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EARLY KALACHURIS OF MAHISHMATI
The mention of the Ārjunāyanas in the list of frontier tribes who submitted to Samudragupta1 has been taken by some2 to refer to the Kalachuris who trace their descent from
Arjuna, the son of Kritavīya. The Ārjunāyanas were indeed an ancient tribe. Their
coins bearing the tribal name in Sanskrit are known in several varieties and on the evidence
of palæography are ascribed to 100 B.C. Prof.Rapson dates their rise as a political community as early as the fourth century B. C.3 They are included in the rājayādi gana (mentioned
in Pānini, IV, 2, 53), which shows that their country was called Ārjunāyaka. Varāhamihira
places them in the northern division, and the provenance of their coins indicates that their
homeland lay within the triangle Delhi-Jaipur-Āgrā.4 This shows, however, that
they were distinct from the Kalachuri who dwelt in the valley of the Narmadā. Besides
according to the Kāśīkā-5 on Pānini, II, 4, 66, the Ārjunāyanas were the descendants of
Arjuna who belonged to the Bhārata clan, and were, therefore, different from the Kalachuris who claimed their descent from Arjuna, the son of Kritavīrya.
Though the Early Kalachuris do not call themselves Haihayas in their grants,
they soon came to be referred to by that name; for we learn from some inscriptions
of the Early Chālukyas that Vinayāditya, the son of Vikramāditya I (680-697 A. C.), subjugated the Haihayas,6 Vikramāditya II (733-747 A.C.) married two Haihaya princesses,
Lōkamahādēvī and her younger sister Trailōkyamahādēvī.7 The Eastern Chālukya prince
Vishnuvardhana IV (764-799 A.C.) similarly espoused a princess of the Haihaya lineage
whose son Nriparudra is mentioned as Dūtaka in a grant of Vijayāditya II.8 These
Haihayas were evidently identical with the Early Kalachuris.
It is not known whether the Early Kalachuris were descended from Mahārāja Subandhu who ruled from Māhishmatī in an earlier age; for there is a long period of nearly
150 years which separates them and for which no records have yet been discovered. The
Early Kalachuris rose into prominence on the downfall of the Traikūtakas dynasty. After
the year 245 of the Kanhēri plate9 incised during the sovereignty of the Traikūtakas,
the next known date of the Kalachuri era is the year 292 furnished by the Sunao Kala grant
of Sangamasimha.10 He seems to have come to power after the Traikūtakas; for the
phraseology of the formal part of his grant bears close resemblance to that of the
Traikūtakas records, especially the Surat plates of Vyāghrasēna.11 Sangamasimha issued
the plates from Bharukachchha. Śōnavvā, the village granted by him, is only two miles
north of the Kīm and 18 miles north of Surat. It is, therefore, not unlikely that Sangamasimha had under his sway some territory which was previously included in the Traikūtaka
kingdom. But Sangamasimha, though he calls himself Mahārāja, was in reality a Mahāsāmanta (i.e., a great feudatory) of some other power. The only powerful contemporary
dynasty to which he may have owed allegiance was that of the Kalachuris. We have unfortunately no records of the Early Kalachuris who were the real founders of the Kalachuri
Empire of the sixth century A.C. The earliest dated record of the Kalachuris is Sankara-
________________
1 C.I.I., Vol. III, p. 8.
2 Ibid., Introd., p. 10.
3 C.H.I., Vol, I, p. 528.
4 A.C.A.I., p. lxxxii ff.
5 Patanjali in his Mahābhashya gives a different illustration (viz., Auddālakāyana) to explain the rule.
6 Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, pp. 91 ff. and Vol. VII, p. 302.
7 Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 3.
8 Ind. Ant., Vol. XX, p. 415.
9 No. 10.
10 No. 11.
11See below, p. 34.
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