The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.267

c8.s12.267

To some time in the same period belongs also another copper-plate grant from the Karṇûl District,² which mentions another son of Pulikêśin II., named Âdityavarman, or "he whose armour is the sun," and records that he granted to a Brâhmaṇ an allotment at the villages of Muṇḍakallu and Palgire. The grant was made in the first year of his reign, on the full-moon day of the month Kârttika, at the great festival of Paitâmahî and Hiraṇyagarbha: but the Śaka year is not given; and there is nothing in the details of the date from which the English equivalent can be determined. With Âdityavarman's name there are coupled the epithet of prithivîvallabha, and the paramount titles of Mahârâjâdhirâja and Paramêśvara; and he is described as the "dear or favourite son" of Pulikêśin II., and as "possessing the supreme rule over the whole circuit of the earth, which had been overcome by the strength of his own arm and his prowess." It is not altogether easy to locate this record. It makes no mention of Vikramâditya I. There is no information to shew whether Âdityavarman was the elder or the younger brother, as compared either with Chandrâditya or with Vikramâditya I. And Âdityavarman is not mentioned in any other records. But the insertion, in the Kauthêm grant of A. D. 1009,³ of two generations between Pulikêśin II. and Vikramâditya I.,—actually making an Âdityavarman the father of Vikramâditya,—may possibly, mistaken as it is, be a reminiscence of Vikramâditya having had two elder brothers. The description of Âdityavarman, quoted above, distinctly appears to place his charter after the period of disaster which followed the reign of Pulikêśin II. And it seems likely, on the whole, that Âdityavarman was the eldest son of Pulikêśin II.; and either that he made the first attempt to restore the sovereignty, and failed, or else that, after the restoration by Vikramâditya I., he endeavoured to wrest the succession from his younger brother: the former supposition is, however, less probable than the latter; because, if that was the course of events, there would have been no substantial reason for omitting Âdityavarman's name in all the subsequent records of the family.