Later Gangas Mandali Thousand

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

Page 93

50 / The Later Gangas : Mandali-Thousand
more than two brothers, a cordial relationship between brothers prevailed. Any rupture within the sons or brothers, motivated by political ambition is not reported, in both the families.
Thus the two coeval minor states, splendid promoters of the Nirgrantha church, had a regular cultural and political contact maintaining their identity. Such a contact between the Sāntara and the Mandali court is well attested.
The rulers of the Mandali and Sāntalige, brought under one sceptre under the Cālukyas of Kalyāna, carved out two small principalities of their own over which they ruled for centuries, and they preserved the same cultural traditions of their benefactors in the field of art, architecture, sculpture, polity and religion.
The Cālukyas ruled supreme over the destinies of the Sāntaras and the Mandali rulers. After the long reign of Vikramādityadeva-VI, the political power of the Călukyas grew weaker and suffered eclipse during the constant wars with the neighbouring and subordinate chieftains, their territories were distributed between the victors, the Kalcuris, the Seuņas and the Hoysaļas, who emerged as major powers. Obviously, the Mandali and Sāntalige, almost the collateral branch, became a prey to the annexations between the victors, who ruled supreme over the destiny of petty principalities. The Hoysaļas who ruled for a longer period than either the Kalacuris or the Seuņas, were nearer home to the Sāntara and Manqali dynasties in all respects, and ruled almost independently under their new imperial overlordship, contributing greatly in the field of art and architecture as before.
Some of the charters, Sh. 4, 39, 57 and 64 in particular, more or less in identical diction, narrate the genealogy of the Ganga family containing a combination of the Vāmśika-, Anu-vamśika and Rāja-praśastis. Some portions in the very beginning of the narrative, as for example Sh. 4, look bit complicated, without furnishing much historical data. Even that portion of eulogy carrying