The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s10.141

c8.s10.141

No authentic work of a definite historical character, written by the ancient inhabitants of Western India, has ever yet come to light. But, in the inscriptions on copper-plates and stone-tablets, on monumental stones, the pedestals of idols, the walls and pillars of temples, and rocks, there have come down to us, particularly in the Kanarese country, a large number of original historical records of the most important kind. And in these records, which, chiefly engraved for the purpose of registering some grant to a priest, temple, or religious community, or of commemorating the death of some hero in battle, usually name the reigning king, with more or less information about his ancestors and predecessors, and are generally dated in his regnal year or in one or other of the Hindû eras, there exist abundant materials for compiling a detailed and connected history of the greater part of the Bombay Presidency and of the neighbouring territories of Madras, Mysore, and Haidarâbâd, from about the middle of the sixth to the end of the sixteenth century A. D., and, at the same time, for illustrating the development of the modern forms of the alphabets, and, in the Kanarese country, of the vernacular language,¹ and the decay of old and the growth of new forms of religion, the origin of many of the different land-tenures and territorial divisions that now exist, and many other subjects of political, historical, and antiquarian interest and importance. The title which I have given to my book may, indeed, seem rather to limit the results of the researches into these records to the southernmost parts of the Presidency. But I am not prepared to deal now with the history of Kâthiâwâd and northern Gujarât. For the rest of the Presidency, the dynasties which possessed it, one after the other, all had their chief seats of government in, or close to the borders of, the Kanarese country, and were identified specially with the Kanarese provinces as the most important parts of their dominions. And the title that I have selected will serve the purpose as well as any other, until we come hereafter to deal with the ancient history of India on a more comprehensive plan than has ever yet been aimed at.