Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 122

118
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1919
defeat such as the conquest of the Konkan on Vikramaditya or Ayyana, Jayasimha's predecessors. Perhaps, as Dr. R. G Bhandarkar 53 shrewdly guesses, Bhôja even captured and slow one of them. 5 That was probably the reason why Jayasiu ha tattered to pieces the confederney of Malava.
Someswara I or Ahavamalla (A.D. 1042-1068).
Jayasimha ceased to reign about A.D. 1042 and his son Sômêéwara who is better known as Ahavamalla55 (the wrestler in war) succeeded him. It was during his reign that Kalyan (about 100 miles west by north of Hyderabad in the Nizâm's dominions) was made the capital of the Chalukya dominions, perhaps because of its central position and strategic impertance. The first epigraphic mention of it is in an inscription of the year A.D. 1053 wherein it is called the nelevidu' 57 (= cantonment or a fixed, permanent or standing camp). As has been pointed out by Mr. Fleet 58 the town is not mentioned in any of the numerous grants of the early Châlukyas, Râshtrakutas cr the later Châluky as till the time of Ahavamalla. The question naturally arises whether it owed its very existence and foundation to Ahavamalla or whether he merely developed it into a capital. Bilhara nctices it in a verse which lends
53 Early Hist. of the Dekkan, 61.
54 Pandit. Ojha thinks that it was Jayasimha but not Vikramaditya V who was slain by Bhoja (Hist of the Solankis). He bases his conclusion on some verses (canto I, verses 86 and 91-6) in Bilhana's Vikramaikade vacharita, one of which (v. 86) when translated runs thuз:-"Filling the whole of Swarga with the fame of his victories Jayasinha received a garland of flowers culled from the Parijata tree from Indra's own hands." Then follow the verses about Jayasimha's son and successor Ahavamalla, who in one of his early exploits is said to have sacked Dhârâ from which Bhoja had to flee and this event is made much of by Bilhana who celebrates it in some five or six verses. Inferring from the verse translated above that Jayasinha died 'on the field of battle' Pandit Ojha construes the early exploit of Ahavamalla to have been undertaken to avenge the death of his father on the battlefield. But the verse referred to does nct lend support to the Pandit's inference that Jayasimha died 'on the field of battle. According to the Hindu mythology it is usually the Apsârâs and not Indra that are said to garland those who die on the battle-field. Indra's garlanding Jayasimha was but an act of recognition on his part of the meritorious deeds of Jaya. simha. Such a recognition is met with elsewhere in Sanskrit and Tamil literature, e.g., Ka idasa's Sakun. tala (VII, 2), Puranandru, 241. Moreover it is usual with oriental poets to use such periphrastic and euphe mistic expressions as went to the world of Indra,' 'messengers of Indra were sent to call one to the skies, etc., whenever they wish to say that a man died (Bilha:a's Vik. charita, IV, VI; Epi. Ind., II, 29; Nagpur stone inscription, Epi. Ind., II. v. 32). Hence all that can be inferred from the verse is that Jayasimha diedbut not necessarily on the battlefield-and was duly honoured by Indra for his valorous deeds. The sack of Dhara by Ahavamalla was due, as in the parallel case of Ahavamalla's going against the Cholas, to the traditional hostility between the Cha ukyas and the Paramâras and Bilhana celebrates it as the greatest achievement of Ahavamalla, as Bhoja was an illustrious and powerful ruler of the north and Dhara was an impregnable fortress. Thus Bilhana's verses on which Pandit Ojha relies do not warrant his conclusion. Morel over the murder of Vikramaditya Vor Ayyana II as early as A.D.1014 or thereabouts rather than of Jayasimba sc late as A.D. 1042 would better accord with the impatience of Bhôja recorded in Bhojacharita, considering that Bhoja should certainly have come of age in A.D. 1014 and begun to administer the affairs of the Kingdom himself.
55 Bilhana always calls him as 'Ahavamalla and never as ' Sômê wara-not because, as Dr. Eühler insinuates, that he did not like to call the father to whom Vikrama was much attached by the same. name as that of Vikrama's hated brother and predecessor, but because he was pre-eminently the Ahava vamalla or 'wrestler in war' of the times and is known only as such in almost all the Chôja records an most of the Chalukya inscriptions.
5 Kembhavi inscription. Bom. Gaz., IV, 440. Epi. Car. VII, Hl. 1. p. 275.
For the meaning of nelevidu. soe Dr. Fleet's note in JRAS., 1917, and Ind. Ant., XII, 110. Bom. Gaz., IV, 427, n. 3. Ibid., II, 335, n. 1,
59.Vik, charita, II, 1.