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176 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXII The record begins with the well-known stanza Jayaty=āvishkritam, eto., found at the beginning of numerous charters of the Chalukyus and their subordinates. As in the other grants of Vikremāditya I, the king's great-grandfather is introduced as belonging to the family of the Chalikyas (Chalukyas) who claimed to be Haritiputras of the Mānavya götra, to have increased through the favour of the Seven Mothers, to have obtained prosperity through the protection of the god Kärttikēya and to have overpowered their enemies who submitted at the very sight of the Boar emblem which the family acquired through the grace of Lord Nārāyana. The Chalukya king is represented, as in most of his records, as the great-grandson of Polikēsivallabha-mahārāja (i.e. Pulakësin I) who celebrated the Asvamēdha sacrifice, as the grandson of Kirtivarma-Prithivivallabha-mahārāja (i.e. Kirtivarman I) who subdued the territories of his adversaries including the land of Vanavās (i.e. the capital of the Kadambas), and as the dear son of Satyasraya Sriprithivivalla bha-maharajädhirāja-paramēsvars (i.e. Pulakēsin II) who obtained the second name Paramēsvara as a result of his victory over Harshavardhana, the lord of the entire Uttarāpatha (meaning here the northern half of India lying to the north of the Vindhyas). King Vikramaditya I, the issuer of the charter, is stated to have overthrown, with the help of his charger Chitrakantha and his sharp sword, the three kings who were responsible for the disappearance of his father's royal fortune and to have restored the properties belonging to gods and Brahmanas in the kingdoms of the said three kings who had confiscated them. The above introductory part of the record is conoluded with a stanza saying that king Anivärita-Vikramaditya (i.e. Vikramaditya I) recovered the prosperity of his family as a result of his conquests over many adversaries in different directions. This verse is found in the earlier charters of the king, while the later Gadval (674 A.D.) plates add to it four mbre stanzas referring to his success against his three adversaries belonging to the Pallava royal family of Kāñchi.
None of the facts recorded in the introductory part of the inscription, discussed above, is new, It is well known that the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I (c. 630-68 A.D.) defeated and killed Pulakēgin II about 642 A.D. and occupied the southern part of the Chalukya empire including the capital city of Bādāmi while Vikramāditya I succeeded in recovering the lost part of the kingdom and in establishing himself on his father's throne about 655 A.D., although his struggle with the Pallavas continued till the early years of Paramēévaravarman I (c. 669-90 A.D.), the grandson of Narasimhavarman I. But two points deserve notice in this connection. In the first place, the statement that Pulakēsin II assumed the second name Parameswara after his victory over king Harshavardhana of Northern India does not appear to be strictly accurate. As we have elsewhere suggested, the Chālukya king probably assumed that name after saving his homeland from enemies and restoring Chalukya sovereignty in the territories of the disaffected neighbours while an additional significance was later attached to it after his victory over Paramèsvara (i.e. the imperial ruler) Harshavardhana. Secondly, it is well known that the reference to the regal fortune of Pulakēsin II, which had been interrupted by three kings, and to the re-establishment of the grants to gods and Brāhmaṇas (which had been confiscated by the three kings) by Vikramaditya I was understood by Fleet as an allusion to the Chalukya king's success against his three Pallava rivals, vis. Narasimhavarman I (c. 630-68 A.D.), Mahendravarman II (c. 668-69 A.D.) and Paramēsvaravarman I (o. 669-90 A.D.). This view is, however, clearly wrong, because the claim is noticed in the records of Vikramaditya I, including the one under study, which bear dates much earlier than the end of the rule of Narasimhavarman I. It has also to be noticed, as already indicated above, that the stanzas referring to his success against the said three rulers of the Pallava family are found
Soo The Classical Age, pp. 241 ff. • Ibid., p. 237. • Bomb. Gaz., op. cit., p. 362.
