|
The Indian Analyst
|
|
South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The Hoysaḷa inscriptions into the Chōḷa dominion were not restricted to the southern part. They appear to have carried on the expedition in the eastern direction also in the course of which Tereyūr and Kōyāttūr (modern Laddigam in the Chittoor District) became subject to Vishṇuvardhana who is also credited with the conquest of Kāñchī, on which he took the title of Kāñchigoṇḍa which is very often met with in his inscriptions.[1] That this was not again a mere boast will be clear from the statements found in his inscriptions that ‘ he made proclamations of his victories over numerous kings by sound of drum in Kāñchīpura’,[2] that ‘ he was like a fierce forest-fire to the territory of the Toṇḍai chieftain’[3] and that ‘ after conquering Kāñchī and Madurai he burnt Jananāthapura’.[4] It is also said that he slew an Andhra king.[5] It is significant to note that the capture of Kāñchī and the burning of the city of Jananāthapura are claimed not only by the generals of Vishṇuvardhana, but also by the generals of another monarch, viz. Vikramāditya VI, the Western Chālukya ruler of Kalyāṇa, at about the same time. We know that the Hoysaḷas were from the very beginning the feudatories of the Western Chālukyas of Kalyāṇa and that they continued to be so even at that time. It is therefore quite possible that the Hoysaḷas were waging war in the northern front as the subordinates and under the banner of their suzerain power, the Western Chālukyas.
Viewed in this light, the Periya Vaḍugan mentioned in the Āḍutturai inscription[6] referred to above as waging war is the heart of the Tamil country would only mean the ‘ big (or elder) or great northerner ’, i.e. the Western Chāḷukya king Vikramāditya VI. Similarly, the exploits of ‘ displaying his through his general ’ and the like in the north that the Hoysaḷa is credited with, Jananāthapura through his general ’ and the like in the north that the Hoysaḷa is credited with, should be deemed to have taken place when he was in the service of his overlord Vikramāditya. Vikramāditya was waiting long only for an opportunity of making reprisals for his earlier failure in his wars against Kulōttuṅga I. Such an opportunity presented itself now. His plan was evidently to take advantage of Kulōttuṅga’s preoccupation with the affairs in the south and create a diversion in the north by proceeding against the kingdom of Vēṅgī and its vassal-states. The exact course of the events of this campaign is not clear. But that at the end of this campaign, practically the whole of the Telugu country came under the sway of Vikramāditya VI is evident from the provenance of his inscriptions. A stone record[7] from Kollūru in the Tenāli Taluk of the Guntur District dated in the cyclic year Manmatha, the 40th year of the reign of Tribhuvanamalladēva (Vikramāditya VI), i.e. 1115-16 A.D., refers to his famous general Anantapālayya and mentions the officers such as the mantrin, purōhita, sēnāpati, etc., in whose presence, the king made a certain gift. There are inscriptions of the next year Durmukha, the Chālukya-Vikrama year 41, at Māgoḷa and Raṅgāpuram in the Hadagalli Taluk of the same District, in one of which Padmaladēvī, a queen of Vikramāḍitya VI, is referred to as ruling over the agrahāra of Māṅgola.[8] In Śaka 1039 (December, 1117 A.D.), the Kākatīya chief Prōla of Anumakoṇḍa acknowledges the supremacy of the Western Chālukya ruler and records that the Anumakoṇḍa territory was conferred on his father Bēta same time before by the same sovereign.[9] About a year later, in the cyclic year Vilambin, corresponding to the Chālukya-Vikrama year 43 (December, 1118 A.D.), we find Mahāsāmantādhipati Mahāprachaṇḍadaṇḍanāyaka Anatapālayya actually ________________________________________
[1] See, e.g., Ep. Carn., Vol. VI, Cm. 160.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
