Epigraphia Indica Vol 29

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

Page 42

23
No. 3]
MASER INSCRIPTION OF A SULKI CHIEF
Sahasrarjuna in the Karhad plates. The Bilhari inscription of the rulers of Chedi1 expressly refers to the conflict between Yuvaraja I surnamed Keyūravarsha and the Karṇātas, who, in this period, could only be the Rashtrakutas themselves or perhaps their Chalukya vassals, the chiefs of Vemulavāda. Hence the present Maser inscription affords further confirmation to the conflict that took place between the Rashtrakutas and the Kalachuris in the time of Krishna III and Yuvarajadeva I, to which the records of both the dynasties bear testimony. The exact causes for the conflict between the two powers, who were even matrimonially connected, are not clearly known. One fact, however, needs elucidation here. How was it that Narasimha of the Sulki family whose area of authority was Vida-12 in the Kalachuri kingdom fought as a general under Rashtrakuta Krishna III? There is nothing improbable in this. Although Yuvarajadeva I and Krishna III were adversaries, prior to their advent into the political arena, there were matrimonial relations between the families in the days of their predecessors, Kalachuri Kokkala and Mugdhatunga, and Rāshṭrakūta Krishna II and Amōghavarsha III, as is well-known. It may also be recalled that Amōghavarsha III, father of Krishna III, was the son-in-law of Yuvarajadēva I. We have said that the Chalukya family to which Nōhala, the queen of Yuvarajadēva I belonged, was of the same stock with which Narasimha of our record was connected. It may be supposed that during the early days of friendship and matrimonial alliances between the two families, the Kalachuris and the Rashtrakutas, Narasimha or his predecessor, sought service under the Rashtrakuta king, retaining all the time his fiefdom, the Vida-dvādasa in the Kalachuri kingdom."
Of Kesarin, the son of Narasimha, our inscription says that he conquered the king of Lata and a Kach[chha]vāha at the instance of Krishnaraja, i.e., Krishna III. As to when these events could have taken place two views are possible.
The Kach[chha]vaha spoken of here was evidently a scion of the Kachchhapaghata family of Gwalior. The Lața country alluded to here may be taken to correspond roughly to the central and southern Gujarat. This region was included in the principality of Khetakamandala, i.e., modern Kaira and parts of Ahmedabad District. In the time of Krishna II the province was recovered by him from a collateral Rashtrakuta family and remained within the empire of the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed. From the Kapaḍvaṇaj grant of Krishna II dated Saka 832 (910 A.C.) we know that Prachanda of the Brahmavak(?) family had gained the principality of Kheṭakamandala by the favour of the Rashtrakuta king Akalavarsha and was ruling at Harshapura (Harsola). During the reign, of Indra III there seems to have been some trouble in the area as we are told that his feudatory, Narasimha II of Vemulavada, fought the Latas. But the region continued to be under Rashtrakuta control since the Bagumra (Nausāri) plates of Indra III (both sets), dated Saka 836 (914 A. C.), and the Cambay plates of Govinda IV, dated Saka 852 (930 A. C.) record gifts made by them in Lața-desa. Subsequent to this date direct evidence of Rashtrakuta hold over the region is met with in the time of Paramara Harsha-Siyaka II whose Harsola grants of V. S. 1005, i.e., 949 A. C., issued by him as a feudatory of Rashtrakuta Krishna III and recording his gifts in Khēṭakamandala, indicate that the region was under his sway. In one of these grants Siyaka II is stated to have made the gifts when he was returning
1 Above, Vol. I, p. 256, v. 24.
It may be pointed out that Jura in the Maihar State of Madhya Pradesh where an inscription of Rashtra. kūta Krishna III was found (above, Vol. XIX, p. 287) is not far from Bilhart near which Narasimha of the present inscription held a fief.
Above, Vol. XIX, p. 240.
Rashtrakutas and Their Times, p. 98.
Above, Vol. I, p. 53, Vol. XIX, p. 240.
Journal of the Madras University, Vol. XV, No. 2, pp. 118-9.
Above, Vol. IX, pp. 28-9.
"Above, Vol. VII, p. 28.