The Rashtrakutas and their Times c12.s1: Amoghavarsha III
The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c12.s1
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Amoghavarsha III
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The reign of Amoghavarsha III, which commenced in c. 935 A.D., was a short one of about four years : for his son Kṛṣṇa III was already upon the throne in May 940 A.D., when the Deoli plates were issued by him. (1) Being himself a man of religious temperament, he must have presented a strong contrast with his vicious predecessor. Actual administration was very probably entirely in the hands of the crown prince Kṛṣṇa.
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Revakanimmaḍi, a daughter of Amoghavarsha III and an elder sister of Kṛṣṇa III, was married to a Ganga prince, named Permadi Būtuga II. Since the first child of this union Maruḷadeva was born while Amoghavarsha III was upon the throne, and since the mother of Būtuga II was active enough in 974 A.D. to supervise the administration of the village Pattu Pebbaḷa, the statement of the Hebbal inscription, (2) that Revakanimmaḍi's marriage took place during the reign of Kṛṣṇa II, does not seem to be correct. The statement of the same record that at the time of the marriage of his great-grand-daughter, Kṛṣṇa II gave away as dowry Banavasi 12,000, Belvola 300, Purigere 300, Bagenad 70, and Kinsukad 70 to his great-grand-son-in-law seems to be equally unreliable, for the Atkur inscription informs us (3) that these districts were given by Kṛṣṇa III to his brother-in-law, as a reward for his bravery in killing the Chola crown prince Rājāditya.
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⁷³ E. C., XI, Chitaldurg No. 76.
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¹ E. I., V, p. 190.
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² *Ibid.* IV, p. 351.
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The Sudi plates inform us (4) that Amoghavarsha was staying at Tripuri when this marriage took place. These plates are no doubt spurious, but for reasons discussed already in the last chapter, we can well believe that statement. Būtuga also was then not the ruling Ganga prince, for Ereyappa was at that time ruling at Talkad.
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The crown prince Kṛṣṇa undertook the task of putting his brother-in-law upon the Ganga throne. He killed Dantiga and Vappuga, who were probably Noḷamba princes (5) and feudatories of Rāchamalla, the Ganga ruler then upon the throne. Then he attacked and killed Rāchamalla himself, and put his brother-in-law upon the Ganga throne. Isamudru (6) inscription, which was inscribed on 7th of September 937 A.D., refers to Amoghavarsha as the ruling emperor and concludes as follows:—
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In Paleyar Deva attacked and smote and slew the Pande king in Srīpura; Indra's son smote a Pallava king... This Kannara of great might slew Ganga Permadi and gave
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³ E. I., VI, p. 55.
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⁴ E. I., III, p. 176.
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⁵ Ayyapadeva Nanninga was the Noḷamba chief in c. 919 and he was an ally of Ereyappa, whose successor Rāchamalla was killed by Kṛṣṇa. The name of Nanniga's son was Anniga. [E. I., X., pp, 54 ff.] The names of Dantiga and Vappuga bear a family resemblance to Nanniga and Anniga, hence the conjecture in the text.
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⁶ E. C., XI. Chitaldurg 76.
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Fleet notices a record at the Mahākūṭa temple of Badāmi, dated October 934 A.D., which refers to Mahāsamanta Bappuvarasa, who was a very Bhairava on a minor scale to the enemies of the brave Gopāla (B. G., I. ii. p. 417 n. 3). This Bappuva could have been assumed to be the same as Vappuga killed by Kṛṣṇa, were it not very improbable that such an enemy could have challenged the authority of Amoghavarsha III in the very heart of the empire.
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the throne to Bhūvallabha. Thus did those of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa line slay and gain renown." The first two incidents, here referred to, have yet to be definitely identified, but the last one is obviously the same as the overthrow and destruction of Rāchamalla by Kṛṣṇa and the enthronement of his brother-in-law, Būtuga.
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Kṛṣṇa then marched northwards and defeated the Chedis, though his mother and wife had been born in that family. The forts of Kālañjara and Chitrakūṭa, situated in the very heart of Chandella country, were occupied by the Rāṣṭrakūṭa army, (7) and the Gurjara-Pratihāra emperor lost all hope of capturing them. An inscription, (8) recently published, confirms the testimony of the Deoli plates. This inscription was found at Jura in the Maihar State of the Baghelkhand Agency. It is written upon a stone and contains a eulogy of Kṛṣṇa III in Canarese. That a Canarese eulogy of Kṛṣṇa should be discovered in Baghelkhand can be explained only on the assumption that the claim to the conquest of Chitrakūṭa and Kālañjara is well founded. The Rāṣṭrakūṭas continued to hold these forts for about ten years; they were reconquered by the Chandella king Yaśovarman some time before 953 A.D.
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I have assumed here that the exploits of Kṛṣṇa described above were performed while he was yet a Yuvaraja, and not subsequent to his accession. In this respect, I differ from previous writers; an analysis of the Deoli plates, however, supports my reading of the situation. These plates were issued in May 940 A.D. After mentioning the accession of Amoghavarsha III, verse 19 of this record says that his son Kṛṣṇa proved his strength even while a *Kumāra* or a prince. Vv. 20-25 then mention the killing of Dantiga, Vappuga, and Rāchamalla and the capture of Kālañjara and Chitrakūṭa. V. 26 then observes that all the feudatories between the Eastern and Western ocean obeyed the commands of Kṛṣṇa, who himself, however, was always obedient to his father. V. 27 then informs us that his father died, happy to have seen his son embraced by the damsel fame. Then follows a description of the coronation of Kṛṣṇa III.
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⁷ It is not possible to argue that Kṛṣṇa assisted his Chedi relations in holding these places against the Chandella; for the Deoli plates, issued in May 940 A.D., soon after the capture of Kālañjara, state that Kṛṣṇa III had conquered the elders of his wife and mother. This shows that Kṛṣṇa was not co-operating, but fighting with the Chedis.
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⁸ E. I., XIX, p. 287.
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The above analysis of the Deoli plates makes it absolutely clear that the restoration of Būtuga to the Gāṅga throne, and the capture of Chitrakūṭa and Kālañjara were the achievements of Kṛṣṇa while yet a crown-prince. It may also be pointed out that Amoghavarsha was alive on the 3rd of December 939 A.D.⁹ and that all the above campaigns in southern and central India could not have been physically possible within a period of four months. And yet we shall have to assume that such was the case, if we are to hold that these campaigns were subsequent to his accession; for the Deoli plates, issued by Kṛṣṇa in May 940 mention all these achievements of his. The title *Paramabhaṭṭāraka Parameśvara-mahārājādhirāja* given by the Jura record to Kṛṣṇa III would not go against my hypothesis. The *praśasti* may have been composed and inscribed a few years later, and in the meanwhile Kṛṣṇa may have succeeded his father and conquered Tanjore and Kanchi. It is also possible that Kṛṣṇa may have undertaken a second expedition in Baghelkhand after his accession, when the Jura inscription may have been inscribed.
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⁹ E. C., XI, Chitaldurga No. 77, dated उत्तरायण संक्रांति, शके ८६१ पौष.
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A record from Sravan Belgola¹⁰ refers to a battle between Rakkasa-mane and Koneya Ganga when Bogya, a servant of Gaṅga-Vajra, rallied his retreating forces and made the whole forces of Vaddega and Koneya Gaṅga flee with terror. Although it cannot be proved at present that Koneya was another name of Būtuga and Vajra of Rāchamalla, the record shows that the forces of Amoghavarsha III, who was also known as Baddega, were operating against the Gangas, showing thereby that it was in his reign, and not in that of his son, that Būtuga was put on the Ganga throne. Kṛṣṇa, therefore, was clearly a crown-prince when he performed the above-mentioned exploits.
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¹⁰ E. C., II, No. 138 (New Edition numbering).
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Amoghavarsha died some time after the 3rd of December 939 A.D. and before May 940 A.D., happy to see that his son had proved himself an able and successful general.