The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s7.2

c8.s7.2

THREE distinct families of chiefs or minor princes with the name of Śilāra or Śilāhāra ruled over different parts of the country. They all traced their origin to Jīmūtavāhana the son of Jīmūtaketu, who was the king of a certain class of demigods called Vidyādharas, and who saved the life of a serpent named Śaṅkhachūḍa by offering himself as a victim to Garuḍa in his place.¹ One of the titles borne by the princes of all the three families was *Tagarapuravaradhīśvara* or "lords of Tagara, the best of cities," which fact has a historical significance. We have seen that Kāmvadeva, the donor of the Rājāpur grant who was a Chālukya, called himself *Kalyāṇapuravaradhīśvara*, and one of the titles of the later Kadambas after they had been reduced to vassalage and of the rulers of Goa was *Banavāsīpuravaradhīśvara*. As these titles signify that the bearers of them belonged to the families that once held supreme power at Kalyāṇa and Banavāsī, so does *Tagarapuravaradhīśvara* show that the Śilāhāras who bore the title belonged to a family that once possessed supreme sovereignty and reigned at Tagara. In one Śilāhāra grant it is expressly stated that "the race known by the name of Śilāhāra was that of the kings who were masters of Tagara."² As mentioned in a former section, Tagara was a famous town in the early centuries of the Christian era and retained its importance till a very late period, but unfortunately the town has not yet been identified; nor have we found any trace of the Śilāhāra kingdom with Tagara as its capital. Perhaps it existed between the close of the Andhra-bhṛtya period and the foundation of the Chālukya power.