Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s14.41

c8.s14.41

The latter was crowned on the 31st of January 1292 (Cn 36). In 1301 he appears issuing his orders to the temple priests throughout the districts in Kolar resumed from Rāmanātha's kingdom (Bn 51, etc.). In 1305 we find him marching against the Sēuna king, who was desirous of capturing him (Sa 156). In this reign began the Musalmān invasions from Delhi which brought the Hoysala empire to an end. The earliest notice of these is in 1310, when the Turukas are said to have marched against Dōrasamudra (Hn 51, 52). This was the first invasion, under Kāfūr, the general of Alā-ud-dīn of the Khilji or second Pathān dynasty. The king was defeated and taken prisoner; Dōrasamudra was sacked, and the enemy returned to Delhi literally laden with gold. The king's son, carried off as a hostage, was restored in 1313 (Sh 68). By 1316 the capital was rebuilt (Md 100). But a later expedition in 1326, sent by Muhammad III, of the house of Tughlak, completely demolished the city. The king seems to have retired to Toṇḍanūr (Tonnūr near Seringapatam), but eventually went to live at Unnāmale (Tiruvannāmalai or Trinomalee in South Arcot). He was there in 1328 (DB 14) and frequently afterwards up to 1342 (Bn 21). But in 1329 he had a residence in Mysore, called by various names—Virūpākshapura (Ht 43), Hosavīḍu, Hosanāḍ, Hosadurga, and so on. It is uncertain what place this was. But in 1340 he performed an anointing to the kingdom (Bn 111), which must have been that of his son, who is called (Cm 105) Vīra-Virūpāksha-Ballāla-Dēva. The ceremony therefore probably took place at Virūpākshapura. In 1341 he is said to have erected a pillar of victory at Sētu (Mr 82). At length he fell fighting against the Turukas in a battle at Beribi on the 8th of September 1342 (Kd 75). His son was wearing the crown in 1343 (Cm 105), but the Hoysala power was at an end. The latest date that has been found in inscriptions for Ballāla is 1346 (Bn 120).