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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
KALACHURI OF TRIPURI Śankaragana seems to have been involved in a conflict with the Chandēllas, whose kingdom was conterminous with his on the west. Krishna or Krishnapa, son of Yaśōvarman and brother of Dhanga, was ruling over the south-western portion of the Chandēlla kingdom extending from Dudahi in the north to Bhilsā in the south.1 From a stone inscription discovered by Dr. F. E. Hall many years ago at Bhilsa, we learn that Vāchaspati of the Kaundinya gōtra, who was the chief minister of Krishna, conquered the lord of Chēdi and a Śabara chief named Simha and placed the kings of Rālā mandala and Rōdapādi on their thrones.2 Another stone inscription discovered by Mr. M. B. Garde at Maser, 25 miles north of Bhilsā in the Gwalior State, mentions that Narasimha of the Śulkī (i.e., Chālukya) family initiated the wives of a Kalachuri king into widowhood by the command of Krishnarāja.3 As the Chandēlla prince Krishna was a younger brother of Dhanga, for whom we have dates ranging from 952 to 1002 A.C., he can be referred to the period 960-985 A.C. The Kalachuri king, defeated and perhaps slain by his ministers, was probably Śankaragana. It is significant that both the Bilhāri inscription and the Banaras plates have nothing but conventional praise for him. As his brother Yuvarājadēva II, who succeeded him, was a contemporary of Vākpati-Muñja (circa 974-994 A.C.), Śankaragana III seems to have had a short reign of about 10 years from circa 970 A.C. to 980 A.C.
Śankaragana III probably left no issue; for, he was succeeded by his brother Yuvarājadēva II. About the political events of his reign we have very little information; for, though he is named in many later inscriptions, they bestow only conventional praise on him. The Karanbēl inscription4 alone states that he raided the countries in all quarters, and with great devotion, presented the wealth he obtained from their rulers to the god Sōmēśvara. As no other inscription mentions this achievement of Yuvarajadēva II, and as a similar one is described in connection with his father Lakshmanarāja II,5. one is inclined to look with suspicion on this description. The prestige of the Kalachuris seems to have sunk very low during the reign of Yuvarājadēva II. From the Udaipur praśasti6 we learn that the Paramāra king Vākpati Muñja defeated Yuvarāja, slew his generals, and held his sword on high at Tripurī. Vākpati could not have occupied the Kalachuri capital for a long time; for, he soon found himself involved in a prolonged struggle with the Chālukyas on the southern border of his kingdom. He seems, therefore, to have made peace with the Kalachuri king and returned to his kingdom. From a verse7 which occurs in some inscriptions of the Later Chālukyas of Kalyānī,
it has long been believed that Tailapa II, the founder of the Later Chālukya dynasty, defeated
a king of Chēdi.8 Rai Bahadur Hiralal went so far as to identify the Chēdi ruler with
Yuvarājadēva II.9 As Yuvarājadēva’s sister Bōnthādēvī was the mother of Tailapa,10 1Four inscriptions found at Dudahi name Krishnapa, the son of Yaśōvarman who is plainly the well known Chandēlla king of that name, the father of Dhanga. See Ind. Ant., Vol. XVIII, pp. 236-37.
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