South Indian Inscriptions

KALCHURI OF TRIPURI

the Kalachuri court and contains a poetic account of certain political events of Yuvarājadēva I’s reign, to which we may now turn. Its plot may be summarised as follows :––

“The king Vidyādharamalla alias Karpūravarsha of Tripurī receives at his court Vīra- pāla alias Chandamahāsēna, the lord of Kuntala, who has been deprived of his kingdom by his relatives and falls in love with his daughter Kuvalayamālā. His minister Bhāgurāyana, however, comes to know from astrologers that the king who would marry Mrigānkāvalī, the daughter of the king Chandravarman of Lāta, would be the sovereign of the whole world. He, therefore, contrives to bring about the marriage of his lord Karpūravarsha with Mrigānkāvalī. Chandravarman, her father, has no son, and so, since her childhood he has brought her up as a boy under the name Mrigānkavarman. None but Bhāgurāyana knows of this secret. He manages to have the pretended crown prince of Lāta brought to Tripurī to stay at the Kalachuri court. Karpūravarsha’s chief queen Madanasundarī, who, though related to Chandravarman, is shown to be ignorant of the personation, used to dress occasionally the pretended boy in a female garb. When the king sees her once in a dream, he falls in love with her. The queen, in order to play a practical joke on the king, induces him to marry a sister of the pretended boy. This sister in none other than Mrigānkāvalī herself, though the queen, who is ignorant of her real sex, takes her to be Mrigānkavarman in a female garb. The king agrees and the marriage is performed. In the meanwhile, news comes from Chandravarman that a son has been born to him. He, therefore, requests his niece, the queen of Karpūravarsha, to bestow his daughter Mrigānkāvalī, whom he has brought up as a son, on a worthy consort. The queen realizes her mistake when it is too late. To make the best of the situation, however, she bestows both Mrigānkāvalī and Kuvalayamālā, the Kuntala princess, on the king. Just then comes a messenger bearing the following letter from the king’s General Sri-Vatsa :––

“Through the power of Your Majesty who is an ornament of the Karachulis, through the clear intellect of the great minister Bhāgurāyana as well as through the execution of Your Majesty’s orders by insignificant soldiers like myself, all the mighty king of the east, the west and the north have already been subdued. Only those of the south did not submit. Vīrapāla, the lord of Kuntala, who had been deprived of his kingdom by his kinsmen, sought Your Majesty’s protection. As Your Majesty ordered, we placed him at our head and encamped on the bank of the Payōshnī.”

The General then describes how his forced fought with a confederacy of several kings, viz., those of Karnāta, Simhala, Pāndya, Murala, Āndhra, Kuntala, Kōnkana and others, defeated them and placed Vīrapāla on the throne. Finally, Bhāgurāyana declares that the Karachuli king reigns supreme over the whole country ‘from the milky ocean in the north to the sea filled with the water of the Tāmraparnī in the south, from the western ocean, which receives the Narmadā, to the eastern sea, the shore of which is sanctified by the fall of the Gangā.’

The Viddhaśālabhañjikā is a drama of harem-intrigue. The plot summarised above resembles in some respects those of the Mālavikāgnimitra of Kālidāsa, and the Priyadarśikā and the Ratnāvalī of Harsha. Still it is likely to have a historical basis. The play was staged at Tripurī before the court of Yuvarājadēva, who is none other than the first Kalachuri king of that name. He is also identical with the hero of the play, Vidyādharmalla, whose alternative name Karpūravarsha recalls Kēyūravarsha, the biruda of Yuvarājadēva I. Besides, Vidyādharamalla is called Karachuli-tilaka, an ornament of the Karachulis (i.e., Kalachuris) and is represented as ruling at Nripurī which is plainly a mistake for Tripurī. He is again called Trilingādhipati. This title corresponds to Trikalingādhipati assumed by