The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.414

c8.s11.414

Of Narasimhavarman I., we have a record in a fragmentary rock-inscription at Bâdâmi itself,² which furnishes evidence that, so far at least as a victorious occupation of the town goes, the boast of the Pallavas, that they "destroyed" Vâtâpi, is no empty one. The characters alone, especially as contrasted with those of the almost entirely obliterated inscription which lay just below it on the same rock, are sufficient to shew that it is a Pallava record, written, or traced for engraving, by the hand of someone who was a foreigner to Bâdâmi. But the contents make the point absolutely certain. In line 2, it mentions Vâtâpi and someone whose biruda was Mahâmalla; and the passage was evidently to the effect that "Vâtâpi, [a city] of enemies, a superhuman or divine [city], [was conquered] by Mahâmalla."³ In line 3, where the metrical portion begins, it speaks of someone adorning a family which, we can now recognise, is plainly specified as the Bhâradvâja gôtra.⁴ And in line 4 it describes him as "the Pallava, the foremost of kings;"⁵ while in line 5 it gave his name, which either was Simhavishṇu or else ended with those syllables. Now, we have the name of a Simhavishṇu at the head of the genealogy given in the table on page 323 above. But there is no mention of Vâtâpi in connection with him. Nor is there any mention of the Pallavas in connection with his contemporary Pulikêśin I., who first among the Chalukyas settled at Vâtâpi, or in connection with Kirtivarman I. and Maṅgalêśa, the sons of Pulikêśin I., except that the Mahâkûṭa pillar inscription would vaguely include the king of Dramila, i.e. the Drâviḍa country, among the rulers against whom, it says, Kirtivarman I. was victorious. It is plain, therefore, that this record must be placed not earlier than, and as a matter of fact in, the time of Pulikêśin II.,⁶ i. e. at the end of his reign. The name Narasimhavishnu suits the metre exactly. This name actually occurs, as a variant, in the case of Narasimhavarman II.¹ And there can be no doubt that the name, which stood in the Bâdâmi record was Narasimhavishnu; and that this was another form of the name of Narasimhavarman I.