________________
JAINA MEN OF ACTION
121 with the hoofs of his horses, rained on it with the stream of his might, and sowed it with the good seed of his glory, '1 But there cannot be any doubt about Ganga Rāja's himself having stormed Talakād. The Kambadahaļļi stone record assigned to A.D. 1118 asserts that when king Vişnuvardhana was ruling the kingdom, his senior Danďanāyaka (priyadandanāyaka) Ganga Rāja, “when about to take Talakādu " (Talakādam koļuvalli) asked for a boon which, as we shall see presently, the monarch granted him at once.2
Now as regards the date of the defeat of the Tamil general Adiyama, the Angaļi stone inscription recopied by Dr. Krishna, helps us to fix the exact date of the battle of Talakād. It relates that on Friday the 23rd of November, 1117, on an attack having been made at the orders of the Hoysala Bittideya (i.e., Vişnuvardhana), by his general Biţtideva Hoysala Sāhaņi (obviously Ganga Rāja), Adiyama fell on the Hoysala elephants and fought. On this occasion a Hoysala warrior named Bāsaya fought valiantly under the orders of the Hoysala general but died in the battle. The stone commemorates the death of this gallant Hoysala soldier.3
But the storming and burning of Talakād did not mean the final collapse of the Caļa power in Karnātaka. There were still two Cola Sāmantas who had to be beaten-Dämodara “ of the west," and Narasingavarmā of the Ghats. The stone inscription found near the Gommateśvarasyāmi image at Śravana Belgoļa and dated about A.D. 1175, cited above, relates how General Ganga encountered both. “Is not Dāma who, while the destructive point of the sharp sword in your
1. E. C. IV, Ng., 32, p. 120. 2. Ibid., Ng. 19, p. 116, text. p. 332.
3. M. A. R. for 1934, pp. 98-99. See E. C. ibid., Intr. p. 19; Yd. 6, p. 52 for Rice's date of the battle A.D. 1116.
