Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 45

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVIII
Another Nala inscription in verse has been discovered at Podāgadh in the Jeypore State, not far from the borders of the Bastar State (C.P.). It is dated in the twelfth regnal year of a king whose name seems to be Skandavarman, although the reading of its first part is not beyon 1 doubt. This king is described as the son of king Bhavadatta of the Nala family, very probably the same as Bhavattavarman of the Rithapur plates. Skandavarman is said to have recovered the lost (bhrashta) royal fortune of his family and to have re-peopled the deserted (sünyā) city of Pushkari. The city, which seems to have been situated in the Podagadh region, was probably the capital of the Nala kings. The inscription refers to the construction of a shrino (pādamula) of Vishņu by Skandavarman apparently at Podagadh. The relation that must have existed between Arthapati and Skandavarman cannot be determined; but the former may have been the son and successor of the latter.
There has been some speculation as regards the identity of the enemy who defeated the Nalas and sacked Pushakari, but was afterwards defeated by Skandavarman. As there was apparently a struggle between tho Nalas and the Vükatakas of the main branch, this enemy has been identified by some writers with Vākātaka Prithivishēna II who claims to have twice rescued the fallen fortunes of his family. Skandavarman's adversary may also have been the Panduvamsi king Nanna of South Kosala. Nanna's occupation of practically the whole of the western C.P. is possibly indicated by an inscription at Bhandak in the Chanda District, although it is sometimes believed that the record originally belonged to a place in the eastern C.P. in the heart of South Kõsala. Most probably, however, the enemy of the Nalas was the Chalukya king Kirttivarman I (A.D. 567-97) who claims not only to have subdued the Nałas, sometimes represented as the traditional enemy of the Chalukyas, but also to have destroyed their residence (nilaya).
A hoard of gold coins was discovered at Edengá, a village in the Kondegaon tahsil of the Bastar State. The issuers of the coins of this board are Bhavadatta, Arthapati and another king named Varāha who may have belonged to the same family. From epigraphic and numismatic materials, it seems that the territories of the Nalas lay in the Bastar-Jeypore region about the southern part of the C.P. About the first half of the sixth century, they extended their power towards the north at the expense of the Vākātakas; but their northern possessions soon appear to have passed to the Panduvamsi kings of Kõsala. There is, however, some indication that the Nala empire had extended over a still wider area.
Inscriptions of the time of Chalukya Vikramāditya I (655-80 A.D.) mention the Naļavādivishaya which was apparently named after the Nalas. As a village situated in that vishaya has been identified with modern Ratnagiri in the Madakasira taluk of the Bellary (now Anantapur) District, it seems that Naļavāļi under the Chālukyas comprised parts of the Anantapur and Kurnool Districts. This may have been the southernmost province of the Nala empire, originally under a viceroy of the royal blood. Whether the Nalas were responsible for the fall of the Vākātakas of Vatsagulma and the Rashtrakūtas of Mānapura cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge. But the suggestion may not be altogether improbable.
A stone inscription' at Rājim in the Raipur District of the eastern C.P., which may be assigned on palaeographic grounds to about the close of the seventh century, records the construction of a temple of Vishņu probably by Vilăsatunga, apparently a successor (son ?) of king Virüpāksha
1 Above, Vol. XXI, pp. 155 f. * Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, Vol. I, p. 35. • Hiralal, Descriptive List of Inscriptions of C.P. and Berar, pp. 13 f. Above, Vol. XXI, p. 155. Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, Vol. I, pp. 29-35. • Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, Pt. ii, p. 363. Above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 49 ff.