēsvara (actually Mahalūka) having outlived Kțishnarāja II by over 36 years, which is improbable, if not impossible. In Khandesh, the Nikumbha-vamba, the dynasty with which he has tried to connect the Krishna of our inscription, ruled in the vicinity of Pātan, which is about 64 miles, south by west of Balsand, where the present record is found. It seems hardly possible that petty chieftains like the Nikumbhas should have wielded their power over such a great distance.
Taking these things into consideration, it is clear that the king Krishņa of our inscription could not have been the Nikumbha prince of that name, as held by Mr. Majumdar, and should therefore be located somewhere else.
It is well known to the students of history that there were several minor feudatory families ruling in Khandesh (Seunadesa, of those times) during the Yadava period. Many of these go under the general name of Abhiras or Ahirs, of whom Khandesh has still a very large population.
Gauļi rājās, or the Cowherd kings, as they are sometimes called, have several traditions current about them. According to one, the structures in the so-called Hemäd panti or the late Chalukyan style of architecture are said to be the works of these rulers.* Singhaņa, the great Yadava king, is stated to have won several victories over the Cowherd Kings, which are referred to in his inscriptions.
Of the many Abhira-kulas, we know of one family from Bhambhāgiri. Singhana's victory over one Lakshmidēva, the lord of Bhambhāgiri, is mentioned in the Ambē Inscription No. 2
1 Indian Antiquary, Vol. L (1921), pp. - 58 f.
* Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 39 ff.; above, Vol. I, p. 338 ff. Besides these two inscriptions, another fragmentary inscription, belonging probably to the same family and containing the names of Krishnarāja (II), Indra and Govana (III), was discovered by the late Mr. V. K. Rajwade, the well-known Marātha historian, in the river-bed at Patan. He published his account of this inscription in the first volume of the Marathi magazine Prabhata of Dhulis. This inscription, which he reports to have been removed to Chalisgaon, cannot be traced now.
The earliest Yådava inscription in Khandesh is the Våghļi inscription of Maurya Govindaraja, Saka 991. referring to the reign of Seuna (Seunachandra II) of the Early Yadava dynasty (above, Vol. II, p. 225 ff.): and the latest, so far known, is the Méthi inscription of Krishna, Saka 1176, belonging to the Later Yadava dynasty. See Samsodhaka (Quarterly Journal of the Rajwade Samsodhana Mandira, Dhulia), Vol. VI, Nos. 3-4, p. 213 ff. Méthl, situated about 30 miles to the north of Dhulia, the headquarters of the West Khandesh District, on the Dhulia Dondafoho road, has several temples of the Yadava period.
• Bomb. Gaz., Vol. XII, p. 450.
* See his Mardi inscription (line 40). G. H. Khare, Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Deccan in Marathr). Vol. I, p. 43.
For later Abhiras or Cowherds (Göpaka-Pälakas) during the reign of Yadava Krishna, soe ibid., VOL. II.
p. 14.
