South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

6 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA [VOL. XXVII

Secondly, it is interesting to note that the name Vātāpi was associated with “ the best mountain” (dharādharēndra) only, before the durgga (fortress) had been built there, by the Chalikya king, which perhaps shows that prior to this event, the place was not used as a stronghold of political power.^[1] From tradition and the local chronicle, the Mahākūṭamāhātmya, it is, however, well known that the hill-region round about Vārāpi had been occupied by the two demons, Vātāpi and Ilvala, who are said to have been killed by the mystic power of the sage Agastya who is credited with the first colonization of the Dakshiṇāpatha (Dekkan), south of the Vindhyas. No historical remains assignable to the pre-Chalukyan date are however forthcoming in the area, except the dolmens at Rāmatīrtha in the same range of hills, about two miles from the present village of Bādāmi. These dolmens, situated as they are on the top of the hill, were perhaps used as shelters in times of war by the inhabitants of the plains during the pre-historic period.^[2] The next certain event connected with the place is the construction of the Fort in Śaka 465 as recorded in the inscription under publication.

It is not difficult to find out the name of the Chalukya king who constructed the Fort. From the date and the distinguishing epithet ‘performer of a horse-sacrifice’, it may be concluded that he must be, Pulikēśin I, father of Kīrtivarman I, who was the first member of the family to celebrate a horse-sacrifice and founded the capital of Vātāpi as recorded in the Aihoḷe inscription of Pulikēśin II.^[3] The performance of a horse-sacrifice is indicative of his independent position^[4] which he must have achieved after defeating and ousting the early Kadambas of Vaijayantī who were in possession of the Bādāmi tract. This is the first authentic document of Pulikēśin I. The two sets of copper-plates, namely the Pimpaḷnēr plates^[5] and the Aḷtēm plates,^[6] purporting to belong to Mahārājādhirāja Satyāśraya Pulakēśin are proved to be palpable forgeries of 10th-11th century A.D. on account of the developed alphabet and language employed in them.

From the Pāṇḍaraṅgapalli grant of Avidhēya^[7] which, on account of the mention of the Bhādrapada year according to the Bārhaspatya cycle, and other historical synchronisms, has been assigned to A.D. 516, it may be gathered that the country up to the Bhīmā at least, in the north, was subject to the rule of Avidhēya, son of Dēvarāja. And the country south of the Bhīmā appears to have belonged to the Kadambas whose territory embraced an extensive area up to the sea in the west.

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^[1]The expression dharādharēndra- Vātāpim=ajēyaṁ, etc., means “ the unconquerable mountain of Vātāpi” showing thereby that the hill was also called after the demon Vātāpi like the village Vātāpi [per contra see Translation below.─N.L.R.]. The latter is mentioned by the Greek geographer Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.) under the name Badiamaioi (Bādāmi). See McCrindle’s Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, p. 171.
^[2] See Rev. Anglade and Rev. Newton, The Dolmens on the Pulney Hills (Memoirs of the Archæological Survey, No. 36), where certain groups of dolmens are similarly surmised to be places of shelter in times of war (p. 9).
^[3] Pulikēśin I is described thus :─Śrit-ēndukāntir = api Śrī- Vallabhō=py=ayāsīd=Vātāpipurī-vadhū-varatāṁ [||7*||] . . bhūś= cha yēna hayamēdha-yājinā prāpit-āvabhṛitha-majjanā babhau [||8*||] (Above, Vol. VI, p. 4).
^[4] Usually, only imperial monarchs are empowered to perform a horse-sacrifice in cognisance of their unchallenged sway over the land. Thus, the famous Gupta king Samudragupta celebrated it after his digvijaya campaign.
In the Āpastamba-Śrauta-sūtra (chapter XX), however, the Sārvabhauma as well as the a-sārvabhauma kings are allowed to perform the Aśvamēdha sacrifice, cf. Rājā Sārvabhaumō=śvamēdhēna yajēta apy=asārvabhaumaḥ. The Kadamba king Kṛishṇavarman I who was not an imperial monarch celebrated it and was known by the distinctive epithet Aśvamēdhayājin. Apparently, he must have performed the sacrifice in token of his significant victories over the Pallavas (See the Ruling dynasties ofKarṇāṭak, the Kadambas, in Kannaḍa, by Messrs. N. L. Rao and R. S. Panchamukhi, in the prabuddha KarṇāṭakaVol. XX, part II, p. 114). Pulikēśin I who had just carved out a separate kingdom could never lay claim to any imperial position. Still, even as a chief, he had subdued the enemies and established himself almost independently at Vātāpi.
^[5]Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 294. See also ibid., Vol. XXX, p. 216, No. 25.
^[6]Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 211 and ibid., Vol. XXX, p. 218, No. 35.
^[7]Mysore Arch. Report, 1929, pp. 197. f. Here the country round about Pāṇḍaraṅgapalli (Pandharpur) has been connected with the early Rāshṭrakūṭa dynasty of Mānāṅka.