North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF KOLHAPUR

place of dalliance of the goddess of heroism, and which has endeared itself to all good people.

..(V. 3). In the illustrious Śiḷāhāra royal family, many great kings, attractive with their royal fortune and fame, endowed with a lovely form, and possessed of far-famed valour, gave protection to this earth.

..(V. 4). In that family there flourished king Jatiga (I), the lord of the Gōmantha fort, the righteous consort of the lady that is the royal fortune and the maternal uncle of the Gaṅga Pērmānaḍi. His son was the illustrious king known as Nāyima, the abode of valour and the lord of the Vidyādharas, whose body was marked with the saffron-paste on the breasts of the Karṇāṭa ladies.

.. (V. 5). His son was named Chandra, who greatly increased his royal fortune, who accumulated a mass of religious merit, who appeared lovely with his fame spread in the (whole) world, who was a vertable ocean of charity, praised by the learned and charming to eyes.

.. (V. 6). His son, again, was king Jatiga (II), a great warrior, who commanded a troop of elephants. His sons were named Gōṅkala and Gūvala (I), who were thunderbolts to the chief mountains that were their foes.

.. (V. 7). That Gōṅkala’s son was the illustrious king Mārasiṁha, a lion to the elephants in the form of his enemies, a serpent to the hostile army, the Director on the field of battle, who was far-famed and was a veritable Parijata [1] to learned men.

.. (V. 8). His elder son was the best of kings, Gūvaladēva (II) by name, a pre-eminent warrior of the world, who was embraced by the creeper-like arms of the wives of warriors and who was fond of glory.

.. (V. 9). His younger brother was Bhōjadēva (I), the source of all blessed things, an ornament to the rulers of the world, whose long arm gave refuge to the wives of eminent warriors, and who was a thunderbolt to the mountains that were the heads of fierce foes.

.. (V. 10). The head of Śāntara was verily a lotus—(Śāntara), who was the sun shining in the sky in the form of the prosperous Kadamba (family). He (i.e. Bhōja) offered worship with it to the feet of the illustrious Suzerain Vikramāditya.

.. (V. 11). How can that far-famed great warrior be praised—by whose anger even the king Kōṅgaja suffered downfall and even that Bijjaṇa, the sun shining in the firmament of the solar race, went to the abode of the lord of gods?

.. (V. 12). He is that king Bhōja, on the lamp of whose valour Kōkkalla was burnt like a month. The number of those who took to their heels before him could not be counted.

.. (V. 13). Victorious is Bhōja, the wild fire to Vēṇugrāma, a lion to the elephants that were his enemies, the god of world-destruction to Gōvinda, a thunderbolt to the mountain in the form of Kurañja, who occupied Kōṅkaṇa by the might of his arms and released Bhillama from captivity . . . . [2] and who put an end to the itch of the long arms of the wicked hostile kings.

.. (V. 14). His younger brother was Ballāḷadēva, who had a multitude of good qualities, who vanquished hostile kings, who was (as it were) a jewelled light to the family of Jīmūtavāhana, who had a serene form, and who shone on the earth by his valour.

.. (V. 15). Then there was born his younger brother Gaṇḍarādityadēva, whose valour is (unbearable) like the heat of the sun, who resembles Indra in his prosperity, who is an abode of all kinds of royal fortune, who has quelled the pride of his enemies, who is devoted to political science, and whose form is eulogised by (the whole) world.
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[1] Parijata is probably used here for Kalpavṛiksha ‘ the wish-fulfilling tree’.
[2] The meaning of karṇa-diśā-paṭaḥ is uncertain. Perhaps it means an ornament of the Karṇāṭa country.