The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c9.10

c9.10

Of the time of the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara⁸ Jayakēśin III., who also was styled Malavaru-mārin, we have two records,—a copper-plate grant at Halsi in the Khānāpur tāluka,⁹ and a stone inscription at Kittûr in the Sampgaon tâluka; the former gives a date in the month Chaitra, falling in March, A. D. 1199, of the Siddhârthin samvatsara (Saka-Samvat 1122 current), cited as his thirteenth year; the latter gives three dates in the month Âshâdha, falling in June, A.D. 1201, of the Durmati samvatsara (Saka-Samvat 1124 current), cited as his fifteenth year; and the two records shew that his first year was the Plavanga samvatsara, Kaliyuga-Samvat 4288 expired or 4289 current, = S.-S. 1110 current, = A.D. 1187-88.² Neither do these records, nor any others, furnish any historical information about him. But the Kittûr inscription contains an interesting account of a trial by ordeal. There being a dispute between Sivaśakti, the Âchârya or priest of the god Kallêśvaradêva of Kittûr, and Kalyâṇaśakti, the Mûlasthânadêva or "original god of the locality," regarding the ownership of a field, the two contending parties met before the Mahâpradhâna and Dandandyaka Íśvara, and agreed to put the matter to the test of the phuladivya or "ordeal by holding a red-hot arrow-head or spear-head." Accordingly, on Sunday the seventh day of the dark fortnight of the month Âshâdha, corresponding to the 24th June, A. D. 1201, they met again in the presence of the principal villagers of Dêgâmve, assembled at the temple of the god Mallikârjuna of that village. And then Kalyâṇaśakti, taking the sacred symbols on his head, declared that the field belonged to the Mûlasthânadêva; while Sivaśakti, holding a red-hot arrow-head or spear-head in his hand, made oath that the field belonged to the god Kallêśvara. On the following day, the principal villagers examined the hand of Sivaśakti, and, presumably finding it uninjured, decided that he had won his cause, and that the field in dispute belonged to the god Kallêśvara.³ It was probably during the time of Jayakêśin III. that the Kâdambas of Goa lost the Vêṇugrâma seventy, the country round Belgaum, which, as we have already seen,⁴ was in the possession of Kârtavîrya IV. of the family of the Rattas of Saundatti, in A.D. 1199. It is to the time of Jayakêśin III. that we must refer the gold coin dated in the Pingala samvatsara, which is, then, Saka-Samvat 1120 current, = A. D. 1199-1200; and that one also which is dated in the Pramôda samvatsara, and which therefore furnishes for him the date of S.-S. 1133 current, = A. D. 1210-11.⁵