The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.233

c8.s11.233

An inscription, indeed, at Bêlûr, in Mysore,¹ gives the name of a Gaṅga-Permanadi, who was governing the Karṇâṭa in the month Phâlguna (Feb.-March), falling in A. D. 1021, of Śaka-Saṃvat 944 (current), coupled apparently with the Durmukhin saṃvatsara by mistake for Durmati.² But, before this time, the Chôḷas had invaded the Gaṅgavâḍi province and made it a part of their own kingdom, as is shewn by their records which from about this point are met with in Mysore. Thus,—taking at present only the dated records,—at Kaliyûr there is an inscription³ of the Chôḷa king Râjarâjadêva, mentioning a minister of his named Apramêya and described as "lord of the Koṭṭa maṇḍala," dated in the month Chaitra (March-April), falling in A. D. 1006, of the Parâbhava saṃvatsara, Śaka-Saṃvat 929 (current). At Balmuri there is another of his records,⁴ dated apparently at the uttarâyaṇa-saṃkrânti or winter solstice, in December, A. D. 1012, of the Paridhâvin saṃvatsara, Ś.-S. 934 (expired), cited as his twenty-eighth year: this record claims that Râjarâja had conquered the land of the Gaṅgas, Raṭṭavâḍi (the kingdom of the Râshṭrakûṭas of Mâlkhêḍ), the Malenâḍ or hill-country along the Western Ghauts, the territories of the Noḷambas and the Andhras, and the rulers of Koṅgu, Kaliṅga, and Pandya, and had absorbed all their lands into the Chôḷa kingdom; and it mentions a certain Pañchavamahârâyâ, whom he had appointed to the military command, as Mahâdaṇḍanâyaka, of the Beṅgi maṇḍala, i. e., the land of Veṅgî, the territory of the Eastern Chalukyas,⁵ and the Gaṅga maṇḍala, and who then, it says, entered on a series of conquests more to the west,—seizing the Tuḷuva country, the Koṅkaṇ, and the Male country, pursuing the Chêra, pushing aside Teḷuga and Raṭṭiga, and coveting even the little Beḷvola district. And at Taḍi-Mâliṅgi and Sindhuvaḷḷi there are records,⁶ dated, respectively, in his tenth year, and in the Vyaya saṃvatsara, coupled with Śaka-Saṃvat 1030 by mistake for 1028 expired or 1029 current, = A. D. 1106-1107, cited as his thirty-seventh year,—of the Eastern Chalukya king Râjêndra-Chôḷa-Kuḷôttuṅga-Chôḷadêva I., who,⁷ anointed first, like his ancestors, to the sovereignty of Veṅgî, afterwards acquired also the Chôḷa kingdom and crown. At the end of the tenth century A. D., therefore, the Western Gaṅgas lost all semblance of independence, and, if they continued to be entrusted with any authority at all, sank into the position of mere representatives of the Chôḷa and Eastern Chalukya kings, in whose possession their territory remained until about A. D. 1117, when a certain Gaṅgarâja or Gaṅgarasa attacked Adiyama or Iḍiyama and other feudatories of the Chôḷa, encamped at Taḷakâḍ, who refused to quietly give up the territory which their sovereign had entrusted to them, defeated them and drove them out, recovered his hereditary province, and placed it in the hands of the Hoysaḷa prince Viṣṇuvardhana.¹