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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1891.:
The extant grant of this reign gives us, for the first time, the complete genealogy of the Eastern Chalukyas, mythical, legendary, and historical. It was probably devised in rivalry of the Solar genealogy of the Cholas, with whom the Eastern Chalukyas were now becoming very intimately connected. And it may be conveniently taken in the following divisions :
(1) The Puranio genealogy. This commences with the god Brahman, as born from the water-lily that grew from the navel of the god Vishņu, as a result of which the Chalukyas were comprised in the Vishnuvamsa or lineage of Vishnu ; 20 and it is taken through Soma or the Moon, so that they belonged also to the Sômavamsa or Lunar Race, as is expressly stated in lines 64 and 73 of this grant, and still more explicitly in W., line 49. As far as the name of Yayati, it agrees with the Puranic genealogy of the Gangas of Kalinga (ante, Vol. XVIII. p. 170); and the last specific name in it, is that of Udayana, the son of Satanika. Another Purâņic genealogy of the same style seems to be followed in some of the Kakatiya records (see Wilson's Mackenzie Collection, Introduction, p. 74). An earlier indication of the reference of the Eastern Chalukya family to the lineage of Vishņu, but one that is hardly pointed enough to lead to the supposition that the idea of the full Purâņio genealogy had been then contemplated, is to be found in the opening verse of O., of the time of No. 22, Chalukya-Bhima II., which is in praise of the water-lily that grew from the navel of Vishnu, and was the birthplace of Brahman, W., again, though not containing the Puranic genealogy, opens with a verse in praise of Vishnu under the name of Mukunda ; followed by another in laudation of the Lunar Race. Descent from Brahman is claimed for Pulikesin I. in the Mahâkuta pillar inscription (ante, Vol. XIX. p. 19). And in the grants of the Western Branch of the family an allusion to the traditional descent of the Chalukyas in the Lunar Race, is probably to be found in the passage which mentions Vikramaditya I. as “defeating the lord of the Pallavas, who had been the cause of the humiliation and destruction of the family which W&8 as pure as the rays of the moon" (e. g., ante, Vol. XIX. p. 151).
(2) The legendary connection of the Chalukyas with the preceding. Without any specification of names, we are told that, including Udayana, fifty-nine emperors sat on the throne at Ayodhyâ, in unbroken lineal succession. This statement is also preserved in some of the Western Châlukyà records (e. g., ante, Vol. V. p. 17; also Vol. VIII. p. 12, where, however, after the fifty-nine emperors of Ayodhyå, sixteen other unnamed kings, in the south, are introduced before the beginning of the real genealogy). And with it we may compare the statement in the Ganga grants, which connects their real with their Parânic genealogy, by saying that, after Kola hala had founded the city of Kolhalapora, his son and seventy-nine other kings reigned there, and then were followed by the historical members of the family, commencing with Virasimha. When the fifty-nine emperors had reigned at Ayodhya, a member of the family, named Vijayaditya, came to the south, from a desire for conquest, and attacked Trilochana-Pallava, but lost his life in the attempt. His queen, who was pregnant, escaped with some of her attendants, and, being preserved by a saint named VishộubhattaSômayajin, gave birth to a posthumous son named Vishņuvardhana. The young prince was nourished ; and, having done worship to the goddess Gauri on the mountain called Chalukya. giri, he at length assumed all the royal insignia of his family, conquered the Kaçamba, Ganga, and other kings, and established himself as emperor of all Southern India, from the Bridge of Råma, i.e. Adam's Bridge or the ridge of rocks connecting Ceylon with the Coromandel coast, up to the Narmada. His son, born of a queen of the Pallava lineage, was another Vijayaditya. With the mountain Chalukyagiri that is introduced here, we may compare the Nandagiri fort which, according to the Kakatiya legend, was founded by Nanda, the son of Uttungabhoja; Nanda's father, in a similar manner, came from Upper India, and settled to the south of the Gôdåvari (loc. cit.). And in very similar fashion, the mountain Mahendragiri, - in this case
20 This lineage is mentioned in some of the Devagiri-YAdava inscriptions ; 6. 9., Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XII. pp. 9, 88.
