Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s3.1

c8.s3.1

The Mahāvalis held the country east from the Pālār river and north into the Madras districts. According to one inscription (IA. xiii. 6) their territory lay to the west of the Āndhra or Telugu country, and Mb 157 describes them as ruling a Seven-and-a-half Lakh country, having twelve thousand villages, in the Āndhra-maṇḍala. This seems to have been known as the Vaḍugavaḷi Twelve Thousand (SII. iii. 90), in Sanskrit the Āndhrāt-pathaḥ (EI. iii. 76). They claim descent from Mahāvali or Mahā Bali (Bali the Great) and his son Bāṇa, whence they are also called Bāṇas. They may have been connected with Mahābalipura, known as the Seven Pagodas, on the coast south of Madras. Their flag displayed a black buck, and their crest was a bull (Mb 126).