The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.263

c8.s3.263

Pulakeśi II. appears undoubtedly to have been the greatest prince of this dynasty; and his fame reached, even foreign countries. He is represented in an Arabic work to have sent an embassy to Chosroes II., king of Persia, who reigned from A.D. 591 to A.D. 628, in the thirty-sixth year of that prince's reign, and must have received one from him, either before or after.¹ During his reign the power of the Châlukyas was established over a very large extent of country. His younger brother Vishṇuvardhana, otherwise called Vishamasiddhi, seems to have for some time been appointed to rule over the Sâtârâ and Paṇḍharpur districts, since a copper-plate inscription of his found at Sâtârâ records the grant of a village situated on the southern bank of the Bhîmâ.² Vishṇuvardhana afterwards obtained the province of Veṅgi between the lower Kṛishṇa and the Godâvarî, where he founded another flourishing branch of the Châlukya dynasty. Pulakeśi's second brother Jayasiṁha must have been his brother's viceroy in the district about Nâsik. For, in a copper-plate grant found in the Igatpurî tâluka of the district, Nâgavardhana, the son of Jayasiṁha, assigns the village of Balegrâma, which has been identified with the modern Belgâm Tarhâḷâ about twelve miles to the north-east of Igatpurî, for the worship of the god Kâpâlikēśvara.³ The district in which the village was situated is in the grant called Goparâshṭra. Similarly, Pulakeśi's eldest son Chandrâditya ruled over the province which contained the Sâvantvâḍî district. In a copper-plate grant, Vijayabhaṭṭârikâ, the queen of Chandrâditya, who is styled Pṛithvîvallabha and Mahârâja or great king, assigns to certain Brâhmaṇs a field along with the adjoining Khajjana (modern Khâjaṇa) or marshy land in the village of Kocharem situated on the coast about seven miles to the north of Veṅgurlem. In another grant found at Nerur, she assigns a field in the fifth year of svarâjya or "one's own reign." Now the reign referred to by this expression must be her husband's, so spoken of to distinguish it from that of his brother Vikramâditya, the second son of Pulakeśi, who succeeded his father at the chief seat of government. Chandrâditya was a king, as the titles above given show, and it is proper that his crowned queen should speak of his reign as svarâjya or her reign. It is not necessary that charities such as those recorded in these grants should, like political offices or rights, be conferred by the reigning prince alone. The religious merit arising from them is sought by women as much as by men; and hence a woman like Vijayabhattârikâ might, during the lifetime of her husband, give a field. The fact of her doing so does not necessitate the supposition that she was a ruler or a regent when she made these grants, as has been thought. She was simply the crowned queen of a reigning monarch at that time. Another son of Pulakeśi named Âdityavarman seems to have ruled over the district near the confluence of the Krishnâ and the Tungabhadrâ,¹ as a copper-plate grant of his issued in the first year of his reign was found in the Karnul District. An undated grant of Pulakeśi found at Chiplun in Southern Konkan has recently been published. In it he sanctions the grant of the village of Âmravâtaka made by his maternal uncle Śrîvallabha Senânandarâja "the ornament" of the Sendraka race.² This appears to be a family of minor chiefs with whom the Châlukyas were connected. A similar grant was made by the next king at the request of the Sendraka chief Devaśakti.³ Inscriptions of Sendrakas are found in Gujarât also, where probably they went when the power of the Châlukyas was established in that province. The name Sendraka is probably preserved in the modern Marâthâ name Sinde.