South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

neither to identify the Kōṅgaja king nor to say with certainty whether the word should be connected with the Koṅgu country. Bijjaṇa of the solar race seems to belong to the Kaḷachurya family of Kalyāṇī. For the Harihar inscription of Kaḷachurya Bijjala expressly states that Jōgama, the grandfather of the former, had a paternal uncle by name Bijjala.^[1] The Hire-Muddanūr inscription of A.D. 1105-06 clearly states that this Jōgama or rather Jōgamarasa and Jōgamarāṇa, as he is named there, was the Maṇḍalēśvara of Maṅgaḷavāḍa, i.e., Maṅgaḷavēḍhē^[2] and belonged to the sūryavaṁśa or the Solar race. His uncle Bijjala or Bijjaṇa thus belonged to the same race.^[3] As Jōgama flourished, it seems, in the last quarter of the 11th century, his uncle must have lived in the 3rd quarter of the same century, i.e., about Śaka 1000, which is the approximate date of Bhōja’s exploits. I am unable to identify Kōkkala. Unfortunately the grant does not tell us why Bhōja destroyed Vēṇugrāma ; but it may be due to the enmity that existed between the Śilāhāras and the Raṭṭas of Saundatti who were trying to extend their power and who had most probably brought Vēṇugrāma (Belgaum) under their sway. I cannot identify Gōvinda with certainty ; but I would like to connect him with either Gōvindarāja, the last member of the Maurya family referred to in the Vaghli inscription^[4] of Yādava Sēuṇa dated Śaka 991 or with Gōvindarāja of the Nikumbha family mentioned in the Pāṭaṇ epigraph^[5] dated Śaka 1075 and who might be reasonably ascribed to the period circa Śaka 1000. The cause of his destruction is not known.

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Kurañja remains unidentified. The name Bhillama tempts one to relegate him to the early Yādava family ; he may perhaps be identified with Bhillama III though there is some difficulty in doing so, for his date is prior to Śaka 991, the date of the Bassein grant^[6] of Sēuṇachandra (II), the successor of Bhillama III, but of unknown relationship to him. The foregoing conjectures of mine may prove correct or otherwise ; but one thing appears to me quite certain. All the antagonists of Bhōja whom he vanquished must have sided with Sōmēśvara II or Jayasiṁha III against Vikramāditya VI, in the fratricidal wars fought before and after the latter’s accession to the throne in Śaka 998. Bhōja, probably owing to the matrimonial connection between him and Vikramāditya VI, joined the latter in his attempts to retain in throne and the subjugation or annihilation of hostile feudatories. Hence all his exploits that are enumerated here should be relegated to the period about Śaka 1000. Bhōja’s younger brother was Ballāḷa about whom the plates tell us nothing. The comes his younger brother Gaṇḍarāditya about whom the following information is recorded in the grant : (1) Vikramāditya conferred the title Niśśaṅkamalla upon him, (2) by the stroke of his sword the king Daṇḍabrahman, the ruler of the Kuṇḍi country went to heaven. It is very difficult to identify Daṇḍabrahman. According to Fleet, the Raṭṭa king Sēna II was ruling the Kuṇḍi province as a subordinate of Chāmuṇḍa during the viceroyalty of Jayakarṇa between A.D. 1102 and 1121.^[7] But none of these three persons had, it appears, the appellation Daṇḍabrahma.

The object of the inscription is to record the grant of two villages by Gaṇḍarāditya who is introduced with the usual attributes, to his vassal Nōḷamba.

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^[1] Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, part ii, p. 468.
^[2] Ibid., p. 448 and n. 3. A Kanarese inscription from Mhaswad (Satara) of Śaka 1069 also refers to Maṅgaḷavēḍhē and Bijjala its overlord (ink impression in the B.I.S.M).
^[3] Later records of the Kaḷachurya family connect it with the Lunar race (Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, part ii, p. 468). Another instance of this type is of the Chālukya family. The Parbhaṇī plates of Chālukya Arikēsarin III (Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Dekkan, Vol. II, p. 49) state that the Chālukya family belonged to the Solar race. But there are genuine records of the Chālukyas of Kalyāṇī which assert that the family was of the Lunar race (above, Vols. XIII, p. 38, Vol. XV, pp. 106, 349). [Can this Bijjaṇa of the Solar race be the Telugu Chōḍa chief Bijjana who ‘ gained a victory over Ballaha’? ; see Ep. Rep. 1900, page 17.─Ed.]
^[4] Above, Vol. II, p. 225.
^[5] Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, p. 39.
^[6] Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 199.
^[7] Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. ii, p. 554.