The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c29.s2.14

Language: English

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The first historical name in the genealogy of the Kalacuris of Ḍāhala¹ is that of Kokkalla.² No record of his reign has so far been discovered; but the documents of his successors refer to a number of political incidents of his time. Thus the Bilhari stone-inscription of the time of Yuvarāja informs us that Kokkalladeva, ‘having conquered the whole earth, set up two unprecedented columns of his fame,—in the quarter of the pitcher-born (Agastya, *i.e.* the south) that well-known Kṛṣṇarāja, and in the quarter of Kuvera (*i.e.* in the north) Bhojadeva, a store of fortune.’³ The Benares grant of Karṇa informs us that the hand of Kokkalla ‘granted freedom from fear to Bhoja, Vallabharāja, the *Citrakūṭabhūpāla* Harṣa, and *rājā* Śaṅkaragaṇa.’⁴ The same inscription further tells us that Kokkalla married a lady named Naṭṭā or Naṭṭādevī (*Naṭṭākhyadevī*), who was born in the Candella family.⁵ Kielhorn rightly identified Kṛṣṇarāja and Vallabharāja of these two records with the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Kṛṣṇa-Vallabha of Malkheḍ (*c.* 878-912 A.D.), and Harṣa with the Candella Harṣa of Khajraho (*c.* 900 A.D.).⁶ Kṛṣṇa II married a daughter of Kokkalla,⁷ who is described in the Karda plates as the younger sister of Śaṅkuka.⁸ This Haihaya princess, we are told, ‘attained the rank of chief queen’ (*mahādevī*) and became the mother of Jagattuṅga, the father of the famous Indra III (*c.* 15-17 A.D.), who raided Ujjayinī and Kanauj in the reign of the Gurjara-Pratīhāra Mahīpāla I (*c.* 914-43 A.D.).

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Possibly Kokkalla may have assisted his son-in-law when the latter suffered disaster at the hands of the Eastern Calukya Vijayāditya III (*c.* 844-88 A.D.)¹ Naṭṭā or Naṭṭādevī probably belonged to the family of the Candella king Harṣa.² In view of the fact that Indra III, the great-grandson of Kokkalla was contemporary with Mahīpāla, the grandson of the Gurjara-Pratīhāra Bhoja I (*c.* 836-882 A.D.), Cunningham and Kielhorn were perhaps right in identifying the Bhojadeva of the Bilhari and Benares inscriptions with Bhoja I.³ But as one of the contemporaries of Kokkalla, the Candella Harṣadeva, was possibly a contemporary of Mahīpāla I, the younger brother of Bhoja II (*c.* 908-14 A.D.), it is just possible that the Gurjara contemporary of Kokkalla may have been Bhoja II, and not Bhoja I.⁴ Another identification of Kielhorn is also open to doubt as I have already pointed out, *viz.*, that the *rājā* Śaṅkaragaṇa to whom Kokkalla granted freedom from fear was probably one of the Kalacuri kings of that name who ruled in Gorakhpur, and not the prince of that name who was a son of Kokkalla.⁵ Cunningham assigned the reign of Kokkalla 'with certainty to the period between 860 and 900 A.D.'⁶ In view of the above discussion however it will probably be safer to allot to him the period 875-925 A.D. During these years he firmly laid the foundation of his family's sovereignty.

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He formed matrimonial alliances with the Rāṣṭrakūṭas and the Candellas, and kept up friendly relations with the Gurjara-Pratīhāras of Kanauj. After consolidating his position at home he seems to have raided a large area of northern and southern India. In the Amoda plates of the Haihaya Pṛthvīdeva of Tummāṇa (K. S. 831=1079 A.D.) Kokkalla is said to have plundered ‘the treasuries of the Karṇāṭa, Vāṅga, Gurjara, Koṅkaṇa, and Śākambharī kings and also of those born of the Turuṣka and Raghu families.’¹ Much of this is no doubt mere *praśasti*. As the word *Turuṣka* in the records of this period generally means the Turks represented by the ruling families of Ghazni and Ghūr, and as the earliest recorded date for a Turkish invasion of India cannot be placed before the middle of the 10th century, when Alp-tigīn established himself at Ghazni,² the chances of Kokkalla meeting a Turuṣka opponent were extremely remote. Without, therefore, accepting literally all that the poet claims for him, we can believe that he really raided a wide area around his dominions. There is, however, no means to determine the exact limits of his kingdom. In some records of the Tummāṇa Haihayas his dominions seem to be designated as *Tritaśaurya*.³ This place has not yet been identified. But as one of his sons is said to have ascended the ancestral throne at Tripurī (6 miles from Jubbulpore, in the Central Provinces), and another appears to have fixed his residence at Tummāṇa (mod.

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Tumāna, 45 miles north of Ratnapur in the Central Provinces), we may infer that Kokkalla’s power extended from the Bhanrer to the Maikal range, or roughly over the region now known as the Jubbulpore Division.