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12
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1884.
We are therefore to look for a portion of puram (Koláf); and from this it is to be the dominions of these ancient Bâņa kinga inferred that some portion of the Bâna terrisomewhere to the westward of this latter tory was in the neighbourhood of Kolár. It section of the Telugu boundary; namely, in l.is not improbable that these districts may have the eastern portion of the present district of been originally acquired by the Kongu-Karnata Kolar of the Maisûr territories. How far kings by conquest from the Bâņas, and that these their kingdom extended into the Canarese latter kings were sometimes fortunate enough country westwards, and what was its extent to reconquer them : at any rate the title of northwards, there is nothing here to indicate. lord of Nandi' belonged sometimes to the
This location of the Bâņa territory is con- kings of Kongu-Karnata," as it did to the Baņa firmed by the indications of its situation which prince referred to above. are incidentally mentioned in an inscription of The Baņa dynasty has long disappeared from another later Båņa prince, which I hope shortly the annals of Southern India, and but few to publish, for whom the Bâna kingdom was references to it have hitherto been discovered resuscitated by Vira-N & rây ana Chola in the researches which are at present being immediately after the Chola conquest of the made respecting its early history. Kongo-Karnata kingdom. In the first place, that (1). The early conquest of the Bâņa kingBana prince bore the title of Lord of Nandi'; dom by Konganivarmá has already been from which it is to be inferred that the district mentioned. Konganivarma's reign has been in which Nandidurg is situated formed part placed between A.D. 189 and 240"; and this of the Båņa kingdom at that time. Secondly, the conquest therefore belongs to the end of the conquest of Tumba by Vira Narayana Chola second century A.D., or to the beginning of the appears to have followed close upon his victory third century. This is the earliest reference over the lord of the Bâņa kings'; from which which I have met with to this kingdom. Its it is to be inferred with considerable probability conquest implies its existence at a still earlier that Tumba's kingdom was in the neighbour- date: and it necessarily follows that the Bana hood of the Båņa kingdom. The situation of kings were reigning as early at the least as Tumba is shown on the 78th sheet of the Great the beginning of the second century of the Trigonometrical Survey Map of India, there spelt Christian era, and probably earlier still. * Toombah,' near the western boundary of the (2). A copperplate inscription of A.D. 777 present district of North Arcot, in latitude 130 at Nagamangalam" mentions another victory 154 N., and longitude 78° 55' E.; and some por- over the Båņas by Dundu, the heir-apparent to tion of the old kingdom of Tumba is probably the kingdom of Nirgunda," which kingdom represented at this day by the proprietary estate was then feudatory to Prithivi Kongani, king of of the present Poligar of that name. On the Kongu-Karnata. From this it is to be inferred other hand, the town of Kolâr was apparently that at some date intermediate between these not in the Bâņa kingdom; for, as early as two conquests, that is to say, between the third the reign of Kongaộivarma, who is placed and the eighth centuries A.D., the Bâna kings in the third century A.D., it was held by the recovered their lost kingdom, and had become king of Kong u-Karnata; and some of his formidable to their neighbours, -a" cause of successors are similarly said to have possessed fear," as the expression is there. it." Some portion of the country around (3). The continuous rule of the Bâna kings Kolar, naturally depending on this chief town for & considerable portion of the intermediate of the district, must also have been included in centuries is attested by the present inscription that proprietorship. The conquest of the Bana of Vikramaditya II. kingdom by Kongaộivarma is mentioned" in (4). The uprooting' of the Bâņa king by connection with his residence at Kuvalla- Vira Narayana Chola, whose date, ac
Soe Gasetteer of Southern India, p. 260ff, and Cor's * Mys. Inscr., PP, ulv, xlvi, 142 and 148. Manual of North Arcot, pp. 75ff and 129ff.
3. See Mys. Inscr. p. xlii. This date I think very See Rioe's Mysore Inscriptions, pages ulv, xlvi, doubtful.--Seo Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, p. 11f, or 149, 148, 173, 293 and 307.
Ind. Ant. vol. XII, p. 111.-ED. 1.4. In the unpublished Bana inscription above referred 35 Mys. Inacr. p. 287 and Ind. Ant. vol. II, p. 156. to. See also Mys. Inscription, pp. xlii, 289, and Ind. Ant. Nirgunda is in the present district of Chitaldurg in vol. V, p. 138.
the Maigur territories.
