The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.380

c8.s12.380

The Kauthêm grant tells us that in the time of Kîrtivarman II. the Chalukya sovereignty was overthrown; and there is ample evidence of the truth of this statement. No record of any immediate successor of his has ever been obtained. And, not only do the Râshtrakûta records shew that, within fifty years after the latest date that we have for him, the kings of that dynasty had gained possession of the whole of the Western Chalukya dominions, but the Sâmângad grant of Khadgâvaloka-Dantidurga states explicitly that that king acquired the supremacy by conquering Vallabha, i.e. Kîrtivarman II., and by overcoming the army of the Karnâtaka army, i.e. the Western Chalukya forces, which had been expert in defeating the lord of Kânchi, the king of Kêrala, the Cholas and the Pândyas, and Harsha and Vajrata;¹ and further, its date shews that Kîrtivarman II. had lost the northern provinces of his hereditary dominions even before the date of the Pattadakal record of A. D. 754. An attempt to re-assert the Western Chalukya sovereignty was evidently made, by Kîrtivarman II. himself, in the time of Dantidurga's successor Krishna I.; for, the latter is described as transforming into a deer, i.e. putting to flight, the great boar,—the crest of the Chalukyas,—“which was seized with an itching for battle, and which, kindled with the warmth of bravery, attacked him;”² and it is possibly on this occasion that Kîrtivarman II. made, when his victorious camp was on the north of the river Bhîma, the grant which is recorded in the Vakkalêri plates. But, from that time onwards, the Râshtrakûtas held undisputed possession of the Chalukya territory in Western India, until they were overthrown by Taila II. in A. D. 973.