Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c7.s1.18

c7.s1.18

The Māmvāṇi or Mummuṇi of the inscription was one of the Śilāhāra Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras of the northern Koṅkaṇ whose capital was Purī, which was possibly situated on Sālsette island near the Kondivte caves, and five or six miles south of those of Kaṇheri, where, in spite of the clearances and appropriations of the Portuguese, and the Muhammadans before them. there are still a few remains of the Hindu period both above and below ground.¹ The great feudatory family of the Śilāhāras was divided into three main branches, one of which ruled over the Northern Koṅkaṇ while the other two governed the Southern Koṅkaṇ and the districts around Karād and Kolhāpur respectively. The Śilāhāras of the Northern Koṅkaṇ were tributary to the Rashtrakūṭas and the later Chālukyas of Kalyāṇa. Māmvāṇi was thus, in all probability, a feudatory of the Chālukya king Somēśvara I. They carried the suvarṇa-Garuḍa-dhvaja, or the ‘Banner of the Golden Garuḍa,’ which device is found upon their copper-plate grants. They bore the hereditary title of Tagarapura-paramēśvara, or ‘Supreme Lord of the city of Tagarapura,’ commemorative of their original home. In the Kanheri Caves is one of their inscriptions, dated in A.D. 842, giving the name of their capital as Purī, and their territory the whole of the Koṅkaṇ. As this records a grant to the Buddhist community at the mount of Kṛishṇagiri (Kaṇheri) it shews that that sect was still flourishing in the Koṅkaṇ in the ninth century, and was worshipping side by side with their Hindu neighbours.