The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s14.289

c8.s14.289

son, Sômêśvara or Sôvidêva. And, if tradition is to be believed, he was shortly afterwards assassinated in consequence of some wanton cruelty which he, himself a Jain, displayed, in causing two pious members of a new sect of Śaivas, called Lingâyats, to be blinded or slain.¹ If this was so, the occurrence must itself have been an almost fatal blow to the newly established dynasty. At any rate, it is plain that Bijjala's sons had not the capacity which he himself possessed. This gave the opportunity for Sômêśvara IV. and his adherents to come to the front. And they owed their success to a Danḍanâyaka or councillor and leader of the forces called Brahma, son of Kâma or Kâvaṇa, whose name appears in various records in also the Prâkṛit forms of Bamma, Bammana, Bammayya, Bammarasa, and Bammidêva. One record styles this person *Châlukya-râjya-pratishṭhâpaka*, "the establisher of the Châlukya sovereignty;"² another says plainly that the position of Sômêśvara IV. was secured for him by Brahma, and adds that the latter, "a fire of death to the Kalachûryas," seized the whole earth for the purpose of making the Châlukyas lords of all the world:³ and also a Hoysaḷa inscription mentions him as having taken away the sovereignty from the Kalachûryas, and shews that he did so by seducing the allegiance of some of the Kalachurya forces which were under the command of his own father;⁴ this is made clear partly by the statement, in the Hoysaḷa record, that Brahma had acted in contempt of his father,⁵ and partly by a Harihar inscription,⁶ which mentions his father Kâvaṇa as a *Danḍanâyaka* that sometimes it was omitted from the reckoning. An inscription at the temple of Śaṃkaraliṅga at Hombal in the Dhârwâr District (I quote from an ink-impression) calls the Saumya *saṃvatsara* (Ś.-S. 1112 current), = A. D. 1189-90, his third year. This is not reconcilable with any other statements; but there is nothing else suspicious about the record.