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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
and influential local faction, but also of some strong foreign power, mightier than that of the Chōḷa.
We have pointed out elsewhere[1] that Vikrama-chōḷa was the son of Kulōttuṅga, not by Madhurāntakī, the Chōḷa princess, but by a Hoysaḷa princess. The invasion of the Chōḷa dominion by
Hoysala Vishṇuvardhana with the support of his ally and overlord the Western Chālukya
Vikramāditya VI who was the avowed enemy of the reigning Chōḷa monarch Kulōttuṅga I was
perhaps partly motivated by the Hoysala king’s desire to install Vikrama-chōḷa, his nephew, on
the Chōḷa throne. The Hoysala bore the brunt of the was in the south as well as in the north,
just before the formal proclamation of the accession of Vikrama-chōḷa.
It is also to be noted in this connection that the regions of Gaṅgavāḍi in the west and Vēṅgī
in the north lost by the Chōḷas in the closing years of the reign of Kulōttuṅga I were not recovered
by Vikrama-chōḷa. So far as Gaṅgavāḍi was concerned, the bulk of it was lost for ever. And as
for Vēṅgī, so long as Vikramāditya VI was alive, the Chōḷas do not appear to have set their foot
in it and their erstwhile subordinates, the local rulers, acknowledged the suzerainty of the
Western Chālukyas. Towards the end of the reign of the reign of Vikramāditya VI, we find an Eastern
Chālukya prince Sarvalōkāśraya Vishṇuvardhana entrusted with the administration of Vēṅgī.
An inscription on a stone pillar now in the Rajahmundry Museum,[2] which once probably belonged
to the temple of Vīrabhadrēśvara at Paṭṭēśam, registers the gift of 25 cows to the temple by a
resident of Penugoṇḍa on a day in Śaka 1067 coupled with the 21st regnal year of Sarvalōkāśraya
Vishṇuvardhana-mahārāja, corresponding to the 25th December 1145 A. D. This would yield
Śaka 1047 or 1125-26 A.D. as the date for his accession. We have records of Chālukya Vikramāditya VI dated in his 51st regnal year[3] which commenced in June 1126 A.D., and his son and
successor, Sōmēśvara III ascended the throne some time between July 24 and October 5 of the
same year. This Western Chālukyas were in complete occupation of Vēṅgī when this Eastern
Chālukya prince commenced his rule there. An inscription[4] in Sanskrit incised on a pillar lying
in front of the Kēśavasvāmin temple at Yenamalakuduru in the Gannavaram Taluk of the present
Guntur District records the gift of the town of Vijayavāḍa to the temple of Mallēśvara by Bhīma,
the son of Boddana. It is stated therein that Boddana obtained the town as a gift for the prosperity of his family from the Chōḷa king Tripurāntaka and the Karṇāṭa king (Karṇāṭa-bhūbhujaḥ),
i.e. the Western Chālukya monarch. Another record,[5] a Telugu version of the same, incised on
the same pillar gives some additional particulars. It states that Bhīma belonged to the Pallava
family and gives his genealogy for three generations. But it is not known who this Chōḷa prince
Tripurāntaka was. The fact that the grant made by him was confirmed by the Western Chālukya
king would show that he was ruling over Vēṅgī as a subordinate of the Western Chālukya and
this could have happened only after the conquest of that country by Vikramāditya VI. We
have already noticed that Vijayavāḍa was originally granted by Kulōttuṅga I to a certain Boddana
and that the gift was renewed by Parāntaka and confirmed by Kulōttuṅga I in 1115-16 A.D. in
favour of Bhīmana who was the brother of the above Boddana and had been enjoying the
property even during the life-time of his brother. The same was now conferred on Boddana by
Tripurāntaka-chōḷa and confirmed by the Western Chālukya king probably Vikramāditya VI.
Tripurāntaka’s name is not found elsewhere and he is a Chōḷa prince unknown hitherto. In an
Inscription[6] from the Telingana districts a general of Kumāra Sōmēśvara, son of Vikramāditya
VI, states that he captured the Chōḷaga and his younger brother. Probably Tripurāntaka
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[1] Above, Vol. XXXI, pp. 227-28.
[2] SII, Vol. X, No. 116.
[3] Ibid., Vol. IX, No. 213.
[4] Ibid., Vol. VI, Nol. 91.
[5] Ibid., Vol. VI, No. 100.
[6]Telengana Inscriptions, No. 35 ; JOR, Vol. XXV, pp. 59-61.
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