Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c21.83

c21.83

The immediate successor of Mahâdeva was Âmaṇa⁵⁶ who appears to have been his son, but the sovereign power was soon wrested from his hands by the rightful heir Râmachandra, son of Kṛishṇa, who ascended the throne in 1193 Śaka or 1271 A D He is called Râmadeva or Râmarâja also In the Ṭhânâ copper-plate grants he is spoken of as "a lion to the proud elephant in the shape of the lord of Mâlava," from which it would appear that he was at war with that country He is also called "the elephant that tore up by the root the tree in the shape of the Tailinga king" This must be an allusion to his wars with Pratâparudra the successor of Rudramâ, which are mentioned in the work noticed above Several other epithets occur in the grants, but they are given as mere *birudas* or titles which were inherited by Râmachandra from his predecessors, and do not point to any specific events in his reign His inscriptions are found as far to the south as the confines of Maisur, so that the empire [116] he ruled over was as large as it ever was There is in the Dekkan College Library a manuscript of the Amarakośa written in Konkan on Tâla leaves during his reign in the year 4398 of the Kaliyuga corresponding to Śaka 1219 and A D 1297 His viceroy in Konkan in Śaka 1212 was a Brâhmaṇa named Kṛishṇa belonging to the Bharadvâja Gotra, whose grandfather Padmanâbha first acquired royal favour and rose into importance in the reign of Singhaṇa One of the Thânâ grants was issued by him, and the other dated 1194 Śaka by Achyuta Nâyaka, who was also a Brâhmaṇ and who appears to have been a petty chief and held some office which is not stated Where he resided is also not clear By the Paithan copper-plate charter, which was issued in Śaka 1193, Râmachandra assigned three villages to fifty-seven Brâhmans on conditions some of which are rather interesting The Brâhmans and their descendants were to live in those villages, not to mortgage the land, allow no prostitutes to settle there, prevent gambling, use no weapons, and spend their time in doing good deeds ⁵⁷