Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c5: Historical Note
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c5
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Historical Note
c5.1
SINCE the different parts of the country, whose remains are described in this volume, were under various ruling families at different times, who did not succeed one another directly in the government of the country as a whole, as was the case in Northern Gujarat and the Chalukyan dominions, and, as there are few inscriptions and less tradition connecting any of the buildings with them, it will be unnecessary to go into any detail with regard to their history. It will be sufficient for our purpose to mention the rulers of the several districts during the period covered by the buildings that are described.¹
c5.2
¹ For a fuller account see the Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, Part II.
c5.3
The earliest dynasty with which we come into contact, when treating of the structural architectural remains of the Dakhan, is that of the Rāshṭrakūṭas whom we find cutting cave-temples at Elurā, not far from the modern town of Aurangābād. At that time, and until their subjugation by the Chālukyas in the second half of the tenth century A.D., they had the Yādavas as their feudatories in the north, who are said to have been, originally, lords of Mathurā and sub-equently of Dvārakā; and it is to the patronage of this family, more than to that of the Rāshṭrakūṭas, that we owe most of the old temples now found in the Dakhan. The Rāshṭrakūṭas had ceased to exist as a ruling family more than half a century before the first stone of the temple of Ambarnātha was laid; and the Śilāhāra chiefs of the Koṅkaṇ, in whose districts it was raised, had already transferred their allegiance to the re-established family of the Western Chālukyas of Kalyāṇapura.
c5.4
The governing lords of the branch of the great Śilāhāra family that was settled in the Northern Koṅkaṇ, were styled *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras*, and it is a record of the *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* Mummuni, or Māmvāṇi, that we have in the temple of Ambarnātha, which tells us he erected the building in A.D. 1060. He was a feudatory of the Chālukya king Someśvara I., and held his court at the sea-girt capital of Purī, which was probably situated in the middle of the island of Sālsette.²
c5.5
² See Appendix.
c5.6
The Yādavas were, at this time, confined to the northern part of the Dakhan, and had also transferred their allegiance from the Rāshṭrakūṭas to the Western Chālukyas. When they first came south under Driḍhaprahāra they are said to have established themselves at Chandrādityapura, the modern Chāndor in the Nāsik district, where he ruled over Seunadeśa, the present Khāndesh, the family intermarrying with the Silāhāras of the Northern Konkan. Their capital seems to have been afterwards moved to Sindinagara (Sinnar), further south, which was founded by Seunachandra I. under the name of Seunapura, about the middle of the 11th century. Some forty years later we hear of Bhillama III. making the impregnable fortress of Devagiri his capital, which continued to be the headquarters of the family until its capture by the Muhamadans in A.D. 1312, when its name was changed to Daulatābād.
c5.7
Fig 1—The fort of Daulatābād.
c5.8
There were, again, minor families ruling small districts under the Yādavas, for we learn that the temple of Maheśvara at Pātna was completed by a chief, Gōvana, of the Nikumbha family, who was governing in that neighbourhood, in A.D. 1153, and that grants were made to it by his successors Sōidēva and Hēmādideva, who are mentioned in another inscription at the same place. At Añjanerī is an inscription of A.D. 1142 recording the erection of a temple, which mentions a Seunadeva who was, possibly, another small governor under the Yādavas, and related to them.
c5.9
At the Mānbhāvas temple at Vāghli is a long inscription recording the erection of a temple of Siva, a *sattra* or hall of charity, and a well by a prince Gōvinda or Gōvindarāja. It also records certain endowments and gifts to the same by king Seunachandra II. in A.D. 1069. The inscription gives a dynasty of petty chiefs who ruled for about four hundred years previously, and who are said to have come from Dvārakā.