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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVII
legends seems to be that the Silähäras, like many a ruling family of South India, tried to show their connection with the hallowed land of the North.
No more historical details are known about the members of this Akkalkot Branch of Silabaras. Still, its great antiquity and well-preserved genealogical traditions furnish a suitable occasion for reviewing in brief the early history of the Silābāra stock and its later expansion into several family groups in the light of the epigraphical discoveries during the past decades.
Frequent allusions to their former rule over the famous town of Tagara (modern Ter, Usmana. bad District, Nizam's Dominions), contained in the titles of the principal Silahāra families indicate the first settlement in that tract of the earliest members of the stock, who might have migrated to the south during the early centuries of the Christian era. The next important stage in the ramification of the Silāhāra stock appears to have come about during the time of the 10th centuries, as the origin and foundation of the three hitherto known Silāhāra families, viz., the Northern and Southern Konkun and Kolhapur could be referred to this period from genealogical ealculations.
In the earlier part of this period some more members seem to have migrated towards the south and east of Tagara and settled all over the region of Tardavādi Thousand ', roughly corresponding to the modern district of Bijapur and the neighbouring parts. This piece of information, furnished by a record from Muttagi, is amply substantiated by a good number of epigraphs containing refereuces to the several members of the Silahāra extraction; discovered in the Bijapur District and the adjacent areas of the Gulbarga District and the Akkalkot State. From the mention of the title
Vijayapuravarādhisvara in place of Tagara puravarādhisvara in some records of the Akkalkot branch, it may be inferred that the early settlers of this tract had chosen the ancient and sacred town of Vijayapurae as their headquarters.
An individual line of petty Silāhāra chiefs, who must have evidently belonged to the group of families domiciled in the Bijapur region, has been brought to light by a number of inscriptions copied by the Madras Epigraphist's Office in the Sindagi taluk of the Bijapur District.' The epigraphs containing references to the several members of this line range in date approximately from the middle of the 11th to the first quarter of the 13th century A.D. These chiefs call themselves descendants of Selara, Silara or Siyaļa® and lords of Tagaranagara. Their headquarters was
1 A local tradition connects the modern name of Akkalkot with the village Ankalagi, which is said to have extsted formerly on that site and the suffix 161 (köte) denotes a fort. This is bome out by the form Ankalköte of the name, frequently used by the village folk in their common parlanoe.
Besides the Siläbäras of Northern Konkan, Kolhapur and Akkalkot, two more families of the Bijapur area assume the title denoting their lordship over Tagara.
It is doubtful if we can connect this family with the Silahāra ancestors from Tagarapura, as the epithet denot. ing their authority over the place is absent among the titles of this branch. On the contrary its relationship with the rulers of Ceylon is set forth in the Kharepatan Plates (above, Vol. III, p. 292.). This may be due, as suggested by Floot, to the fancied resemblance between the names, Sinhala and Silahira (Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. II, p. 636). Another suggestion is to equate Sinhala with Goa (Indian Culture, Vol. II, p. 398). The banner and family deity are also not mentioned in the records of this branch.
. B. K. No. 101-102 of 1928-29.
. For instance, Indarasa III is mentioned as Vijayapuraparamédvara and Vijayapuravaradhibvara in two epigraphs from Akkalkot, dated in the Chalukya-Vikrama years 36 and 48. (My private collection.)
Vijayapura or modern Bijapur is referred to as rajadhani and Dakshina Varanasi in the records of the 11.12th oentury A. D.; ride . K. Nos. 124, 126, 127, 131, etc., of 1933-34.
The following B. K. Nos, of 1936-37 may be noted for studying the history of this family : 8, 21, 30, 34, 37, 38, 67, 68 and 85.
• This name beure some rečenblanco with Sinhala and may possibly furnish a clue to the propond origin of the Silihäras of the Southern Konkan from Ceylon.
. This departure from the more familiar form Tagarapura of the place-name may be noted.
