Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s14.33

c8.s14.33

Soraṭūr (near Gaḍag) over the formidable Sēuna army. Though he came with as many as 200,000 infantry (says Dg 25), armed with thunderbolts, and 12,000 cavalry, conspicuous with high saddles and jewelled breastplates, Ballāla-Rāya on his one elephant charged the Sēuna king's army, put them to flight, and slaughtered them all the way from Soraṭūr to the bank of the Krishṇavēṇi river. According to Bl 77 he moistened his sword with the blood of the Pāṇḍya king, whetted it on the grindstone the head of Bhillama, and sheathed it in the mouth of Jaitugi (Sēuna kings). He followed up this great victory by the capture of a number of forts north of the Mysore country, all these successes being accomplished before 1190 (Cn 179). By 1193 he had taken up his residence at Lokkigondi or Lakkundi in Dhārwār (Sk 105). His northern boundary was advanced to the Bhīmarathī (Tp 43). He was now sole ruler of the Seven-and-a-half Lakh country (Ci 64), and styled emperor of the South (Sb 140). During this period he lived at various places, but eventually established the royal residence (*rājadhāni*) at Hallavūr, also called Vijayasamudram (Hn 139, Cn 172) and Vijayapura (Cn 244). This place was the modern Hulloor, on the Tungabhadrā in the Rāṇi-Bennūr tāluq of Dhārwār. He was there in 1180 (Ci 73), but from 1200 (Hn 139) seems to have been living there almost continuously till 1211 (Ak 137). His senior queen Umā-Dēvī, mentioned in 1209 (Ak 40), appears in many records for a long time. His son Nārasimha was apparently associated with him in the government in 1205 (Cd 23). He was Yuvarāja in 1210, and had a sister named Sōvala-Dēvī, celebrated for her beauty and virtues (Cn 243).¹ At the same date the king, his crowned queen Padmala-mahādēvī, and their son Nārasimha are represented as all ruling together (Hk 13, 14). In 1218 the king was encamped at Niḍugal-durga (Hn 61). At length, being of full age, Ballāla established Nārasimha in the kingdom and went to heaven (Cn 211b). This was in 1220, as Nārasimha was crowned in that year (Cn 172b). Thus closed an energetic and distinguished reign of forty-seven years, during which the Western Chālukyas and the Kalachuryas came to an end, the Sēunas were driven back, and the Hoysalas remained as a dominant power in the South. Coincident with the king's death was the self-sacrifice of the prince Lakshma, recorded on a pillar by the side of the Hoysalēśvara temple at Halebīḍ (Bl 112). He was of royal blood, and perhaps a half-brother. He and a thousand warriors had vowed themselves, as Garuḍas, to live and die with the king, and at his death took their own lives as a sign of undying devotion to him.