The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c17.s1.70

v1.c17.s1.70

The records mentioned above were issued from places on the bank of the Mahanadi, which if the identifications proposed are accepted, were all located in the Sonpur State. The villages granted by these inscriptions were mostly included in Kosala or Dakṣiṇa-Kosala, and, so far as they have been identified seems to have been all situated in the States of Patna and Sonpur. On this evidence therefore we are led to conclude that the power of Mahāśivagupta I Yayāti continued to centre round the same region over which his father had held sway.¹ But there is some evidence to show that Yayāti was a more powerful sovereign than his father, and he appears to have had some amount of military success. Unlike his father's grants, his inscriptions in their introductory parts sometimes contain references to conflicts with his neighbours. Thus one of his Sonpur grants (i) seem to tell us that he 'conquered the lords of Karṇāṭa, Lāṭa, Gurjara (?) and Drāviḍa; denuded Kāñci of its glory, became the elected (*svayambara*) lord of Kaliṅga, Koṅgada, Utkala and Kośala; was cooled by the wind of the famous countries of Gauḍa and Rāḍha, became as it were the full-moon in the pure sky of Vaṅga and became the lord of Tri-Kaliṅga after having conquered it with his own hands.' A Patna grant (No. 6) adds the information that he defeated Ajapāla in battle and captured 32 big elephants. It is difficult to determine how far these statements were founded on fact. As his grants record his 28th year, he may have flourished during the period *c.* 1010-1050 A.D. He was thus a contemporary of Rajendra Coḷa, and must have witnessed the latter's northern expedition, which was undertaken some time between 1021 and 1025 A.D. As the Tirumalai rock inscription of the latter refers to *Kosalai-nāḍu* as one of the countries through which the Coḷa conqueror passed on his way to the north but significantly enough, fails to record any military success of Rajendra Coḷa there,¹ we may possibly be allowed to conclude that Yayāti met with some amount of success against the Drāviḍa king. But at present it would be risky to accept the theory of Mr. B. C. Mazumdar that Yayāti personally went to Bengal to help its king in repelling the attacks from ‘Gurjara, Lāṭa, Karṇāṭa, and Kāñcī invaders.’² Without accepting all that the *praśastikāra* claimed we may perhaps be right in concluding that Yayāti was an ambitious ruler who won military fame by raiding the territories of his neighbours. But the fact that he was a contemporary of the powerful Tripurī Kalacuri kings Gāṅgeyadeva and Lakṣmī Karṇa, the Pāla king Mahīpāla and the Coḷa Rajendra shows that his success must have been limited.