The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c29.2.2

v2.c29.2.2

This tradition about Mandhata was recently confirmed by the discovery of an inscription at Yewur which introduces us to the *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* Revarasa of the Ahihaya race with the title *Māhiṣmatī-puravareśvara*.¹ It is again interesting to note that the earliest inscriptions of the Kalacuris so far discovered reveal the Avanti-Mandhata region as the stronghold of the tribe. Thus the Abhona plates of the Kalacuri Śaṅkaragaṇa, the son of Kṛṣṇarāja, dated in (K.) S. 347 (A. D. 595), were issued from Ujjayinī.² As the power of the Kalacuris extended as far south as Nasik district, they soon came into conflict with the rising Cālukya power. The Cālukya king Maṅgaleśa claims to have defeated in the course of an expedition to the north the Kalacuri king Buddha. This Buddha has been rightly identified as the son of Śaṅkaragaṇa; and it has been calculated that these conflicts took place some time between 597-98 and 602 A. D.³ In their records the Kalacuris use an era which was founded in 248-49 A. D,⁴ probably by the Ābhīras⁵ and first used in the grants of the Traikūṭaka *Mahārāja* Dahrasena. But this does not prove that the Ābhīras and the Traikūṭakas were identical with the Kalacuris. As the Abhona and the Sarsavni grants⁶ show that the Kalacuris' territory was contiguous to the area where this era had its origin, it is not unlikely that they may have adopted it to date their official records.