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27
No. 4]
HARASUR INSCRIPTION OF KING SOMA
appears to have been a son of Bijjala's eldest son, who was now no more. But he was opposed by Sōvideva's party and in the encounter that ensued Karṇadeva was killed by Sōvideva's general Madhava. Eventually, Sõvideva succeeded to his father's kingdom. These events might have taken place in the course of a few months during the latter part of A.D. 1167.
An attempt may now be made to furnish a chronological setting to the above genealogical account. In order to achieve this we have to start from Bijjala II and trace backwards towards his ancestors. The earliest date available for him is from an inscription at Walasang, Jath State. The epigraph which is dated in the 5th year of the Western Chalukya king Jagadēkamalla II (=A.D. 1142) introduces him as the latter's subordinate and mentions his administration over the province of Karahada Four Thousand. Hence we might approximately assign A.D. 1140 for the commencement of his career. Permaḍi must have started his career by A.D. 1118 as an inscription from Tadalbagi refers to A.D. 1129 as his 12th year. Jogama was governing the province of Karahada Four Thousand in A.D. 1087-88 as a feudatory of Vikramaditya VI according to an epigraph from Kōlagiri, Jath State. Hence we may reasonably place the initial date of his career by A.D. 1080.
Between Jõgama and Uchita, the earliest ancestor, there intervened five generations. Counting at an average of 25 years per generation we obtain A.D. 955 as the approximate date of Uchita. It may thus be concluded that Uchita was the founder of the Kalachuri line and that he laid its foundation" by the middle of the 10th century A.D.
But indications are not wanting to surmise that Uchita was not the first and direct immigrant from Central India to the south and that the southern movement of the Kalachuris might have taken place a few generations earlier. The growth of the Gurjara Pratihāra power in the north and its impact on Central India, the homeland of the Kalachuris in the 9th century A.D.", seem to have brought about the disruption of the latter. It was under the force of such circumstances that some dispossessed members of the Kalachuri house seem to have migrated to the south and settled at Mangalive(vā)da. It is possible to gather from the Madgihal record that some generations migh have passed in obscurity with the early settlers in the Deccan before the family rose to some distinction."
1 As suggested previously Vajradova might have been the eldest son of Bijjala II, who predeceased his father.
2 As shown by Fleet, Bijjala abdicated after 19th July 1167 A.D. (Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. II, p. 477.) The records of Sōvidova show that his reign commenced in the same year. The commotion created by the rival claimants must have followed in the immediate wake of his accession and he might have succeeded in putting down the disturbances before the end of the year. So we have to fit in the statements regarding the rule of Mail ugi and Karnadeva within the brief period of a few months that intervened between the abdication (of Bijjala and the final accession of Sōvideva. There is nothing improbable about this.
B. K. No. 128 of 1940-41.
Ibid., No. 66 of 1938-39.
Ibid., No. 103 of 1940-41.
The name of Uchita as the founder of the southern Kalachuri line is known for the first time from the present record and also from the inscription in the Bhōgeévara temple, Harasür. (See n. 3 above, p. 24, line 8 of the quoted text.)
'Kālañjara-mandala, the ancestral seat of the Kalachuris of Central India was under the sway of the Gurjara Pratihāra ruler Bhōjadeva in A.D. 836 (above, Vol. XIX, p. 18).
⚫Mangalivěda or the modern Mangalaveḍhe (near Pandharpur) was the early seat of the Kalachuris migrating to the south. It was the chief town of the Tarikādu nadu (tract). (Above, Vol. XV, p. 315.) This area became the ancestral home for the later members of the family, who are at times introduced in association with these local terms. For instance, (Jogama is spoken of as Tarikaḍu Jõgamarasa and the Mandalesvara of Mangalevada. (Ep. Carn., Vol. XI, Dg. 42 and Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. II, p. 448.) His son Permaḍi is spoken of as Tarikāda Permaḍidēva in B. K. No. 95 of 1936-37. Mangalaveḍhe never ceased to be the headquarters of the Kalachuris even during the hey-dey of their power in spite of their occasional preference for other centres.
Above, Vol. XV, p. 319.
