The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.53

c7.s5.53

⁴ Tagar has been identified by Wilford (As. Res. I. 369) with Devgiri or Daulatabad and by Dr. Burgess with Roza about four miles from Daulatabad (Bidar and Aurangabad, 55); Lassen and Yule place it doubtfully at Kulburga (Ditto); Pandit Bhagvánlál, as already stated, at Junnar; Grant Duff (Maráthás, 11) near Bhir on the Godávari; and Mr. J. F. Fleet, I. C. S. (Kánarese Dynasties, 99-103) at Kolhápur. Prof. Bhandárkar observes: 'The identification of Tagar with Devgiri is based on the supposition that the former name is a corruption of the latter. But that it is not so is proved by its occurrence as Tagar in the Siláhára grants (A.D. 997-1094), and in a Chálukya grant of A.D. 612, the language of all of which is Sanskrit. The modern Junnar cannot have been Tagar, since the Greeks place Tagar ten days' journey to the east of Paithan. On the supposition that Junnar was Tagar, one would expect the Chálukya plate issued to a Bráhman of Tagar to have been found at or near Junnar. But it was found at Haidarabad in the Dakhan. The author of the Periplus calls Tagar "the greatest city" in Dakhinabades or Dakshinápath. The Siláhára princes or chiefs, who formed three distinct branches of a dynasty that ruled over two parts of the Konkan and the country about Kolhápur, trace their origin to Jimutváhan the Vidyádhar or demigod and style themselves "The lords of the excellent city of Tagar."' From this it would appear that the Siláháras were an ancient family, and that their original seat was Tagar whence they spread to the confines of the country. Tagar therefore was probably the centre of one of the earliest Aryan settlements in the Dandakáranya or 'forest of Dandaka,' as the Dakhan or Maháráshtra was called. These early settlements followed the course of the Godávari. Hence it is that in the formula repeated at the beginning of any religious