The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c29.s2.14.1

v2.c29.s2.14.1

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.).