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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN
as Altekar has suggested, [1] Arikēsarin acknowleged the suzerainty of the Later Chālukyas, which Bhōja did not like. Bhōja seems to have occupied North Koṅkaṇ for some time as shown by his Beṭmā plate. However, Chhittarāja soon recovered possession of it. The Chālukya king Jayasiṁha, after overthrowing the Śilāhāras of South Koṅkaṇ and annexing their kingdom, planned to invade North Koṅkaṇ. The Miraj plates [2] dated in A.D. 1024 tell us that he was encamped at Kolhāpur in the course of his campaign against North Koṅkaṇ. It is not known if he conquered the country, but it is noteworthy that Chhittarāja, in his grant [3] issued soon after this date in A.D. 1026, does not mention the suzerainty of the Chālukyas. ..Chhittarāja succeeded his uncle Arikēsarin some time before A.D. 1024, when he issued his Bhoighar plates [4]. Four other records of his reign, viz. his own Bhāṇḍup, Dive Āgar and Berlin Museum plates [5] and the Chinchaṇī plates [6] of his feudatory Chāmuṇḍarāja are dated in Śaka 948, 949, 950 and 956 respectively. So he may have reigned from A.D. 1022 to A.D. 1035. ..The Śilāhāras seem to have suffered a defeat about this time at the hands of the Kadamba king Shashṭhadēva II. As we have seen before, Aparājita, the grandfather of Chhittarāja, had raided Chandrapura, modern Chāndōr, and defeated the ruler therefore, who was probably Gūhalladēva I, the father of Shashṭhadēva II. Shashṭhadēva took revenge in the beginning of the reign of Chhittarāja, who was a mere boy at the time of his accession. From his capital Chandrapura Shashṭhadēva marched to the north. He first annexed South Koṅkaṇ (called Kōṅkaṇa Nine Hundred), and, advancing further, he overran Kavaḍī-dvīpa (North Koṅkaṇ). The Narēndra inscription describes this expedition in the following words [7] :− “As he took the Kavaḍī-dvīpa and many other regions, he built a bridge of boats with lines of ships reaching as far as Laṅkā (i.e. the Goā territory), and claimed tribute among grim barbarians, exceedingly exalted was the dominion of the Kadamba sovereign, which many called a religious estate for the establishment of the worship of Rāma.â
..Shashṭhadēva did not, however, annex North Koṅkaṇ. He restored it to Chhittarāja on condition that he recognised his authority. There was another attack on the Śilāhāra dominion during the reign of Chhittarāja. Gōṅka of the Kolhāpur branch of the Śilāhāras (c. A.D. 1020-1050) calls himself the lord of the mighty Kōṅkaṇa. [8] He had evidently scored a victory over the Śilāhāra rule of North Koṅkaṇ ; for South Koṅkaṇ had already been annexed by him as a feudatory of the Later Chālukyas. ..
As stated before. Aparājita had conquered Saṁyāna-maṇḍala. His son Arikēsarin placed
it in charge of a feudatory named Vijjarāṇaka, who probably belonged to the Mōḍha family.
His son Chāmuṇḍarāja was governing that maṇḍala as a feudatory of Chhittarāja, whom he
mentions as Chhinturāja in his Chinchaṇī platep [9] dated Śaka 956 (A.D. 1034). One of the
birudas of Chāmuṇḍarāja mentioned in the plates is Lāṭa-prākāra-rājya-dhvaṁsaka (the destroyer
of the ramparts and kingdom of Lāṭa), which shows some victory of his against the ruler of
Lāṭa (South Gujarāt). Again, the birudas Āhava-Nīla of his father Vijjarāṇaka and TribhuvanaNila of himself are reminiscent of the traditional rule of the Vidyādhara princes at Tagara,
the home town of the Śilāhāras.
[1] Ind. Cult., Vol. II, p. 408.
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