The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.448

Language: English

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Dantiga, lord of Kâñchî.¹ An inscription at Tâyalûr, in Mysore,² mentions a king named Noḷambâdhirâja, with the date of Śaka-Saṃvat 817 (expired), = A. D. 895-96; and we perhaps have another record of him in an inscription at Nandi or Bhôga-Nandi, also in Mysore,³ which mentions a king Noḷambâdhirâja, with the epithet of śrîprithivîvallabha, of the Pallava lineage; and we appear to learn, from an inscription at Kendaṭṭi-Maḍivâḷa⁴ that he was the son of Pallavâdhirâja, and that he married Jâyabbe, younger sister of the contemporaneous Nîtimârga of the Western Gaṅga family, by whom he had a son named Mahêndrâdhirâja. With this son, we may probably identify the Vira-Mahêndra, with whom the Western Gaṅga king Ereyappa was at war between A. D. 930 and 940.⁵ The Râshṭrakûṭa king Krishna III. overcame, in or just before A. D. 940, a Pallava king whose name is read as Aṇthiga;⁶ and the inscription of his twenty-sixth year, near Vellore in the North Arcot District, mentions a member of the Pallava race named Tribhuvanadhîra-Nuḷamba, with the biruda of Pallava-Murâri.⁷ The Western Gaṅga prince Mârasimha is described, in and about A. D. 973, as "a very Death to the family of the Noḷambas," and as destroying Noḷambâdhirâja in war;⁸ and an inscription at Mêḷagâṇi⁹ mentions the king, with whom he was chiefly in conflict, as Pallavâditya-Noḷambâdhirâja, with a date in the month Ashâḍha (June-July), falling in A. D.

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974, of the Bhâva saṃvatsara, Śaka-Saṃvat 896 (expired), when news of Mârasimha's death reached the Pallava king. And an inscription at Kandavâra, in Mysore,¹⁰ gives the name of a Pallava king Immadi- or Irmaḍi-Noḷambâdhirâja, i. e. "the second Noḷambâdhirâja," with a date in the month Chaitra (March-April), falling in A. D. 977, of the Îśvara saṃvatsara, Śaka-Saṃvat 899 (expired). After this, however, the available references to the Pallavas cease to mention them as paramount kings, and mostly cease to have any individuality; from which, it is probably to be inferred that about this time they lost their sovereign power, and sank into the position of mere feudatories and officials. The Western Gaṅga minister Châmuṇḍarâya, whose period was about A. D. 980, is described as "a very Death to the family of the Noḷambas."¹¹ A daughter of the Western Châlukya king Irivabeḍaṅga-Satyâśraya (about A. D. 1000) was married to a Pallava prince named Iriva-Noḷambâdhirâja, also called Ghaṭeya-Aṅkakâra, who in A. D. 1010-11¹¹ was governing the Nolambavâḍi thirty-two-thousand, the Keṅgali thousand, the Ballakunde three-hundred, the Kukkanûr thirty, and five towns in the Mâsavâḍi country, under Vikramâditya V. Records of the time of Jayasiṁha II., the successor of Vikramâditya V., mention a Pallava named Noḷamba-Pallava-Bommaṇayya, who in A. D. 1040-41 and 1042-43 was governing the five towns in the Mâsavâḍi country.

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Sômêśvara I., the son and successor of Jayasiṁha II., perhaps married a Pallava princess; this would explain why his son Jayasiṁha III. not only had the title of "lord of Kâñchî, the best of cities," and bore the designations of Trailôkyamalla-Noḷamba-Pallava-Permâḍi-Jayasiṁhadêva, but also is described as being of the Pallava lineage.¹ The eldest son of Sômêśvara I., Bhuvanaikamalla-Sômêśvara II., claims to have subdued, and levied tribute from, the Chêra, Chôḷa, Pâṇḍya, and Pallava kings.² His younger brother, Vikramâditya VI., humbled the Pallavas.³ And a successor of the latter, Perma-Jagadêkamalla II., claims to have destroyed the Pallava king, and to have ruled over the Pallava kingdom.⁴ The Hoysala prince Viṣṇuvardhana is spoken of as "a forest fire to the country of the chief of the Toṇḍa maṇḍala," and as capturing the Nolambavâḍi territory.⁵ His grandson, Baḷḷâḷa II., is described as terrifying the kings of Lâḷa (i.e. Lâṭa), Gurjara, Gauḷa, Chôḷa, and Pallava.⁶ And finally, the Pallava king is mentioned among the contemporaries of the Dêvagiri-Yâdava king Siṅghaṇa.⁷ These references, however, are all very vague, and simply shew that the Pallavas continued to exist, and to exercise some kind of power, till as late as the thirteenth century A. D. And the latest individual mention that has been traced, is that of the Pallava prince Karuṇâkara-Toṇḍaimân, who in the period A. D.

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1063 to 1112 was a general of the Eastern Chaḷukya king Kuḷôttuṅga-Chôḍadêva I.;⁸ his descendants appear to have survived till nearly the end of the seventeenth century.⁹