The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s6.79

c8.s6.79

Kṛishṇa was succeeded by his brother Mahâdeva in 1182 Śaka or 1260 A.D. “He was a tempestuous wind that blew away the heap of cotton in the shape of the king of the Tailaṅga country, the prowess of his arm was like a thunderbolt that shattered the mountain in the shape of the pride of the swaggering Gûrjara, he destroyed the king of Konkan with ease, and reduced the arrogant sovereigns of Karṇâṭa and Lâṭa to mockery.”² The Gûrjara here mentioned must be Vîsaladeva noticed above, as Mahâdeva is represented in the Paiṭhan grant to have vanquished him;³ and the king of Karṇâṭa was probably a Hoysaḷa Yâdava of Haḷebîd. “King Mahâdeva never killed a woman, a child, or one who submitted to him; knowing this and being greatly afraid of him, the Andhras placed a woman on the throne; and the king of Mâlava also for the same reason installed a child in his position, and forthwith renouncing all his possessions practised false penance for a long time. He took away in battle the elephants and the five musical instruments of the ruler of Tailaṅgaṇa, but left the ruler Rudramâ as he refrained from killing a woman.”⁴ In a work on Poetics called Pratâparudrîya by Vidyânatha there occurs a specimen of a dramatic play in which Gaṇapati of the Kâkatîya dynasty, the same prince who is represented in the Paiṭhan grant to have been released from confinement by Jaitugi, is mentioned as having left his throne to his daughter, whom, however, he called his son and named Rudra, and who is spoken of as “a king” and not queen. She adopted Pratâparudra, the son of her daughter, as her heir. This, therefore, was the woman spoken of above as Rudramâ and as having been placed on the throne by the Andhras.⁵ “Soma, the lord of Konkan, though skilled in swimming in the sea, was together with his forces drowned in the rivers formed by the humour-trickling from the temples of Mahâdeva’s maddened elephants.” “Mahâdeva deprived Someśvara of his kingdom and his life.”⁶ We have seen that Kṛishṇa fought with the king of Konkan, but it appears he did not subjugate the country thoroughly. His successor Mahâdeva, however, again invaded it with an army consisting of a large number of elephants.