The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.165

Language: English

v3.c29.165.1

The accession of Vīra Ballāla marks a point in South Indian History, when India south of the Vindhyas assumes, as it were, a new political division and stands divided into four important kingdoms, two of which were situated in the Deccan and the other two in the Peninsula. Of these four kingdoms three had formed part of the Chālukya kingdom, the northernmost being the kingdom of the Yādavas, with their capital at Deogīr. The Yādavas and the Hoysalas contributed most to the dismemberment of the Chālukya empire, and when dismemberment came benefited most by occupying compact blocks of territory. The river Krishna may roughly be regarded as the frontier between the two, that being the frontier for which the wars of the previous centuries were waged, whatever were the dynasties actually ruling to the north and south of it. The Yādava kingdom occupied the whole of the western half of the Deccan, and its eastern frontier may be marked by a line drawn roughly from somewhere east of Bījāpur through Gulbarga, Yādgīr, Kalyāni, north-east to Mahūr proceeding further north-eastwards ; all the territory west of it belonged to the Yādavas of Deogīr. The territory on the eastern side extending to the lower course of the river Krishna belonged to the Kākatīyas, who as feudatories of the later Chālukyas had their territory in the Nizām’s dominions with a capital at Anamkonda, which later on they transferred to their own fortified citadel of Warangal.

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Therefrom the dynasty extended its territory chiefly at the expense of the waning power of the Eastern Chālukyas. During the long reign of Ganapati, perhaps the greatest among this dynasty, the southern frontier was settled for them at the lower course of the river Krishna by the reduction of the Telugu Choda chiefs of Nellore by Jatāvarman Sundara Pāndya I. His daughter Rudrama or Rudrāmba, who succeeded, was well able to maintain the territory bequeathed to her and hand it over in fullness of time to her grandson Pratāparudra II, who came to the throne about the same time as Vīra Ballāla III. With the advent of Jatāvarman Sundara Pāndya the Chola territory had been reduced to subordination to him. With the death of the Hoysala Sōmēsvara, who had practically reduced the Cholas to a position of complete insignificance and held their territory under his own authority, so that under his son Vīra Rāmanātha what had been the Chola kingdom was generally regarded as the territory of the Hoysala Rāmanātha, the Hoysala hold was gradually slackening while yet Vīra Rāmanātha was alive, chiefly from the pressure of the Pāṇḍyas from the south. When the last great Pāṇḍya, Maravarman Kulaśēkhara, ascended the throne in 1268 he seems to have gradually increased the pressure so much that he is often referred to as being in his capital Jayankonda-Sōlapuram, which is only about six miles from the regular Chola capital Gangaikonda-Sōlapuram.

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Under this great ruler, whose reign lasted till 1311, the Chola territory had definitely become Pāṇḍyan, and the Telugu Chodas of Nellore, with their territory taking in the central block of the Nellore district and the Ceded Districts adjoining, constituted a buffer state between the Kākatīyas in the north and the Pāṇḍyas in the south along the whole length of the Coromandel coast. The Hoysala frontier and the Pāṇḍya frontier ran together along the whole length of it. Beginning from somewhere near Adonī, not far from the banks of the Krishna, this frontier ran close to the foothills of the Eastern Ghāts along the eastern frontiers of the present day Mysore territory, and proceeding westwards as far as the Nilgiris through the two Kongus, north and south. The Hoysalas as the central power remained in touch with the remaining three powers, and had to maintain their frontier against all three. While therefore they have had occasionally to go to war against their northern neighbours, more often against the Yādavas than against the Kākatīyas, they had to be considerably more active and constantly vigilant along the total length of their southern and eastern frontier. The position of these four powers was such and their interests so divided that when the first Muhammadan invasions deluged the territory of the Yādavas of Deogīr there was no common motive or interest among the four powers to adopt a concerted policy, or take common action.