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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
KALACHURI OF TRIPURI dominion which had been lost by his father. He continued to use the same high-sounding titles as his ancestors Karna and Yasahkarna had done, though his kingdom had become very much circumscribed. Like his ancestors, Narasimha was a devotee of Śiva. His spiritual preceptor was Kīrtiśiva, the disciple of Śaktiśiva, who is said to have contributed to his prosperity.1 A stone inscription from Jabalpur states that his fame had spread in all directions. He is identical with Kīrtiśambhu, the disciple of Śaktiśambhu mentioned as the head of Gōlakī Matha in an inscription discovered at Malkāpuram in the Guntur District.2 Narasimha was probably an old man when he came to the throne; for, his father Gayākarna and grandfather Yaśahkarna had unusually long reigns. He seems to have died without a son, as he was succeeded by his brother Jayasimha. As the earliest known date of the latter is K. 918, Narasimha seems to have ruled from K. 905 to K. 915 (1153-1163 A.C.). Jayasimha seems to have been a brave and ambitious prince. The Jabalpur plates of his reign have the following verse about him which is also found repeated in the Kumbhī grant of his son Vijayasimha:––“On hearing of the coronation of the illustrious Jayasimhadēva, the Gurjara king disappeared, the Turushka lost the strength of (his) arms, the lord of Kuntala suddenly renounced all love-sports, and other kings also leaving the earth through apprehension crossed the ocean.”3 We have no means to ascertain whether Jayasimha actually raided the countries of these kings. But that he led at least one expedition is known from an inscription at Shēorinārāyan.
This invasion was directed against Jājalladēva II, the contemporary ruler of Ratanpur. The Shēorinārāyan inscription tells us that Ulhanadēva, who was descended from a collateral branch of the Ratanpur Kalachuris, routed with his arrows the army of the Chēdi-king. Seeing that his forces were being exterminated, the Chēdi king Jayasimha, whose name is partially preserved in the inscription, advanced in person, being highly enraged like a serpent trodden under foot.4 From the subsequent description it appears that Ulhanadēva lost his life in the fight. It is not stated how the battle ended. Probably Jayasimha was defeated and had to sue for peace; for, there is no mention of this battle in the subsequent records of the Kalachuris of Tripurī. The battle must have been fought soon after Jayasimha’s accession which we have conjecturally placed in K. 915; for, the aforementioned Shēorinārāyan inscription, which describes it, is dated K. 919.
Five inscriptions of the reign of Jayasimha have been found. The earliest of them
is his Jabalpur grant.5 It is dated K. 918 and records the gift of the village Agarā which
Jayasimha made on the occasion of lunar eclipse which occurred on the full-moon day of
Āśvina (the 30th September 1167 A.C.). Another Jabalpur inscription6 of his reign is
dated K. 926 (1174-75 A.C.). The proper object of it is to record that Vimalaśiva, the
spiritual preceptor of Jayasimha, erected a temple of Śiva under the name of Kīrtīśvara,
and that Jayasimha endowed it with certain villages on the occasion of a solar eclipse.
Like his elder brother, Jayasimha continued to hold to the last the valley of the Tamasā
or Tons; for, the Rewa plate of the Mahārānaka Kīrtivarman, the ruler of Karkarēdī,
which is dated K. 926, mentions him as suzerain with full titles of paramountcy.7 1 No. 64, 11. 11-12.
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