Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

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

Page 70

No. 5] ALAND INSCRIPTION OF YUVARAJA MALLIKARJUNA was born of her. He figures in ten records of his father's reign, which range in date from the 38th to the 46th year (A. D. 1113 to 1122). For most of this period he appears to have been holding & responsible office in the southern part of the kingdom. Inscriptions from the Anantapur District show that he was in charge of the tract Sindavādi Thousand with his headquarters at Tumbuļa." About A. D. 1122 his sphere of activity shifted to the north and we find him functioning in the area of the modern Nalgonda and Mahboobnagar Districts of the Hyderabad State. His headquarters was now at Ködūru. His wife Lakshmidēvi and son Permadi also figure with him in these northern epigraphs.
It may be seen from the above discussion and from the subsequent history of the Western Chalukya house that neither Mallikarjuna nor Jayakarņa survived their father to assume the reins of the kingdom. Vikramaditya VI was succeeded by Sömēsvara III. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that both of them must have predeceased their father at the close of his long reign somewhere between the years A. D. 1122-23 and 1126. But Taila survived and he figures in an inscription dated in the 7th year of his brother Sömēsvara's reign (=A. D. 1132). Being the brother of the reigning king and seniormost member of the royal family, his status must have improved by this time, for we find him addressed as Yuvarāja in that epigraph.
The present epigraph contains the following place-names. Alande, mentioned in a number of contexts and also referred to as Alandapura, is the present-day Aļand, the provenance of the record. It was evidently the headquarters of the territorial division Alande-Säsira, which must have taken the name after it. This position is further confirmed by the specific statement, in l. 35, that it was the first and foremost village (modala bada) in Alande-Sasira. Alande-Säsira or Alande OneThousand comprised a political and geographical unit made up of one thousand villages. It represented roughly parts of the modern Gulbarga District and the adjoining area.?
TEXT 1 Srimat-kaiļāsa(sa)din-akhi!-amara-maņi-makuta-ghatita-charan-am2 bhõjam Sömēsvaran-avatarisidan=i-mahitala-tilakamenip-Alandapura3 do! || [111] Srimad-Alande pavitram Sõmēsvara-dēvarind-Alandapuradimd=i-mahi 4 pavitram=enitum tāme pavitram Surēsvara-bratiyimdam || [2*] Jñānamayan=8 5 mțita-vākyan-anūna-gun-ābharaṇan=enipa Lõkābharaṇamg=i-nandanan=ănandama6 n=ēn=odavisidano Surēšvaram muni-tiļakam || [31*] Srimat-Surēśvara-brati 7 Sõmēsvara-charaṇa-yugaļa-sarasija-bhpimgam komala-vacho-viļāsam sāmā8 [aya]m-e Chakravartti-vinuta-pad-ābjam ! [4]]*] Krita-yugam=ādudu Kaliyugam=a
The suggestion thrown out on p. 89 of the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1921-22 regarding the identity of Jayakarna with Tailapa, is untonable. Firstly, the two are names of two distinct individuals; and secondly, epigraphical evidence is clear enough to show that they were functioning in two different and distant parts of the kingdom at a particular period of time.
Mad. Epi, coll., Nos. 352 and 458 of 1920; 8. I. I., Vol. IX, pt. i, Nos. 190, 202, 221 and 288 ; Telangana Inscriptions, Western Chalukya records ; Nos. 33, 34 and 37; Akkalkot inscription of Silāhāra Indarasa, above, Vol. XXVII, p. 71.
: 8.1.1., Vol. IX, pt. i, Nos. 190, 202 and 221. • Telangana Inscriptions, Western Chalukya records ; Nos. 33 and 34.
8. I. I., Vol. IX, pt. i, No. 226:
• It is situated at a distance of 27 miles north-west of Gulbarga. The place is referred to as Aladi by the ordinary folk. Also see above, Vol. V, p. 243.
I am indebted to Khwaja Muhammad Ahmed, Esq.. the Director of Archaeology, Hyderabad, Deccan, for having furnished excellent estampages of the inscription for reproduction in this article.
. In situ and from ink-impressions prepared by myself and those sent by the Director of Archacology, Hydersbad, Deocan.
. This and the next four verses are in the Kanda metre.