The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s16.120

Language: English

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Vaisâkha (April-May), falling in A. D. 1179, of the Vikârin samvatsara (Saka-Samvat 1102 current), and Remmâdêvî joined in making a grant of land at Kaulûr, in the Mâsavâdi district, to the temple in which the record stands; and, the samvatsara being cited as the fourth year of the Kalachurya king Sankama, it shews that Sankama was the recognised sovereign of Vîra-Ballâla, whom it styles Mahâmandalêsvara. And an inscription of A. D. 1203, at Alawandi, in the same neighbourhood,¹ mentions another piriy-arasi, also styled patta-mahâdêvî, named Kêtaladêvî, who made an allotment to a local god, out of the hejjunka-tax of the Mâsavâdi district, and thus seems to have been some connection of the other wife, Remmâdêvî; and, perhaps a son, born from her, named Billayya. But the son who succeeded him, Narasimha II., was born from a wife named Padmaladêvî.² The earliest date for Vîra-Ballâla II. is supplied by an inscription at Bujagauḍana-pura in Mysore,³ which mentions him as a Mahâmandalêsvara, ruling at Dôrasamudra in the month Chaitra (March-April), falling in A.D. 1173, of the Vijaya samvatsara, coupled with Saka-Samvat 1094 by mistake for 1095 (expired). And one of the Sravana-Belgola inscriptions⁴ mentions him as a Mahâmandalêsvara ruling the dakshina-mandala or "southern territory," with a date in the month Pausha, falling in December, A. D. 1181, of the Plava samvatsara, S.-S. 1104 (current).

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To the earlier period of his career belongs also the statement in the Nirgunda inscription, that, as Mahâmandalêsvara, he ruled over the Gangavâḍi ninety-six-thousand at Dôrasamudra.⁵ Within the next ten years, however, he accomplished a very great change in his position. From his Gadag inscription of A. D. 1192,⁶ and from another record of his time, dated in A. D. 1202, at Aṇṇigere,⁷ we learn that, pushing on to the north of the Dhârwâr District, he defeated Brahma, the general of the Western Châlukya king Sômêsvara IV., Bhillama, the Yâdava king of Dêvagiri, and a certain Jaitrasimha, who may perhaps be, as was originally thought, Jaitugi I., the son of Bhillama, but seems now more likely to be a minister of Bhillama who is mentioned as Jaitasimha in a record at Gadag of A. D. 1191;¹ and that thus, according to the claim that is made for him in these records, by the favour of the god Nârâyaṇa he acquired the supremacy over the Kuntala country, and the universal sovereignty of the Western Châlukyas. This must have happened soon after June, A. D. 1191, when, as the record of that date at Gadag² shews, the country in that neighbourhood was in Bhillama's possession.

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He then, as is shewn by his own Gadag inscription and subsequent records, assumed the paramount epithets and titles of *samastabhuvanâśraya*, *śrîprithivîvallabha*, *Mahârâjâdhirâja*, *Paramêśvara*, and *Paramabhaṭṭâraka*, and the style of *Pratâpa-Chakravartin*, *Bhujabala-Chakravartin*, *Bhujabalapratâpa-Chakravartin*, *Hoysaḷa-Chakravartin*, *Bhujabalapratâpa-Hoysaḷa-Chakravartin*, and *Yâdava-Chakravartin*.³ And he established a reckoning of his own, running from the first year of his reign as paramount sovereign, which, the records shew, was the Virôdhikrit *samvatsara*, *Śaka-Samvat* 1114 current, = A. D. 1191-92.⁴ This position he maintained; and it was enjoyed also, though with a more limited extent of territory, by his successors. But he certainly did not acquire the whole of the Kuntala country, and the entire possessions that had belonged to the Western Châlukyas: the northern boundary of the Hoysaḷa kingdom, thus established, was evidently the Malparbhâ river, and the Krishṇa from the point where the Malparbhâ joins it: for, the records of Vîra-Baḷḷâḷa, in that neighbourhood, are found at Aṇṇigere in the Nawaḷgund tâluka, Narêgal in the Rôṇ tâluka, and Baḷagânûr, Gadag, Muḷgund, Mêyuṇḍi, and Nâgâvi, in the Gadag tâluka, of the Dhârwâr District, and nowhere on the north of the rivers mentioned;

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while, on the north of those rivers, inscriptions of the Dêvagiri-Yâdava kings Bhillama and Jaitugi I., the dates of which fall during the reign of Vîra-Baḷḷâḷa II., exist, or were extant some fifty years ago, at Bhairwâḍgi and Managôḷi in the Bâgewâḍi tâluka, and Hippargi in the Sindagi tâluka, of the Bijâpur District, and at