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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA KALIDINDI GRANT OF EASTERN CHALUKYA RAJARAJA I site, where the persons, to perpetuate whose memory they are built, are interred or cremated. As the memorial temples of the Chōḷa generals were erected in the village of Kalidiṁḍi, they must have been buried or cremated in the place ; and consequently the battle in which they were killed might have been fought in the immediate neighbourhood of the village. The difficulty of fixing the date of the battle is great. However, certain facts mentioned in the record would help us in arriving at a probable date. The inscription contains the date of Rājarāja’s coronation, i.e., 1022 A. C. ;[1] and alludes perhaps to Rājēndra-Chōḷa’s Gangetic expedition and transmarine conquests (vv. 19 and 20). Moreover, at the time when the battle was fought, Rājēndra-Chōḷa (1012 to 1044 A. C.) was still ruling at Gaṅgaikoṇḍachōḷapuram. These would indicate that the battle should have taken place between 1022 and 1044 A. C., the last date of Rājēndra-Chōḷa. But no evidence is available from the Chōḷa records during this period of 22 years about any war between the Chōḷas and the contemporary Western Chāḷukya king Jayasiṁha II, of which the battle at Kalidiṁḍi might have been a major event. The last we hear of the fights between them is in 1021 A. C., when Rājēndra Chōḷa I’s attack on Raṭṭapāḍi took place.[2] However, there is one Western Chāḷukya record at Hoṭṭūr in the Bombay Karṇāṭak,[3] dated 1037 A. C., which mentions a Daṇḍanāyaka of Jayasiṁha II, Chāvaṇarasa by name who bears the title, “destroyer of the pride of the fort of Bijavadi ”. ‘ If this Bijavāḍi is taken to be identical with Bezwada[4] in the Vēṅgī country, it would appear that sometime before this date, i.e., 1037 A. C., the Western Chāḷukya general invaded Vēṅgī and captured the city of Bezwada. The Karṇāṭaka invasion of Āndhra (i.e., Vēṅgī) and the battle described in the present record may have taken place during the same Western Chāḷukya expedition under Chāvaṇarasa, especially as the distance between Bezwada and Kalidiṁḍi is less than 50 miles. As victory was not secured by the Chōḷa allies of Rājarāja, even as indicated by the record, it is not unlikely that the event may be connected with the disaster which overtook Rājarāja I in 1031 A. C., when he was deprived of his throne by his step-brother and rival Vijayāditya VII.[5] Although evidence is lacking as to whether the coup d’état effected by Vijayāditya was with or without Karṇāṭa help, a suggestion may be made that as Rājarāja was supported by the powerful Chōḷa emperor, his rival, Vijayāditya, secured the help of the Karṇāṭa king. Such an alignment is consistent with the political background of this period, as the Chōḷas and the Western Chāḷukyas were always arrayed against each other in support of rival claimants in disputed successions.
Of the persons mentioned in the record, the Karṇāṭādhīśa may be Jayasiṁha II, as the date of the battle is about 1031 A. C. As explained before, the Dramiḷādhīśa is, doubtless, Rājēndra-Chōḷa I who is mentioned by name at another place (line 59) in the record. Much is not known of the Chōḷa generals who were killed in the battle. One of them, Uttama-Chōḷa Milāḍuḍaiyān, figures as the ruler of the hilly tracts in the present South Arcot District in a record of the 4th year (=1016 A.C.) of Rājēndra-Chōḷa, where he is spoken of as Yādava-Bhīma of the Bhārgava gōtra ;[6] but nothing is known of his subsequent career. Neither of the other two finds mention in contemporary Chōḷa inscriptions. A Sēnāpati called Uttamaśōla Brahma-Mārāyan is mentioned in an epigraph at Kōlār, dated about 1033 A. C. ;[7] he, however, seems to be a nobleman quite district from Sēnapati Rājarāja Brahma-Mahārāja of the charter under consideration. _________________________________________________
[1] See above, p. 58, note 2. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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