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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
KALACHURI OF SOUTH KOSALA Lāphā Zamindāri of the Bilaspur District. The Kalachuris seem to have reigned there for two or three generations (from circa 895 A.C. to 950 A.C.), but were ultimately ousted by some enemy, perhaps a Somavamśi king ruling over the eastern parts of Dakshina Kosala. The Kalachuri prince, when ousted from Chhattisgarh, apparently returned to his ancestral country of Dāhala. From the Bilhāri stone inscription we learn that Lakshmanarāja II (circa 945-9970 A.C.) defeated the rulers of Kosala and Odra. Lakshmana- raja's campaign may have been undertaken to punish the king of Kosala and his ally, the king of Odra, for having ousted the scions of his family from Kōsala. His victory was not, however, a decisive one and does not seem to have led to the re-establishment of Kalachuri power in chhattisgargh. It was probably in the reign of Kokalla II that the Kalachuris renewed their attempt to conquer Dakshina Kosala The Ratanpur stone inscription of Jājalladeva I states that in order to augment his unimpeded prowess and treasure, Kalingarāja, descended from a younger son of Kokalla I, left his ancestral country (evidently Dahala)1 and conquered the country of Dakshina Kōsala by the prowess of his arms.2 As Kalingarājaâs son Kamala- raja was a junior contemporary of Gāngēyadēva (circa 1015-1040 A.C.), Kalingarājaâs conquest of Dakshina Kōsala may be dated in circa 1000 A.C.
Kalingarāja selected the old Kalachuri capital Tummāna as the seat of his government. As the Ratanpur inscription says, while staying there, he destroyed his enemies and
increased his splendor. During his reign there was an invasion of the country by Sindhurāja, a well-known Paramāra king of Dhāra (circa 995-1015 A.C). Some years later, he
led a second expedition in connection with a love affair which forms the theme of the
beautiful Sanskrit kavya Navasahasankacharita of his court-poet Padmagupta alias Parimala.3
The story of the kavya briefly told is as follows:-
âSindhurāja, while hunting on the slopes of the Vindhya mountain, sees and falls
in love with Śaśiprabhā, the daughter of the snake king Sankhapala. After her meeting
with the king, Śaśiprabhā is carried away by invisible snakes to Bhōgavati in the nether
world. The king flings himself into the stream of the Narmadā to follow her and on the
other side reaches a golden palace. The river goddess Narmada receives him hospitably
and tells him how he should win Śaśiprabhā. When she was born, it was predicted that
she would become the wife of a ruler of the middle world and bring about the death of
Vajrankusa, a mighty enemy of the snakes. Her father had laid down the following
condition for her marriage, viz., that her suitor should bring the golden lotus flowers,
which grow in the pleasure garden of Vajrānkuśa. Narmadā tells Sindhurāja that at a
distance of fifty gavyūtis lies the town of Ratnavati built by Maya, the architect of Asuras,
where reigns Vajrānkuśa, the prince of demons. Finally, Narmadā prophesies that the
king will meet the sage Vanku on his way to Ratnavati. Then the king, accompanied
by his minister Yaśōbhata, also called Ramāngada, starts for Ratnavati. On the way they
reach the grove of the sage Vanku. There they converse with the sage and meet Śaśi-
khanda, the son of Śikhandakētu, king of the Vidyādharas, who had been transformed
1Owing to a wrong pada-chchhēda in vv. 4 and 6 of No. 77, it was supposed by Kielhorn and other
scholars who followed him that Kalingarāja hailed from the country of Tritasaurya. But no such country
is known. See Kane Festschrift, pp. 290 ff.
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