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then, be that the Kanna narinda of Kanakamara was the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III who has been mentioned by Pushpadanta as Kanha If it be so, then Vijayapala and Bhuvanapala may have been his deputies ruling at Assaye. Krishna III is known to have conquered the Cera, Cola, Pandya and Simhala,2 and Kanakāmāra may have been led to attribute these conquests to his hero by this example of his time. In that case he would be a contemporary of Pushpadauta whom he has mentioned. This Assaye is not very far away form the Terapura caves which the author must have visited and which probably inspired him to write this work while returning from there and staying at Assaye.
Another possible conjecture identifies the Asaiya with Asiragarh in Khandesh which was named after Asadevi enshrined there. A small village near the fortress is still called Asi. In our text there is a marginal note Asapuri on the word Asaiya. Before the building of the existing fortress, the place may have been called Asapuri. It is wellknown to have been a seat of government during the preMuhammadan period.
TERAPURA AND ITS CAVE-TEMPLES
Chapters IV and V of Karakandacariu are taken up by the description and previous history of Terapura and a cave-temple in its vicinity. The Terapura mentioned in the work is identifiable with Tera a village in the Osmanabad district of Hyderabad State, situated in 18-19 N and 76-9 E on the Tirna river, twelve miles north-east of Osmanabad. It was known to the ancients as Tagara which name had baffled the attempts of scholars at identification for more than a century. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, writing about it in his Early History of the Deccan, said "Tagara is placed by the author of the Periplus at a distance of ten days journey to the east of Paithan. It is mentioned in a copper-plate grant of the first half of the seventh century and the princes of the Silahāra dynasty call themselves sovereigns of Tagara, the best of towns, in all their grants. Some have identified it with
1. Nayakumaracariu, Introduction.
2. The colophon of Yasastilaka of Somadeva runs as follows:
'शकनृपकालातीत संवत्सरशतेष्वष्टस्वे का शत्यिधिकेषु गतेषु अंकतः ८८१ सिद्धार्थ संवत्सरान्तर्गत चैत्रमासमदनत्रयोदश्यां पांण्ड्य-सिंहल - चोल- चरमप्रभृतीन्महीपतीन्प्रसाध्य मेलपाटी प्रवर्धमानराज्यप्रभावे श्री कृष्णराज - देवे सति.........
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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