The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s12.97

c8.s12.97

Pulikêśin I. was succeeded by his eldest son, Kîrtivarman I., who came to the throne in A. D. 566 or 567.⁷ In the Nerûr grant of Pulikêśin II., his name appears as Kîrtirâja; but in all the other records he is uniformly called Kîrtivarman, "he whose armour is his fame." The Mahâkûṭa pillar inscription describes him as performing the *bahusuvarṇa* and *agniṣṭôma* sacrifices, and gives him the *birudu* of Puru-Raṇaparâkrama, "puissant in war as Puru," to which allusions are made in some others of the records. And the Nirpaṇ grant of Nâgavardhana would give him the *birudu* of Satyâśraya; but it is doubtful how far this may be accepted as authentic. Of the formal charters, a few attach to his name the epithet of *vallabha*; but the majority use the fuller one of *pṛthivîvallabha*, "favourite of the earth:"¹ they all agree in indicating his rank as a paramount sovereign, by the use of the title *Mahârâja*. From the Chiplûṇ grant, of the time of Pulikêśin II., we learn that his wife was a sister of the *Râja* Śrîvallabha-Sênânanda of the Sêndraka family;² her name, however, is not given. And the same record describes him as "the first maker or creator of Vâtâpi:"³ we have seen, however, that Vâtâpi was acquired by Pulikêśin I.: the statement about Kîrtivarman I. must, therefore, be intended to mean that it was he who began to adorn the city with temples and other buildings; and it was, as a matter of fact, in his time, and under his orders, that at any rate the large *Vaiṣṇava* cave-temple there was finished. The Aihoḷe inscription describes him as "a night of death to the Naḷas, the Mauryas, and the Kadambas," and as breaking up the confederacy of the Kadambas, which indicates pretty well the directions in which, and the extent to which, he enlarged the Chalukya power:⁴ the Kadambas were the kings of Banawâsi in North Kanara; the Naḷas were evidently the people of the Naḷavâḍi country, in, apparently, the direction of Beḷḷâry and Karṇûl; the Mauryas, as we learn from the Aihoḷe inscription, were a people in the Koṅkaṇ; and Kîrtivarman I. appears to have appointed, in or about A. D. 590, as his governor for the possessions in the Koṅkaṇ which he thus acquired, a certain Satyâśraya-Dhruvarâja-Indravarman who, at the beginning of the reign of Pulikêśin II., was stationed in Rêvatîdvîpa, and was governing four provinces.⁵ The Mahâkûṭa pillar inscription, giving a larger list of his victories, would claim that they included the kings of Vaṅga, Aṅga, Kaliṅga, Vaṭṭûra, Magadha, Madraka, Kêraḷa, Gaṅga, Mûshaka, Pâṇḍya, Dramiḷa, Chôḷiya, Âḷuka, and Vaijayantî.⁶ But some of