________________
DECEMBER, 1928.]
THE EMPIRE OF ORISSA.
237
evidently an invention of Vijayanagara Court chroniclers to hide the shame of their sovereign after his defeat at the hands of the Orissan Monarch, whom they referred to as "the Oddiyân" contemptuously. This supposed joint expedition of 'Alauddin Ahmad II is not mentioned in Musalman histories also. Though the chroniclers of Vijayanagara say that in 1446 Mallikarjuna defeated Kapilêndra, we find that correct statements are made in South Indian inscriptions about the stato of the Tamil country which Kapilêndra had conquered. Kapi. lêndra's conquest of northern Tamil Districts is not a myth as supposed by Prof. Aiyangar of the Madras University. “The aggressiveness of Orissa is seen in the claim made in behalf of the Gajapatis of a successful advance by them as far as Kanchi, in a dramatic romance called the Kâñji-Kaveri-Pothi."16 An inscription, No. 93 of 1906, states that on account of the confusion " caused by the Oddiyan (i.e., the king of Orissa)" the festivals in the temple of Śiva at Jâmbai in the South Arcot District had ceased for ten years. This inscription is dated 1472-73. From another inscription, dated 1470-71, of the reign of the Saluva chief Narasimha(!) we find that great confusion was caused by the invasion of the king of Orissa about eight or ten years earlier, and the temple of Vishnu at Tirukoilur could not therefore be repaired.18 Two inscriptions from Munnur in the South Arcot District prove that that part of the Tamil country was actually in the possession of Kapilêndra in the Saka year 1386= 1464-65 A.D. Both of these records are incised on the walls of the Adavalleśvara temple in the village of Munnur in the Taluka of Tindivanam. Both of them mention "Dakshina-Kapiles. vara-Kumâra Mahápátra son of Ambîra.” No. 51 of 1919 records " a gift of land for
Ahamvirabhoga 'festival (%) and repairs to the temples of Tirumulattanarnudaiyar Mahadeva and Perumal-Purushottama in the same village."19 The same record is repeated once more on the walls of the same temple (No. 92). In dealing with this inscription the late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Shastri state these are dated in the Saka year 1386 (A.D. 1464-65) and epigraphi. cally confirm the statement about the southern invasion of the Orissa king noticed on page 84 of the Annual Report for 1907 . .. our inscriptions clearly prove that this southern conquest by the combined armies was an event that happened about six years later. It establishes also t' at the earlier conquest by Gajapati was not a passing inroad only, but almost an occupation of the southern country right up to Tiruvarur in the Tanjore District and Trichinopoly.30 The obsession of South Indian writers about the joint invasion of Vijayanagara by the Bahmani Sultan and Kapilêndra continues from the date of Gangadhara up to our own times. It is therefore necessary to prove first of all that Kapilêndra of Orissa could not have been an ally of any of his contemporary Sultâns of Bidar. 'Alauddin Ahmad II Bahmani died in 1457 and was succeeded by his son 'Alauddin Humâyûn, who ruled over the Bahmanî empire for four years only. Inscription No. 1 of 1905 clearly indicates that the occupation of the South Arcot and Tanjore Districts took place about ten years before 1471, i.e., in 1461, i.e., about or immediately after the death of 'Alauddin Humayûn Shah Bahmani. Firishta and the Burhan-s-Ma'asir agree in stating that immediately after the death of 'Alauddin Hamâyân Shah Bahmani and the accession of his infant son Sultan Nizam Shah Bahmani, Kapilêndra invaded the Bahmani empire with a large army and almost reached the gates of Bidar, the Bahmani capital. The details of the canipaign are rot given, and from the tone of Firishta it appears that the Bahmani army, unable to cope with the invaders in the field, retired within the walls of the capital. Most probably Kapilésvara and his ally the Kakatiya chief of Varangal, who is described by Firishta as the Rây of Telingana, were purchased off. It appears tha after the crushing defeat of the Musalmang at the battle of Devårkonda the Bahmanis never sallied out into the plains from the Deccan plateau, and after the death of Humayûn Shah, Kapilêndra crushed the Bahmani power and invaded the metropolitan district, paralysing
16 Ibid., p. 6. 17 Annual Report of the Assit. Arch. Superintendent, Southern Circle, for 1906-7. p. 84. 18 Ibid.
Ibid., 1918-19, p. 52, * Ibid., p. 106.
09
