The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.146

v3.c29.146

Ballāla I was succeeded by his younger brother Bitti-dēva (Vishnu-dēva), better known by his later title Vishnuvardhana. He was the founder of Hoysala greatness, and his titles are carried down in later inscriptions not only to his successors generally, some of them posthumously to his predecessors. His name is found mentioned for the first time in a record of 1100, associated with that of his brother Ballāla I. Records of Ballāla I do not go beyond 1106, at which date or soon after Vishnu must have ascended the throne. His real exploits however begin ten years later, according to the inscriptions, making it possible that Ballāla continued his reign even for some time after 1106. Notwithstanding all previous claims to conquest, Vishnu's signal achievements consist of the conquest of Gangavādi and the partial conquest of Nolambavādi, which together constitute his claim to greatness, as among one of the greatest of Vikramāditya's *Mahāmandalēsvaras*. A number of generals claim the conquest of Gangavādi, and inscriptions generally make a great deal of these conquests. Vishnu even assumes two special titles from this conquest namely, ‘Vīra-Ganga’ and ‘Talakādu-gonda’ (taker of Talakād). This conquest of Gangavādi took place before 1117. Vishnu took the province after overthrowing the Chola generals Adiyama, Dāmōdara and Narasimhavarma. This conquest was apparently real, as Vishnu was able to undertake a tour through the territories of Gangavādi in the course of which at the Vijayāditya-mangala (mod. Betmangala) his niece, the daughter of his brother Udayāditya, died. At about the same time he carried on a successful expedition against Nolambavādi and won a victory over the Pāndya ruler of the country at Dumme, on the borderland between Shimoga and Chittal-droog districts. By the year 1117, therefore, Vishnu had become master of Gangavādi 96,000, and had made himself felt in Nolambavādi also. Inscriptions of Vishnu mark the year as an epoch in the history of the Hoysala power. A number of inscriptions, chiefly the one at Bēlūr, inscribed on the occasion of the dedication of the temple after Vishnu had adopted the teachings of Rāmānuja, the Vaishnava apostle, give an elaborate history of his conquests and sum up his achievements previous to the date by giving his territory the boundaries of the lower Ghāt of Nangali on the east, Kongu, Chēram and Ānaimalai in the south, Bārakanūr and other Ghāts of Konkana on the west, and Sāvimalai in the north. Of these Nangali is the pass through the Eastern Ghāts six miles east of Mulbagal on the Madras-Bangalore road. Kongu and Chēram are the well-known divisions in the middle across to the west coast, and Ānaimalai is a hill in the Coimbatore district belonging to the Western Ghāts. Bārakanūr is the Bārkālūr Ghāt in the Western Ghāts. So far the boundary gives him the boundary of the modern State of Mysore on three sides. The northern boundary of Sāvimalai has not yet been satisfactorily identified. If it is a place on the Krishna in its upper reaches it can only be regarded as an anticipation of the conquests of his grandson. A record of the year 1118 describes him as in residence at Talakād, thus indicating full possession of the Gangavādi province by him. He is said in the year 1121 to be again at his headquarters at Dvārasamudra, and it was in this year that Kētamalla, probably a merchant, built the magnificent temple dedicated to Siva under the name Vishnuvardhana-Hoysalēsvara at Halēbīd. In the same year he made a grant, with his queen-consort and the council of five ministers, to the temple of Jayangondēsvara, obviously a Siva temple of Chola foundation.