North Indian Inscriptions

THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

In ancient times the śrēṇīs or guilds were allowed to keep such a force. The State utilised it in times of war for the protection of the kingdom. In course of time these Arab colonies became powerful and rendered help to the Kadambas. So the latter appointed some of their members as their ministers and even donated villages to them[1]. These Arab chiefs seem to have helped the Kadambas in their conflict with the Śilāhāras after the death of Mummuṇi. Their Yavana soldiers devastated the country and oppressed gods and Brāhmaṇas as described in the Khārepāṭaṇ plates.[2] But Anantapāla, the son of Nāgārjuna, inflicted a crushing defeat on these Yavana compatriots of the Kadambas and freed his country as graphically described in the following verse of the Khārepāṭaṇ plates :-

(In the calamity of the civil war Anantapāla overwhelmed, with the flood of water in the form of the sharp edge of his sword, the violent and sinful Yavana soldiers of Muna (?), who, having become powerful, had destroyed the Kōṅkaṇa land, oppressing gods and Brāhmaṇas, and being the protector and friend of the family, he engraved his fame on the disk of the moon.)[3]

..Only one inscriptions of Anantapāla (or Anantadēva I) has been found, viz., the Khārepāṭaṇ plates dated in the Śaka year 1016 (A.D. 1094). From it we learn that he assumed the title of paśchima –samudr-ādhipati and claimed to be the ruler of the entire Koṅkaṇ country including Purī-Kōṅkaṇa. He had evidently extended his rule to South Koṅkaṇ. The inscription exempts the ships of certain ministers of his from customs duty levied at the ports of Sthā naka (Ṭhāṇā), Śūrpāraka (Sōpārā), Chēmūlya (Chaul) and others.

.. Hostilities with the Kadambas seem to have broken out again at the close of the reign of Anantapāla. Jayakēśin II, the valiant king of Goā, invaded North Koṅkaṇ and, in the encounter that followed, killed the Śilāhāra king. The Degāṁvē inscription describes him as ‘Death to the king of Kavaḍīvīpa’.[4] After this, Jayakēśin occupied North Koṅkaṇ. The Narēndra inscriptions[5] dated in A.D. 1125 and 1126 describe him as governing Kavaḍīdvīpa, a lakh and a quarter, in the time of the Chālukya Emperor Tribhuvanamalla (Vikramāditya
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[1] Indica (1953), p. 93.
[2] No. 19.
[3] Anantapāla seems to have received substantial military help from Yādava king Sēuṇachandra II. An inscription says that by his might the latter rescued Kōṅkaṇa of noble tradition together with gods. Brāhmaṇas and Māṇḍalikas. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXVII, p. 84.
[4] J.B.B.R.A.S., Vol. IX. p. 266. The Chālukya Emperor Vikramāditya VI seems to have directly or indirectly supported Jayakēśin II in this campaign. He had given his daughter Mailaladēvī in marriage to Jayakēśin II, in this deputed his Daṇḍanāyaka and Minister Lakshmaṇa to assist his daughter in the governance of her Kingdom. This Lakshmaṇa took a prominent part in this campaign. A record thus eulogises the exploits of this Daṇḍanāyaka :g “Too awful to be faced, even when regarded from afar, he crossed over the Sahya (mountains), drank up the ocean whose waters are naturally not to be traversed, eradicated the wicked and settled the country. Now the gloreous Kōṅkaṇa has become free from danger”. Ep. Ind., Vol. XIII, p. 313.
[5] Ep. Ind., Vol. XIII, pp. 316 and 323. Altekar, relying on Fleet’s statement in Bom. Gaz. (old ed.), Vol. I, pt. ii, p. 568, states that an inscription at Narēndra incised only five months later than the earlier one of A.D. 1125 omits Kavaḍīdvīpa from the dominion of Jayakēśin II; but this is incorrect. Both the inscriptions have been edited in Ep. Ind., Vol. XIII, pp. 298 f., and 316 f. Both describe Jayakēśin II as the ruler of Kavaḍī-dvīpa, a lakh and a quarter, i.e. of North Koṅkaṅ. The date of the so-called Sōmanāth inscriptions, viz. 1176, which Altekar referred to the Vikrama Saṁvat and assigned to the reign of Aparāditya I is really 1107 of the Śaka era, and belongs to the reign of Aparāditya II. See below, p. 159.

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