South Indian Inscriptions

KALCHURI OF TRIPURI

and Kerala.¹ In another Act of the same play, he is called Ujjayini-bhujanga, which suggests his victorious raid on Malwa.² Even in an inscription of his enemies, Yuvarajadeva I is described as one who had planted his foot on the heads of famous kings.³ There is not, therefore, much exaggeration in what the Bilhari inscription says of him—“Up to the Kailasa mountain, where Parvati is constantly engaged in sport, up to the excellent eastern mountain from where rises the lustre of the sun, near the bridge (of the south) and then up to the western ocean, the valour of his armies caused unending oppression to his enemies.”⁴ Yuvarājadeva assumed imperial titles. He is called Paramēsvara in the Bilhari inscription and Chakravartin in the aforementioned play of Rajasekhara. Another title Trikalingadhipati⁵ which indicates his supremacy in the north-east Deccan is known from the same play of Rājasēkhara.

Yuvarājadēva married Nōhalā, who became his chief queen. She belonged to the Chaulukya lineage and was the daughter of Avanivarman, who was the son of Sadhanva and grandson of Simhavarman. We have no information about the country where these princes were ruling. Perhaps Avanivarman was related to the king Avantivarman mentioned in the Ranōd inscription. As the latter is said to have donated certain places such as Ranipadra (modern Ranōd in Madhya Bharat) to the Śaiva ascetic whom he invited to his country, it is plain that he was ruling in Central India. If Avanivarman, the father of Nōhalā, was related to Avantivarman, he also might have been ruling somewhere in the same part of the country.⁶

The Kardā plates⁷ of the Rāshtrakūta king Karka II state that Yuvarājadēva gave his daughter Kandakadēvī in marriage to Baddiga alias Amōghavarsha III, the Rāshtrakūta king of Mānyakhēta. Baddiga was an old man when he ascended the throne after his nephew Gōvinda IV. As he was reigning from circa 935 A.C. to 939 A.C., his father-in-law Yuvarājadēva I might have flourished in the period 915-945 A.C.

Yuvarājadēva was a patron of men of letters. Rājaśēkhara, a well known Sanskrit poet, flourished in his court. In his early days Rājaśēkhara was attracted by the more prosperous court of Kanauj, where he wrote his two Sanskrit plays Bālarāmāyana and Bālabhārata (or Prachandapāndava) and the Prakrit drama Karpūramañjari during the reigns of the Gurjara Pratīhāra Emperors Mahēndrapāla I and his son Mahīpāla. But as the glory of the latter prince declined owing to the invasion of his kingdom by the Rāshtrakūta king Indra III and later on due to the raids of Yuvarājadēva I, Rājaśēkhara seems to have returned to Tripurī, the home of his ancestors Akālajalada and others, in the train of the victorious Kalachuri king. There he composed his third Sanskrit play Viddhaśālabhañjikā and the rhetorical work Kāvyamīmāmsā.⁸ As already stated, the former was staged at
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¹Viddbaśālabhañjikā ed. by Arte, p. 113.
² Ibid., p. 12. The same title of Ujjēnībhujanga was borne by two captains of the Ganga prince Mārasimha, viz., Śudrakayya and Gōggiyamma who also apparently had raided Malwa during the expedition of their master Mārasimha. Ep. Carn., Vol. XI, p. 9.
³ Cf. Vikhyāta-kshitipāla-mauli-rachanā-vinyasta-pādāmbujam……. Chēdirājam, in verse 28 of the Khajuraho inscription of Yaśōvarman. Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 127.
⁴ No. 40, 11.11-12.
⁵ Mr. Arte’s edition of the Viddhaśālabhañjikā has Triling-ādhipatē on p. 39, but it is evidently a mistake for Trikaling-ādhipatē. As shown below, the same title was borne by several later Kalachuri kings.
⁶ It is not, however, known if Avantivarman belonged to the Chaulukya dynasty. The Ūnā plates dated Vikrama Samvat 956 (Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 6 ff.) were issued by a Chālukya prince named Avani- varman II. He was thus a contemporary of Yuvarājadēva I; but he cannot be identified with Nōhalā’s father, because his father and grandfather were Balavarman and Avanivarman I respectively.
⁷ Ind., Ant., Vol. XII, pp. 263 ff.
⁸ K. B. Pathak Commemoration Volume, pp. 359. 359 ff.