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AUGUST, 1919] THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYA
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tells us that his eyes turned naturally to the more talented and therefore better-fitted, both by his physique and daring, but unfortunately the younger and hence less entitled of his two sons, and that he thought of making him yuvardja in preference to his elder brother Somesvara. Ahavamalla soon found himself on the horns of a dilemma and unable to come to a decision, became somewhat troubled in mind. His own inclination and considerations of fitness and state-welfare would point to Vikramaditya, but custom and justice were on the side of Sômêsvara. In a most vivid and charming dialogue, Bilhana informs us that Vikramaditya, as soon as he came to know the perplexed state of his father's mind vacillating between right and inclination, respectfully but firmly declined the offer, alleging that the dignity of yuvardja belonged more naturally to the elder and that the appointment of the younger as such would not only be a deviation from the time-honoured custom but a blot on himself and the noble father and a stain on the fair name of the Chalukya family. He steadfastly persisted in this magnanimous refusal even when his father represented to him that both Siva's word and the decree of the stars pronounced him destined for the succession, but consoled him with the assurance that he would serve him as well as Sômêévara and toil for the kingdom under both without the high-sounding title of yuvardja Finding Vikramaditya not moved by all his exhortations Ahavamalla reluctantly raised Sômêsvara to the dignity of yuvaraja.
Bühler 86 has remarked "This part of the narrative of Vikrama's life which strongly puts forward his fitness for the throne and his generosity to the less able Sômêévara looks as if it had been touched up in order to whitewash Vikrama's character and to blacken that of his brother." But even the most impartial historian must admit that there is much substratum of truth in the picture drawn us by Bilhana, as will amply be evident from their later career as rulers. Even the slight touching-up that one might come across was due more to the poetic temperament of Bilhana rather than to any wanton perversion of historic truth. The question more relevant to our purpose, and really more difficult of decision than this, would be whether Ahavamalla eve: really and actually proposed the name of Vikramaditya for yuvaraja-ship or whether it was merely a poetic fancy of Bilhana to give himself an opportunity to depict Vikramaditya and explain his later accession to the throne. There is nothing inherently impossible, for reasons suggested in what has been narrated above, in such a proposal having ever emanated from the father. Far-sighted as he was, Ahavamalla might naturally have preferred the consolidation and expansion of his state-a state for which he had worked so laboriously and so lcng-under his more talented son to its probable wreckage under another who, though more entitled to, was far less deserving of, the honour. After some vacillation the statesman in him might have prevailed and he might have made up his mind to brush aside a custom which stood in the way of his arrangements pregnant with such great consequences. If it can be allowed that the offer was actually made by Ahavamalla, we may be fairly certain that Vikramaditya declined it magnanimously, as Bilhana has it, for Somêévara continued as yuvarâja during all his father's life-time 87 and on the demise of the latter at once succeeded to the throne peaceably without any obstruction on the part of Vikramaditya who, as we shall see later on,88 not at all ambitious of the throne, was then far away from the capital, looking after Vengi affairs. As
Bühler's edition of Vik. Charita, Introduction, 31, n. 1.
SII., III, 201, No. 83. Tindivanam inscription. Vide infra, p. 145.
