The Rashtrakutas and their Times c12.s2.18

c12.s2.18

The Sudi plates (26) of Būtuga II are no doubt spurious but their statement that after the defeat of Rājāditya's forces Būtuga besieged Tanjapuri or Tanjore under orders from Kṛṣṇa, may well have been a historic fact. The epithet 'Tanjaiyunkonḍa' or the conqueror of Tanjore has been given to Kṛṣṇa III, as we have seen already, in so many records found in Tonḍai-Manḍalam, that the conclusion becomes inevitable that he had conquered and occupied the Chola capital at least for some time. The statements in the Karhad plates that Kṛṣṇa defeated the Pandyas and the Keralas, exacted tributes from the king of Ceylon and planted the creeper of his fame at Rāmeśvara may all of them be true; they receive an unexpected corroboration from Somadeva, who finished his Yas'astilaka about two months later than the issue of the Karhad plates of Kṛṣṇa III, i. e. in May 959 A.D. At the end of this work the author speaks of Kṛṣṇarāja as a glorious monarch, who had subdued the Pandyas, the Cholas, the Cheras, and Sinhala.²⁷ After the overthrow of the Chola army and the capture of Tanjore, march to Rāmeśvara could hardly have presented any insurmountable difficulties. Kṛṣṇa was not content with merely defeating the Cholas; the fact that so many inscriptions from Tondai-Maṇḍalam are dated in the reign of Kṛṣṇa III makes it clear that the northern portions of the Chola kingdom were annexed by him to his empire. The statement in the Karhad plates that Kṛṣṇa was encamped, at the time when the plates were issued, at Melpati in North Arcot in order to parcel out livings i. e. territories among his dependents and receive tributes from feudatories, also shows that part of the Chola kingdom was annexed and placed under the charge of Rāṣṭrakūṭa officers. The territory to the south of Tondai-Maṇḍalam could not be annexed, as we do not come across any records from that area recognising the sovereignty of Kṛṣṇa III. The Ganga ruler Būtuga II, who had acquired the throne with the help of Kṛṣṇa, was his right-hand man in this campaign; in recognition of his valuable services Kṛṣṇa conferred upon him Banavasi 12000, Belvol 300, Kinsukad 70, Bagenad 70 and Purigere 300.²⁸ The latest known date of Būtuga is April 953 A.D.²⁹ He died a few years later while his brother-in-law was still upon the Rāṣṭrakūṭa throne, and was succeeded by his son Noḷambāntaka Mārasimha, born not of Revakanimmaḍi, the sister of Kṛṣṇa III, but of another wife named Kollavarasi. The new ruler continued to be as intensely loyal to the Rāṣṭrakūṭa connection as his father, and helped Kṛṣṇa in his military campaigns.