South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

AKKALKOT INSCRIPTION OF SILAHARA INDARASA

chief having administrative authority over the small tract of Aṅkulage containing fifty villages, which must have been his hereditary fief.

Little is known about Rājarāja, the maternal grandfather of Inda III. As there are more places than one named Morab in the Bombay-Karnāṭak area, it is not possible to identify this Moraṁba, which was ruled by this chief.

In regard to Kavilāsa IV, the father of Indarasa III, we have a contemporary record at Akkalkōṭ itself. It refers itself to the reign of Tribhuvanamalladēva (Vikramāditya VI) and is dated in the Chālukya-Vikrama year 17, Āṅgirasa (=A.D.1093). This chief is introduced in this epigraph as a feudatory (Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara) bearing all the significant epithets of his line^[1] and figures as the donor in conjunction with another feudatory chief Jōgamarasa, the grandfather of the well-known Bijjaḷa of the Kalachurya family. Of the time of Indarasa III, we have two more records from Akkalkōṭ, dated in the Chālukya-Vikrama years 36, Khara (=A.D. 1111) and 48, Śōbhakṛit (=A. D. 1123). The latter of these furnished further information regarding this family and carries its genealogy two generations ahead. Indarasa III’s younger brother was named Rājarasa who had two sons, Kuppadēva and Indarasa IV. Indarasa III had four sons, namely Ḍākarasa II, Kavilāsa V, Mallidēva and Ajja III. Ḍākarasa again had a son named Indarasa V.^[2]

An attempt may be made to identify the territory said to have been ruled over by the two ancestors of the family, viz., Piṭṭama I and Dhanasaṅgraha. Although there appears to be definiteness regarding the location of one limit of this kingdom, namely Kālāñjara,^[3] which is the same as modern Kalinjar in Bundelkhand,^[4] the other limit, Asitādri or Kṛishṇādri is elusive of identification in the face of too many possibilities.^[5]

If is identification either with the Karakorum mountain or the Haridwar hills is accepted, we shall have to conceive that these chiefs ruled over a vast empire comprising almost the whole of North India. But such an assumption runs counter to the known facts of history. So it would be reasonable to treat this statement as only another amplified version of the legendary origin set forth by all the Śilāhāra families who trace their descent from the mythical ancestor Jīmūtavāhana, the king of the Vidyādharas residing in the region of the Himālayas.^[6] The truth underlying these

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^[1]Compare ll. 31─37 of the text of the present record.
^[2] The information contained in this paragraph is based on the contents of inscriptions in my unpublished private collection.
^[3]It is interesting to observe how several families of local chiefs who rose to prominence in the Kannaḍa and Telugu districts from the 11th to 13th centuries trace their connection either with this place or the dynasties that ruled in this part of Central India. (i) The Kalachuryas of Kālyāṇa who attained prominence during the time of Jōgama in the 11th century bore the title Kālañjarapuravarādhīśvara. (ii) The Ahihayas who flourished in the Gulbarga district of the Nizam’s Dominions apparently claimed kinship with the Haihayas of Central India (above, Vol. XII, p. 292.) (iii) The Haihaya chiefs of the Kōṇamaṇḍala, who figure conspicuously in the inscriptions of the Telugu parts from the 11th to the 13th century (above, Vol. IV, p. 83 and Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy, 1932-33, p. 57). (iv) The phrase,Kālañjara-paryanta-dēś-ādhīśvaram is met with among the titles of a Śilāhāra chief in an inscription of 1288-89 A D. from Chinmaḷḷi in the Gulbarga district. (My private collection.)
^[4]Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part II, p. 469.
^[5]The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India by Nundo Lal Dey gives under Krishṇagiri and Nīlāchala the following identifications : (i) The Karakorum mountain ;(ii) A hill at Puri in Orissa ; (iii) A hill at Gauhati in Assam ; (iv) The Haridwar hills. Another possibility is the Kṛishṇagiri occurring in its Prakṛit form Kaṇhagiri in the Nasik Cave inscription (above, Vol. VIII, p. 60.). This has been identified with Kaṇhēri or Salsette hills (Bomb. Gaz., Vol. XVI,p. 633). But the importance of the hills noted in items (ii) and (iii) above and also the last mentioned rests mainly in their religious associations and not in their physical greatness as mountains. Hence it is doubtful if they could have been intended in a purely secular context like the present one.
^[6]Kathāsaritsāgara, XIV, 3, 65-66 and XVI, 3, 7. The legend regarding the paramount sovereignty once enjoyed by the progenitors of the Śilāhāra stock is also echoed in an inscription of the 12th century at Muttagi, Bijapur District. (Inscriptions in Northern Karnatak and the KalnapurState by Prof. Kundangar ; No. 9, verse 37.)