Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c22.2

c22.2

Three distinct families of chiefs or minor princes with the name of Śilâra or Śilâhâra ruled over different parts of the country They all traced their origin to Jîmûtavâhana the son of Jîmûtaketu, who was the king of a certain class of demigods called Vidyâdharas, and who saved the life of a serpent named Śankhachûḍa by offering himself as a victim to Garuḍa in his place¹ One of the titles borne by the princes of all the three families was *Tagarapuravarâdhîśvara* or "lords of Tagara, the best of cities," which fact has a historical significance We have seen that Kâmvadeva, the donor of the Râjâpur grant who was a Châlukya, called himself *Kalyâṇapuravarâdhîśvara*, and one of the titles of the later Kadambas after they had been reduced to vassalage and of the rulers of Goa was *Banavâsîpuravarâdhîśvara* As these titles signify that the bearers of them belonged to the families that once held supreme power at Kalyâṇa and Banavâsî, so does *Tagarapuravarâdhîśvara* show that the Śilâhâras who bore the title belonged to a family that once possessed supreme sovereignty and reigned at Tagara In one Śilâhâra grant it is expressly stated that "the race known by the name of Śilâhâra was that of the kings who were masters of Tagara "² As mentioned in a former section, Tagara was a famous town in the early centuries of the Christian era and retained its importance till a very late period, but unfortunately the town has not yet been identified, nor have we found any trace of the Śilâhâra kingdom with Tâgâra as its capital Perhaps it existed between the close of the Andhrabhṛitya period and the foundation of the Châlukya power