The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s14.130

c8.s14.130

As they grew up, Vikramâditya exhibited such marked capabilities that his father conceived the idea of appointing him Yuvarâja and passing the crown to him, to the supersession of his elder brother. The favour, however, was declined by Vikramâditya, on the grounds that it did not belong to him by right.¹ Sômêsvara II. was then appointed Yuvarâja. And, with his father's permission, Vikramâditya VI. set out on a series of military expeditions. He is said to have repeatedly defeated the Chôlas and plundered Kânchî; to have lent his assistance to the king of Mâlwa, who came to him for protection, to regain his kingdom; to have carried his arms as far as Bengal and Assam; to have attacked the king of Ceylon; to have destroyed the sandalwood forests of the Malaya hills; and to have slain the lord of Kêrala. And, finally, the poem says, he conquered Gângakunda, elsewhere called Gangaikoṇḍa-Chôlapuram and Gângâpurî,² which was a Chôla city; Vengî, the capital of the Eastern Chalukyas, and Chakrakôṭa, which appears to have been a fortress in the Dhârâ territory of the Paramâra kings of Mâlwa.³ This, however, closed the events of the reign of Sômêsvara I. For, the news reached Vikramâditya on the Krishna, on his return homewards after the above achievements, that his father, having been attacked by a malignant fever, for which no remedies were found to be of any avail, had proceeded to the Tungabhadra, and there, reciting his confession of the Saiva faith, had drowned himself in the sacred river. And, from Bilhana's statements that he proceeded to Kalyâna to console Sômêsvara II., and that, for some time after, the two brothers lived in concord and friendship, it appears that Sômêsvara II. succeeded at once to the throne, without any attempt at opposition on the part of Vikramâditya VI.