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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA MASER INSCRIPTION OF A SULKI CHIEF Sahasrārjuna in the Karhāḍ plates. The Bilbārī inscription of the rulers of Chēdi[1] expressly refers to the conflict between Yuvarāja I surnamed Kēyūravarsha and the Karṇāṭas, who, in this period, could only be the Rāshṭrakūṭas themselves or perhaps their Chālukya vassals, the chiefs of Vēmulavāḍa. Hence the present Māser inscription affords further confirmation to the conflict that took place between the Rāshṭrakūṭas and the Kalachuris in the time of Kṛishṇa III and Yuvarājadēva I, to which the records of both the dynasties bear testimony. The exact causes for the conflict between the two powers, who were even matrimonially connected, are not clearly known. One fact, however, needs elucidation here. How was it that Narasiṁha of the Śulkī family whose area of authority was Viḍa-12 in the Kalachuri kingdom fought as a general under Rāshṭrakūṭa Kṛishṇa III ? There is nothing improbable in this. Although Yuvarājadēva I and Kṛishṇa III were adversaries, prior to their advent into the political arena, there were matrimonial relations between the families in the days of their predecessors, Kalachuri Kokkala and Mugdhatuṅga, and Rāshṭrakūṭa Kṛishṇa II and Amōghavarsha III, as is well-known. It may also be recalled that Amōghavarsha III, father of Kṛishṇa III, was the son-in-law of Yuvarājadēva I. We have said that the Chālukya family to which Nōhalā, the queen of Yuvarājadēva I belonged, was of the same stock with which Narasiṁha of our record was connected. It may be supposed that during the early days of friendship and matrimonial alliances between the two families, the Kalachuris and the Rāshṭrakūṭas, Narasiṁha or his predecessor, sought service under the Rāshṭrakūṭa king, retaining all the time his fiefdom, the Viḍa-dvādaśa in the Kalachuri kingdom.[2] Of Kēsarin, the son of Narasiṁha, our inscription says that he conquered the king of Lāṭa and a Kach[chha]vāha at the instance of Kṛishṇarāja, i.e., Kṛishṇa III. As to when these events could have taken place two views are possible.
The Kach[chha]vāha spoken of here was evidently a scion of the Kachchhapaghāta family of Gwalior. The Lāṭa country alluded to here may be taken to correspond roughly to the central and southern Gujarāt. This region was included in the principality of Khēṭakamaṇḍala, i.e., modern Kaira and parts of Ahmedabad District.[3] In the time of Kṛishṇa II the province was recovered by him from a collateral Rāshṭrakūṭa family and remained within the empire of the Rāshṭrakūṭas of Malkhed.[4] From the Kāpaḍvaṇaj grant of Kṛishṇa II dated Śaka 832 (910 A.C.) we know that Prachaṇḍa of the Brahmavāk(?) family had gained the principality of Khēṭakamaṇḍala by the favour of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Akālavarsha and was ruling at Harshapura (Harsola).[5] During the reign of Indra III there seems to have been some trouble in the area as we are told that his feudatory, Narasiṁha II of Vēmulavāḍa, fought the Lāṭas.[6] But the region continued to be under Rāshṭrakūta control since the Bagumrā (Nausāri) plates of Indra III (both A. C.) record gifts made by them in Lāṭa-dēśa. Subsequent to this date direct evidence of Rāshṭrakūṭa hold over the region is met with in the time of Paramāra Harsha-Sīyaka II whose Harsola grants of V. S. 1005, i.e., 949 A. C., issued by him as a feudatory of Rāshṭrakūṭa Kṛishṇa III and recording his gifts in Khēṭakamaṇḍala, indicate that the region was under his sway. In one of these grants Sīyaka II is stated to have made the gifts when he was returning _________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. I, p. 256, v. 24. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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