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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1891.
(Páli, Sanskrit, and Ou-Kanarese Inscriptions, No. 136), which refers itself to the time of the Western Chilukya king Sômêśvara I., and is dated in A. D. 1066. Three sons of somêsvara I. are very well known; viz., Sômêśvara II., Vikramaditya VI., and Jayasimha IV. This inscription purports to give the name of a fourth son, called Vishnuvardhanamaharaja-Vijayadityadeva, who was governing the Nolambavadi Thirty-two-thousand, and by whose Dandanayaka and Mahasandhivigrahin, Dêvapayya, the grants recorded in the inscription were made. The inscription describes this Vishnuvardhana-Vijayaditya as "a ruby of the Chalukyas (Chalultyamanikya; 1. 8, 9);" and it gives him the epithet of sarvalókasraya, or refuge of all mankind' (1. 6), the birudas of Åhavamallan=Aikakara (1. 7) and Sahasamalla (1. 10), and the hereditary title of lord of the province of Vengi (Vengi-mandal-eśvara; 1. 11).” It is quite plain, therefore, that he was of Eastern Chalukya descent, on one side at least. Now, this person is mentioned in no other inscription as yet known; the sphere of his government lay south of the river Tungabhadrå, which is considered to have formed the boundary between the Western Chalukya kingdom and the Chola dominions, whether under the Cholas themselves or under the Eastern Chalukyas after them; and, though he is called the son of Somebvara (tan-nandana), yet no expression such as átange pntfida, 'born to him,' is used. And these points may indicate that he was simply called the son of Sômêśvara I. through courtesy ;32 being in reality a distant kinsman, in the next degree of descent, in the Eastern Chalukya family. On the other hand, the fact that, in an inscription at Dêùr in the Bijapur District, dated in A. D. 1064-65 (Sir Walter Elliot's Karnataka-Désa Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 173), Jayasimha IV., while governing the Tardavadi Thousand for his elder brother Vikramaditya VI., is described as “born in the Pallava lineage," and as having the title of " lord of Kanchi, the best of cities," may be used as an argument that Vishņuvardhana-Vijayaditya was in reality a son of Sômêśvara I.
An account of this reign would be incomplete, without & somewhat detailed reference to two contemporaneous literary records of more than ordinary historical interest; one is the Sanskrit Vikra márkadávacharita or Vikra mánkakávya of Bilhaņa, of which an analysis has been given by Dr. Bühler in this Journal, Vol. V. page 317 ff.; the other is the Tamil Kalingattu Parani of Jayankoņda, extracts from which have been published by Mr. V. Kanakasabhai Pillai, in this Journal, Vol. XIX. p. 329 f. The Sanskpit poem gives an account of the events that occurred during the early career and the subsequent reign of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI., who, reigning apparently 33 from the early part of A. D. 1076 vp to about A. D. 1126, was contemporaneous, almost throughout, with his kinsman of the Eastern Branch. The Tamil poem refers to the reign of KulottungaChodadova I. himself.
The special subject of the Kalingattu Paraņi is an expedition to Kalinga, ending in the re-subjugation of that country. The ruler of North Kalinga 34 was olaimed as a vassal of the Eastern Chalukya crown. The cause of the war was his omission, for two years, to present
39 This is a very common custom in the Kanarose country. For an epigraphical instance of an analogous kind see Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 49, noto 1.
3) At first sight, nothing should be easier than to fix the exact commencement of this reign ; since one of the dates for this king purports to give, whether it refers to the actual day or to an anniversary, - the very tithi of his pattabandha or coronation, with full details for calculation. But all that I can say at present is that his first regnal year seems to have been Saka-Samvat 999 current. Of the forty-three dates given by me in this Journal, Vol. VIII. p. 187 ff., thirty-nine give that result. But two (Nos. 3 and 30) give the preceding year; one (No. 19) gives 8.-S. 1000; and one gives 8.-S. 1009. And the details for the pattabandha do not work ont correctly for the year for which they are given; but can be applied correctly for S.-S. 998. I shall go into this question more fully on a separato ocorsion.
4 The poem speaks several times of "the novon Kalingas" (loc. cit., pp. 834, 1. 16, 335, 1. 28, 336, 11. 6, 9, 39); but I have not been able to obtain the names of the seven divisions of that territory, or of the five divisions of the Pandya country, which also seem to be indicated here (p. 335, 1. 13), and a conquest of which is mentioned also in an inscription, at Chidambaram (Hultzsolt'South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 168), of a Kulôttunga Chola who has not as yet beon identified with any certainty.
