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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA even though the Chōḷa came with a very large army of nine-hundred thousand troops and plundered the whole country causing considerable havoc, Satyāśraya, ‘ the slayer of the Tamil’ (Tiguḷamāri) was able to force the Chōḷa to turn back, capturing his paraphernalia (vastu-vāhana) and conquer the southern quarter. Not satisfied with the expulsion of the Chōḷas from Raṭṭapāḍi, he also seems to have taken the offensive to stem the expansion of the Chōḷa power, at the same time consolidating his own position. With this end in view, he seems to have first tried to break up the newly acquired ascendency of the Chōḷas over Vēṅgī by invading that country. Bayala Naṁbi, one of his generals, is said to have reduced the forts of Dharaṇikōṭa and Yanamaṇḍala to ashes and established himself at Chēbrōlu in the present Guntur District where an inscription[1] of his, dated in Śaka 928 (1006 A.D.), is found. Rājarāja had again to send his army to Vēṅgī and restore the country to Śaktivarman. For his onerous task he selected Pañchavan Mārāyan, the general who distinguished himself in the campaigns of Rājarāja in the west and was perhaps no other than the crown-prince Rājēndra,[2] and invested him with the office of Mahādaṇḍanāyaka of Vēṅgī-maṇḍala in addition to that of Gaṅga-maṇḍala which he was then holding.
A record[3] from Balmuri in the Mysore District, dated in Śaka 934 (1012 A.D.) and the 28th year of Rājarāja, registers the gift of a lamp by the general Pañchavan Mārāya, the Mahādaṇḍanāyaka of Bēṅgī and Gaṅga-maṇḍala. Rājēndra, also called Mummuḍichōḷana gandhavāraṇa (the proud tusker of Mummuḍichōḷa) in the inscription, had to leave the newly acquired provinces in the West and go to Vēṅgī to expel the invaders and restore order there. But the Western provinces had not quite settled. Across the border, the Hoysaḷas were slowly emerging as the subordinates of the Western Chālukyas. The earliest record[4] of Vinayāditya, an early ruler of this family, gives the date Vikra[ma]gālam 1060, Paridhāvi. The Vikrama and the cyclic years do not agree. If the cyclic year quoted is taken as correct, it would correspond to the Vikrama year 1070 (1012 A.D.) ; but, if the Vikrama year quoted is taken as correct, the corresponding cyclic year would be Śubhakṛit (1002 A.D.).[5] It was therefore necessary for the Chōḷas to have some trustworthy representative in the Western region to preserve the newly conquered dominion and check the growing power of the Hoysaḷas. An epigraph on a stone[6] built into the roof of the Gōpālakṛishṇa temple at Kaleyūr in the Tirumukūḍlu-Narasipur Taluk of the Mysore District, dated Śaka 929 (current), Parābhava, corresponding to 1006 A.D., contains the panegyric of the Chōḷa general Apramēya. Therein he is said to have defeated the Poysaḷa minister Nāgaṇṇa and slain the Hoysaḷa leaders Mañjaga, Kālega (or Kali Gaṅga), Nāgavarman and others, winning by his valour in the plain of Kalavūr a name to last as long as the sun and the moon. The inscription further describes Apramēya as ‘having under his orders the burden of the whole kingdom’ and as Tēyakulatilaka Malepakulakāla[7] Kōṭṭamaṇḍala-nātha, śrīmatu Rājajrājadēva-pāda-paṅkaja-bhramara. This record testifies to the fact that the victory gained by Apramēya over the Hoysaḷas in the battle of Kalavūr was great and deserved the erection of a pillar of victory. In addition to this record mentioned as a jaya-staṁbha, we have also a temple erected in Apnamēya’s name. The temple of Apramēyēśvara is found at Maravapāḷaiyam in the Dhārāpuram Taluk of the Coimbatore District, which in those days was known as Kottanūr or Kōrranūr.[8] Koṭṭamaṇḍala, of which Apramēya ______________________________________________________________ [1] SII, Vol. VI., No. 102.
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