The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s17.87

c8.s17.87

the decisive battle between the Yâdavas and the Hoysalas, which was fought in the neighbourhood of Soratûr and Lakkundi near Gadag,¹ and is to be placed at some time in the latter half of A. D. 1191. In addition to mentioning his acquisition of the sovereignty of Kalyâṇa, i. e. of the Western Châlukyas, and his successful opposition, at first, to the Hoysala king, Hêmâdri seems to say² that Bhillama captured a town called Srîvardhana from a king named Amsala,—that he vanquished in battle the king of Pratyandaka,—and that he put to death the ruler, named Vajrin, of Mangalavêshṭaka, which place Dr. Bhandarkar has identified, doubtless correctly, with Mangalavêdhêm, between the Sholâpur and Bijâpur Districts. And Hêmâdri also says that he founded the city of Dêvagiri in the Sêuṇa country,³ which is the modern Daulatâbâd, near Aurangâbâd, in the Nizâm's Dominions.⁴ The truth of this assertion about the founding of Dêvagiri is quite possible: but the earliest epigraphic reference to the city is in a record of A. D. 1210, in which it is mentioned as the capital at which Bhillama's grandson Singhaṇa was reigning; and the Muttagi inscription of December, A. D. 1189, says that Bhillama was then reigning at a place named Teneyalage.⁵ The same record incidentally describes him as a wrestler against the Mâlavas, and a goad to the elephants that were the Gurjaras. And a record of his grandson's time, belonging to A. D. 1222, claims that he defeated the Lâtas, as well as the Gurjaras and the Karṇâṭa king.⁶ The Muttagi inscription, of A. D. 1189, mentions, as officials of his, the Mahâpradhâna, Bahattara-niyôg-âdhipati, Paṭṭasahanâdhipati, and Sênâpati Peyiya-Sâhaṇi; and a certain Malleya-Sâhaṇi, who joined with the former in making the grant that is registered in the record. The Aṇṇigere inscription, of the same date, mentions, as a feudatory, the Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara Bâchaṇa or Bâchidêva, apparently also called Bhâskara, who was governing the Belvola district, of which, it says, Aṇṇigere was the royal city or chief town. And the Gadag inscription, of June, A. D. 1191, mentions a Mantrin or counsellor named Jaitasimha, at whose request Bhillama granted the village of Hiriya-Handigôl, in the Belvola three-hundred, to the temple of the god Trikûṭêśvara at Gadag: this person is probably the Jaitasimha, "the right arm, as it were, of Bhillama," by destroying whom, the Hoysala inscription of A. D. 1192 at Gadag says, Vîra-Ballâḷa II. acquired the lordship of the country of Kuntala.⁷ Another record of this period mentions the Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara Vîra-Vikramâditya II., of the Guṭṭa family, as ruling the Banavâsi province, towards the end of A. D. 1191, at his own capital of Guṭṭavol: this record does not refer to any paramount sovereign; and the Gutta prince may have acknowledged either Bhillama or his son Jaitugi I., or the Hoysala king Vîra-Ballâḷa II., as his master, or he may have been practically independent, pending the issue of the contest between the Yâdavas of Dêvagiri and the Hoysalas for the southern provinces.