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No, 22]
TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF PARANTAKA, YEAR 9
and influential local faction, but also of some strong foreign power, mightier than that of the Chōla. We have pointed out elsewhere1 that Vikrama-chōla was the son of Kulöttunga, not by Madhurantaki, the Chōla princess, but by a Hoysala princess. The invasion of the Chola dominion by Hoysala Vishnuvardhana with the support of his ally and overlord the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI who was the avowed enemy of the reigning Chola monarch Kulottunga I was perhaps partly motivated by the Hoysala king's desire to install Vikrama-chōla, his nephew, on the Chola throne. The Hoysala bore the brunt of the war in the south as well as in the north, just before the formal proclamation of the accession of Vikrama-chōla.
It is also to be noted in this connection that the regions of Gangavadi in the west and Vengi in the north lost by the Chōlas in the closing years of the reign of Kulottunga 1 were not recovered by Vikrama-chōla. So far as Gangavadi was concerned, the bulk of it was lost for ever. And as for Vengi, so long as Vikramaditya VI was alive, the Cholas do not appear to have set their foot in it and their erstwhile subordinates, the local rulers, acknowledged the suzerainty of the Western Chalukyas. Towards the end of the reign of Vikramaditya VI, we find an Eastern Chalukya prince Sarvalōkāśraya Vishnuvardhana entrusted with the administration of Vengi. An inscription on a stone pillar now in the Rajahmundry Museum, which once probably belonged to the temple of Virabhadresvara at Pattesam, registers the gift of 25 cows to the temple by a resident of Penugonda on a day in Saka 1067 coupled with the 21st regnal year of Sarvalōkāśraya Vishnuvardhana-maharaja, corresponding to the 25th December 1145 A.D. This would yield Saka 1047 or 1125-26 A.D. as the date for his accession. We have records of Chalukya Vikramaditya VI dated in his 51st regnal years which commenced in June 1126 A.D., and his son and successor, Sōmesvara III ascended the throne some time between July 24 and October 5 of the same year. The Western Chalukyas were in complete occupation of Vengi when this Eastern Chalukya prince commenced his rule there. An inscription in Sanskrit incised on a pillar lying in front of the Kesavasvamin temple at Yenamalakuduru in the Gannavaram Taluk of the present Guntur District records the gift of the town of Vijayavada to the temple of Mallesvara by Bhima, the son of Boddana. It is stated therein that Boddana obtained the town as a gift for the prosperity of his family from the Chola king Tripurantaka and the Karnata king (Karnata-bhubhujuh), i.e. the Western Chalukya monarch. Another record, a Telugu version of the same, incised on the same pillar gives some additional particulars. It states that Bhima belonged to the Pallava family and gives his genealogy for three generations. But it is not known who this Chōla prince Tripurantaka was. The fact that the grant made by him was confirmed by the Western Chalukya king would show that he was ruling over Vengi as a subordinate of the Western Chalukya and this could have happened only after the conquest of that country by Vikramaditya VI. We have already noticed that Vijayavada was originally granted by Kulottunga I to a certain Boddana and that the gift was renewed by Parantaka and confirmed by Kulottunga I in 1115-16 A.D. in favour of Bhimana who was the brother of the above Boddana and had been enjoying the property even during the life-time of his brother. The same was now conferred on Boddana by Tripurantaka-chōla and confirmed by the Western Chalukya king, probably Vikramaditya VI. Tripurantaka's name is not found elsewhere and he is a Chōla prince unknown hitherto. In an inscription from the Telingana districts a general of Kumara Sōmēšvara, son of Vikramaditya VI, states that he captured the Chōlaga and his younger brother. Probably Tripurantaka
1 Above, Vol. XXXI, pp. 09.08.
2 SII, Vol. X, No. 116.
195
Ibid., Vol. IX, No. 213.
Ibid., Vol. VI, No. 91.
Ibid., Vol. VI, No. 100.
•Telengana Inscriptions, No. 35; JOR, Vol. XXV, pp. 59-61.
