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No. 17] NOTE ON TWO EASTERN GANGA INSCRIPTIONS AT KANCHIPURAM
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Attention in this connection may be drawn to three inscriptions at Draksharama in the Godavari District, which is known to have formed an integral part of the Kakatiya empire during the reigns of Ganapati (1199-1261 A.D.) and his successor Rudramba (1261-91 A.D.). These are Nos. 1931, 206 and 262 of 1893, respectively bearing dates in the 72nd (Saka 1211), 37th (Saka 1175) and 6th (Saka 1144) years of the reign of a king named Rajadhiraja. There is no doubt that he cannot be identified with any of the Kakatiya rulers whose dominions comprised the Draksharama region during the period in question.
A similar case seems to be offered by No. 2014 of 1905 found at Tripurantakam in the Markapur Taluk of the Kurnool District, Andhra State. This record is dated in the year Raudri (126061 A.D.) as well as in the 15th regnal year of the Chōla king Rajendra III, although there are numerous inscriptions of the Kakatiyas showing that the area formed a part of the Kakatiya empire.
An inscription has been recently found on a stone built into the wall of the granary in the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam. It mentions a Pradhani of Hoysala Vishnuvardhana I and is dated in the year Khara (1111 A.D.) as well as in the 15th regnal year of the Hoysala king. There is no proof to show that the Hoysalas were in actual occupation of the Srirangam area during the life time of the Chōla emperor Kulottunga I (1070-1120 A.D.).
A Draksharama inscription records a donation of Jayankondachōdi, queen of Ananta varman Chodaganga of Kalinga, on the vyatipata day of the month of Simha in Saka 1050 (1128 A.D.) without reference to any other ruler. If one reads only this inscription of the locality, it may be concluded that the Draksharama region formed a part of the empire of the said Ganga monarch. But we have several other inscriptions at the same place bearing exactly the same date but equating the year with the 2nd or 3rd regnal year of Vishnuvardhana.
As has already been shown above, it was not necessary for a person to visit a distant holy place to make a grant in favour of the deity worshipped there. In the twelfth century, the Kadamba chief Jayakeáin II of Goa is known to have granted a village in the Dharwar District in favour of the god Somanatha in Kathiawar, apparently without visiting the temple himself. A Damodarpur copper-plate inscription of the time of Budhagupta refers to a grant of land made by an inhabitant of a village in North Bengal, in his own locality, in favour of two deities worshipped apparently at Varahachhatra (Varahakshetra) in Nepal, although it is uncertain whether he had visited the holy place.
The real significance of Hoysala Narasimha's claim of success against the Trikalinga forces cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge. But it may be as empty a boast as his other claim regarding the conquest of the Vindhyan region.
It has been suggested abovel that Sömaladevi, wife of Ganga Anangabhima III, was a sister or daughter of Rajaraja III, although her name may point to her birth from a Kannada
1 Rangachari's List, No. Gd. 98; 8II, Vol. IV, No. 1019. Rangachari, op. cit., No. Gd. 111, SII, op. cit., No. 1033. Rangachari, op cit., No. Gd. 167; Sewell, op. cit., p. 136.
alt., No. 1118. Rangaohari's List, No. Kl. 294. SII, Vol. IV, No. 1194,
Fee Vol. XXX, p. 22, n. 5. For even ordinary people Corpus of Inscriptions, Nos. 50-51.
The dates have been wrongly read in SII, op.
This is No. 440 of A.R.Ep., 1954-55, App. B. Ibid., Nos. 1191, 1195, 1196, performing pilgrimage by proxy, see Sreenivasachar
Cf. above, Vol. XV, pp. 138 ff.; Select Inscriptions, pp. 328 ff.; The Classical Age (The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. III), pp. 417-18.
10 See Vol. XXX, p. 22, n. 4.
