Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s5.23

c8.s5.23

Durvvinīta, his son, thus succeeded him in 482. His tutor is described (Tm 23) as “the divine who was the author of the *Śabdāvatāra*,” that is, the celebrated Jain grammarian Pūjyapāda, and he is said (Mi 110) to have walked according to the example of his guru. He thereby acquired a taste for literature, and wrote a commentary on fifteen sargas of the *Kirātārjunīya*, a Sanskrit poem by Bhāravi. He is also no doubt the Durvvinīta named in Nṛipatunga’s *Kavirājamārgga* as one of the distinguished early Kannaḍa authors. He married the daughter of Skandavarmma, the Rāja of Punnāḍ, who, as a royal princess, claimed the privilege of *svayamvara* by choosing him for herself, though from her birth she had been intended by her father, on the advice of his own guru, for the son of another (DB 68). Punnāḍ is of course the Punnāṭa in the south-west of Mysore to which reference has been made before, in connection with the Jain migration under Bhadrabāhu. Many inscriptions state that Durvvinīta waged sanguinary wars for the possession of Andari, Ālattūr (in Coimbatore District), Porulare (? in Chingleput District), Pennagaram (in Salem District), and other places. He thus considerably extended the limits of the kingdom to the east and south. He seems also to have annexed the whole of Pānnāḍ and Punnāḍ (Tm 23). Another inscription (Nr 35) says that he captured Kāḍuveṭṭi on the field of battle, and placed his own daughter's son on the throne in Jayasimha's hereditary kingdom (that of the Pallavas). And this is confirmed by the interesting old Siragunda stone inscription (Cm 50), in which he is called Nirvvinīta. Nr 35 indulges in puns on the Vinīta names, and says that these kings were like avi-nītar (riders on the ram, that is, Agni or fire) to the forest the army of avinīta (wicked) hostile kings, and a-vinītar (unbending) in successful and severe battles,—such being their reputation in avanī (the world). The Vinītēśvara temple mentioned in Ch 63 may have been a memorial of them. The first grant we have of this king's time is Bn 141, of his 3rd year, 485, recording a donation to a Brāhman named Vasaśarmma, but the details are missing. Then, after those relating to him above referred to, we have DB 68, of his 35th year, 517, making a grant at Bempūr (Bēgūr in the Bangalore tāluq) to a Brāhman named Dēvaśarmma, who was called Mahadēva. This inscription attributes to the king, as in the case of his father, the maintenance of the castes and religious orders which prevailed in the South. He appears to have favoured the religion of Vishnu. How much longer he ruled we do not know.