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BRPTEMBER, 1916)
MULLUR
141
MULLUR
BY LEWIS RICE, C. L E MUĻĻOR, the equivalent of which in English would be Thornton, is the name of a
village in the north of Coorg, of some interest historically. It was a chief place of the Kongálva kingdom, which was founded by the Chola king Rajaraja, described as the friend of the virgin daughter of Kavêra, that is, the river Kårêri, whose source is in Coorg. The date of this event was 1004 A. D., and it arose out of the conquest by the Cholas of the Changå/vas, who were rulers of the east and north of Coorg and of the neighbouring Hunaôr oountry in Mysore. These were defeated at the battle of Panasoge by Chôle army commanded by Panchavan-mêrêya, which is a Påndys designation. But the viotory was mainly due to the persistence of an officer Damod Manija, who gained his reward in being installed in possession of the Yêlasåvirs or Sevon Thousand country in the north of Coors, and the adjoining Arkalga 1 and Hole-Narsipur taluqs of Mysore, with the title of Kshatriya-sikha mani Kongåva, and MAlavvi was given him as a personal estate. This is a beautiful mountain, now called Malambi, whose needlo peak, rising to about 4500 feet, is a conspicuous landmark to all the country around. The onmpact kingdom thus carved out for Kongaļva, bounded north and east by the Hemavati river and on part of the south by the Kaveri, most likely corresponded more or less to the Kongal-nad Eight Thousand province of which the Ganga prince Ereyappa was governor in the latter part of the 9th century.
The Kong&!Vas wore Jains by religion, and MuļļQr derives its interest at the present day from a group of ruined basadis or Jain temples intimately connected with them. The inscriptions there inform us that a distinguished Jain named Gunasena was the gura to the royal family. He was of the Draviļa or Tivuļa-gana, Nandi-sangha, and Arungal-anvaya, the disciple of Pushpagêna, whose footprints are engraved on & slab in front of the Sântisvara basadi.
Rajadhiraja-Kongálva's mother, Pôchabbsrasi, who was a lay disciple of Guņagêna, had caused the Pårsvanátha basadi to be erected, and his son, Rajendra-Kongâļva, endowed it in 1058, in the name of Guņasêna. The father had also provided the latter with a dwelling place there, while Gunasena, on his part, had the Nâga well excavated as a work of merit for the town. The figure of a cobra is.'
Gunsgêna gained the abode of Móksha Lakshmi (or died) in 1064. Proficient in the supreme århantya and other the three jewels, all the great science of grammar, the agama and others, and the six established systems of logic; such as the vratipati Guņaséna-aryya, praised of the aryyas'. But his fame was not confined to Coorg, for he is included in the line of notable Jains named in the elaborate and interesting inscription No. 54 at SravanaBelgola, of the date 1128. He is there described as a gom from the Vidůra-sdra-rasurtha
-the vaidurya (lapis lazuli or ultramarine) country of Mullûr. Perhaps an indication of mineral wealth in the place.
The next mention of it is in 1176, when Vira-Chô!a-Kongâ!va, in the presence of members of the Hoysala royal family,-Tâyi (mother, the queen mother) Padumala-Dévi. Sômala-Devi (her daughter, noted for her beauty and virtue), and others, -made & grant of the customs dues in the Mullu-nad Seventy.
We then come to 1296, in the reign of the Changâlva king Harihara-Deva, when a number of Coorg chiofs united in a siege of the Mallúr fort.
