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KALCHURI OF TRIPURI
kūta kingdom at the close of Gōvinda’s reign. The aforementioned Deoli and Karhad
plates further tell us that after the death of Gōvinda IV, the feudatory princes entreated
Baddiga alias Amōghavarsha III to ascend the throne. This clearly indicates that there
was some trouble about succession to the Rāshtrakūta throne at that time. Vīrapāla of
the Viddhaśālabhañjikā was apparently a claimant for the throne, and when he failed to
get it, he sought Yuvarājadēva’s help. The latter had by that time made extensive conquests
in the north, east and west, but as the play states, he could not, for some time, gain a footing
in the south. This was evidently due to the increasing power of the Rāshtrakūtas. Yuvarājadēva apparently thought that the civil war at the close of Gōvinda IV’s reign afforded
him an excellent opportunity to place his own protégé on the Rāshtrakūta throne. He
sent a large army under his able general, who defeated the Kuntala king and his allies in
the battle of the Payōshnī, and placed Vīrapāla on the throne of Kuntala.
This Vīrapāla is probably Baddiga-Amōghavarsha III.1 The latter, we know, was
Yuvarājadēva's own son-in law. The Kudlur2 and Sudi plates3 further tell us that he
was staying for some time at Tripurī where he celebrated the marriage of his daughter
Rēvakanimmadī with the Ganga prince Pērmādi Būtuga II. Baddiga’s son Krishna III
also had married a Kalachuri princess. It is not, therefore, surprising that Yuvarājadēva
espoused the cause of Baddiga.4 Rājaśēkhara has changed the names of the historical persons
who figure as characters in the Viddhaśālabhañjikā. Kēyūravarsha, for instance,
appears as Karpūravarsha, and his minister Bhākamiśra, as Bhāgurāyana. So Baddiga
may have been represented as Vīrapāla alias Chandamahāsēna.5
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1Altekar, Rāshtrakūtas and Their Times, pp. 109 ff.
2 A. R. A. S. M. (1921), pp. 21-22.
3 Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 179.
4 Gōvinda IV also was a relative of Yuvarājadēva, but he was more distantly related to him than
Amōghavarsha III; for, he was a grandson of his niece. The following table shows the matrimonial alliances
of the Rāshtrakūtas and the Kalachuris :––
5 I previously proposed to identify Vīrapāla with some other claimant for the Rāshtrakūta throne
(e.g., Bappuva) on the following grounds––(i) The Viddhaśālabhañjikā represents that Yuvarājadēva afterwards
married Vīrapāla’s daughter. This would evidently be impossible if Vīrapāla represented Baddiga.
(ii) The Karhad plates dated Ś. 880 (958 A.C.), state in verse 25 that Krishna III, while he was Yuvarāja,
defeated Sahasrārjuna who was an elderly relative of his mother and wife. R. G. Bhandarkar first suggested
that this Sahasrārjuna was a Kalachuri king as the Kalachuris traced their descent from the mythical hero
Kārtavīrya-Sahasrārjuna. Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 284. This king could be none other than Yuvarājadēva I,
who was the father-in-law of Amōghavarsha III, the father of Krishna III. As Amōghavarsha ruled only
for about four years, this defeat of the Kalachuri king must have occurred within a year of the former’s
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