The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.51

c8.s12.51

their documents, as it was finally settled. But the earlier records contain some slight differences. The Bâdâmi cave-inscription of the time of Kîrtivarman I., dated in A. D. 578, represents them as also meditating on the feet of the holy Svâmin, i.e., probably, Kârttikêya, and as having their heads purified by ablutions performed after celebrating the agnishtôma, agnichayana, vâjapêya, pauṇḍarîka, bahu-suvarṇa, and aśvamêdha sacrifices.¹ The Mahâkûṭa pillar inscription of Maṅgalêśa, dated in A. D. 602, describes them as meditating on the feet of their parents.² And the Nerûr grant of the same king describes them as meditating on the feet of Svâmi-Mahâsêna, i.e. Kârttikêya,³ which statement is repeated in the Sâtârâ grant of Viṣṇuvardhana I.,⁴ dated in the eighth year of Pulikêśin II., in A. D. 616 or 617. We have just seen that the Chalukya crest was the varâha-lâñchchana or boar-crest; in addition to being mentioned in the passage quoted above and in all the similar formal preambles, it appears constantly on the seals of their grants. Their banner was the pâlidhvaja, which is a particular arrangement of flags in rows;⁵ but it is not mentioned in the records until the time of Vijayâditya, whose records say⁶ that it was one of the insignia of supreme dominion, and that it was acquired by his father, Vinayâditya, by crushing some paramount king of Northern India, and add that he himself, pushing on further to the north even than his father, acquired again the pâlidhvaja-banner and also the insignia of the signs of the rivers Gaṅgâ and Yamunâ.⁷ From the boar-crest, acquired, according to their tradition, from the god Viṣṇu himself, and from an invocation of Viṣṇu in his incarnation as a boar which stands at the beginning of many of their records irrespective of the particular sectarian subjects of them, it is plain that the family-god of the Chalukyas was Viṣṇu. But, nevertheless, they displayed a considerable amount of tolerance in matters of religion, and patronised the Jains and Śaivas, equally with the followers of the Vaiṣṇava faith.