North Indian Inscriptions

THE SILAHARAS OF SOUTH KONKAN

and so felt the need of shifting the capital to a more central place like Khārepāṭaṇ. Perhaps, Chandrapura was invaded and occupied by some enemy which may have necessitated the shifting of the capital.[1] We know that it was in hostile hands in the reign of his successor Aiyapa.

..The grants of Raṭṭarāja mention Aiyapa as the successor of Dhammiyara. The Paṭṭaṇakuḍi plates, however, mention another prince named Āmalla between them. Perhaps, the latter did not reign and so his name has been omitted in the grants of Raṭṭarāja. Aiyapa followed an aggressive policy and invaded Chandrapura, the erstwhile capital of the family, which was then in the occupation of some enemy. He is said to have bathed there with the water of cocoanuts, signifying his conquest of the territory.

.. According to the grants of Raṭṭarāja, Aiyapa was followed by his son Avasara I, but the Patṭaṇakuḍi plates omit his name altogether. Perhaps, a verse mentioning him has been inadvertently omitted in those plates. Avasara I is said to have been conversant with the principles of political science. Otherwise, his description is conventional. His son was Ādityavarman. Thereafter there is complete agreement in regard to succession in all the three grants. Ādityavarman was succeeded by Avasara II, who is said to have rendered help to the rulers of Chēmūlya and Chandrapura. Chēmūlya, identical with Semulla mentioned as a port on the western coast by Ptolemy[2], is modern Chaul, about 30 miles south of Bombay. The

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ruler of this place was probably a feudatory of the Śilāhāras of Sthānaka, but he seems to have revolted at the accession of his suzerain Vappuvanna, who was then in his teens. Avasara seems to have taken advantage of this opportunity to extend his sphere of influence in North Koṅkaṅ. The other prince to whom he gave military aid was ruling at Chandrapura in the Goā region. He is not named, but he may have been Kaṇṭakāchārya, the founder of the Kadamba family of Goā, which rose to power about this time. Avasara seems to have aided him in occupying Chandrapura, which he later made his capital. Avasara II was followed by his son Indrarāja, about whom we have only conventional praise in the records of the family. He was succeeded by Bhīma, who is said to have annexed Chandramaṇḍala (comprising the territory round Chandrapura) even as Rāhu devours the moon at an eclipse. Bhīma reversed the policy of his grandfather and came into conflict with the contemporary Kadamba king, who was either Shashṭhadēva or his son Gūhalla II.

.. Avasara III succeeded Bhīma. He was a man of noble nature and peaceful disposition. He is said to have had no enemy. He issued the Paṭṭaṇakuḍi plates in the Śaka year 910 (A.D. 988). They record the pāda-pūja of the king made by some Śrēshṭhins (merchants) for the confirmation of two jīvalōkas or vṛittis by means of a hundred dīnāras. This reference to the dīnāra coins occurring in such a late record is interesting. The date of this record, Monday, Kārttika śu. di. 5 in the cycle year Sarvadhārin. is irregular. The cyclic year corresponding to Śaka 910 was, no doubt, Sarvadhārin, but the week-day does not agree.

..The Southern Śilāhāras were loyal feudatories of the Rāshṭrakūṭas. When Avasara III issued his Paṭṭaṇakuḍi plates in Śaka 910 (A.D. 988), the last Rāshṭrakūṭa king Karka II had already been overthrown by Tailapa in A.D. 974. Thereafter, the Gaṅga king Mārasiṁha tried to revive Rāshṭrakūṭa power by placing on the throne his son-in-law Indra IV, the grandson of Kṛishṇa III, but the attempt did not succeed, and Indra IV put an end to his life by religious starvation in A.D. 982. There was thus no Rāshṭrakūṭa king ruling at the time when Avasara III made his grant. But true to the erstwhile suzerains of his family, Avasara has given the genealogy of the Rāshṭrakūṭas in his Paṭṭaṇakuḍi plates. At the end of the genealogy he states with regret that the noble sprout of the wish-fulfilling tree (Kalpavṛiksha)
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[1] The enemy is not named.
[2] R.C. Majumdar, The Classical Accounts of India, p. 365.

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