The Rashtrakutas and their Times c9.s2.6

c9.s2.6

Dhruva first proceeded to punish his southern neighbours. The first blow was directed against the Ganga principality. The aged Ganga ruler Śrī-purusha Mutta-raśa who was defeated by his father Kṛṣṇa I, was now dead, and was succeeded by his son Sivamāra II. The Manne plates, (16) alleged to have been issued in 797 A.D., are no doubt spurious, but the statement made therein, that Sivamāra was interested in logic, dramaturgy and Pātañjala-Mahābhāshya may well have been founded on good tradition; it would show that he was more a scholar than an administrator. His authorship of a book on war-elephants did not prove to him of much avail against the elephant-phalanx of Dhruva, who managed to defeat and imprison him. The statement in the Rāshṭrakūṭa records that the Ganga ruler was imprisoned (17) is confirmed by some Ganga documents as well. The Manne grant, above referred to, states that Sivamāra was entangled on all sides in difficulties. The Gattiyadpur plates inform us (18) that Sivamāra put his younger brother Vijayāditya upon the throne who, like Bharata, knowing the earth to be his elder brother's wife, refrained from enjoying her. The simile makes it quite clear that Sivamāra was absent from the kingdom in the Rāshṭrakūṭa prison, and that his younger brother was trying to carry on the struggle against the invading forces in the absence of the de jure ruler. Dhruva, however, was completely successful in his expedition; he appointed his eldest son Stambha to govern the newly conquered province.