The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.113

c8.s12.113

Kîrtivarman I. was succeeded, on his death, in A.D. 597 or 598, by his younger brother, Maṅgalêśa,⁴ who seems to have been his half-brother,⁵ and whose name appears in the various forms of Maṅgala-râja, Maṅgalêśa, Maṅgalîśa, and Maṅgalîśvara; the first meaning "the auspicious king,” and the others, “the auspicious lord.” He had the *birudas* of Raṇavikrānta, “the valorous in war,” and Uru-Raṇavikrānta, “valorous in war as Uru;” and the epithets of *pṛithivīvallabha*, and *śrīpṛithivīvallabhéndra* “or chief of favourites of fortune and the earth :” and he is described as a *paramabhāgavata* or most devout worshipper of the Divine One (Vishṇu). The important events of his reign were, as mentioned in the Aihole inscription, a conquest of the Kalachuris,¹ and of a territory called Rēvatīdvīpa. From the Mahākūṭa pillar inscription, we learn that the Kalachuri king at the time was named Buddha: the Nerūr grant gives us the name of his father, Saṁkara-gaṇa; and the Mahākūṭa record shews that the victory over Buddha, by which Maṅgalēśa acquired the whole of the northern territory up to the river Kīm or perhaps even to the Mahī, took place before April, A. D. 602. The Nerūr record also states that he slew a chief named Svāmirāja, of Chalukya descent, who had been victorious in eighteen battles; this person, who was apparently settled in the Koṅkaṇ, is otherwise unknown. The stronghold which was attacked for the reduction of Rēvatīdvīpa, was evidently situated on the coast; for,—the Aihole inscription says,—Maṅgalēśa’s army, when it had beset the ramparts, was reflected in the water of the great sea as if it were the army of Varuṇa (the god of the ocean) which had come at his command. And we plainly have a reminiscence of the name of the territory, and very possibly an indication of the exact position of the stronghold itself, in the modern Rēḍī, a fortified promontory about eight miles south of Veṅgurla in the Ratnāgiri District, Bombay Presidency.² Maṅgalēśa died in the course of civil