Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s2: 2. Śāntaras
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s2
- Language
- English
2. Śāntaras
c9.s2.1
The earliest mention of these kings is in the time of (the Chalukya) Vinayāditya, the end of the seventh century.¹ With the approval of the brother's son of the Chānta king Jayasangraha, who was lord of the city of Madhura encircled by the Kālindī, and of the Ugra-vamśa but connected with the Yadu-vamśa by marriage, a grant was then made by the wife of the Pāṇḍi yuvarāja; and it is said to be under the protection of “the three hundred of the children of the house of the Chāntas.” That this was the original form of the name appears also from Sk 283 of about 830, where too the king is said to be a Chānta. According to Nr 35 and 48, the Śāntara kingdom was founded by Jinadatta-Rāya, lord of the northern Madhura (Muttra), who was of the Ugra-vamśa. The Śāntaras are identified with Paṭṭi-Pomburcha,² the modern Hombucha or Humcha in Nagar tāluq, as their capital, which may previously have been in the possession of the Āluvas. The remote progenitor of the line was Rāha, from whom was descended Sahakāra, who became a cannibal. He was the father of Jinadatta, who escaped from him in disgust and came to the South, bringing an image of the Jain goddess Padmāvatī. She bestowed on him the power to transmute iron into gold, as exemplified in his horse's bit being turned into a golden bit on touching it with her image. Thus aided, he subdued the local chiefs around, and established his capital at Pomburcha (supposed to mean golden bit) and took the name Śāntara. His descendants the Śāntaras ruled over the Sāntalige Thousand, which corresponds generally with the present Tīrthahalli tāluq and neighbouring parts. Jinadatta conquered the country southwards as far as Kalasa (Mudgere tāluq), and northwards fortified Gōvardhangiri (Sāgar tāluq), which he named after the famous hill near Muttra in the north of India. At a later period the capital was removed to Kalasa and then to Kārakala (in South Kanara). The rulers eventually became Lingāyits and adopted the title of Bhairarasa-Woḍeyars, but they probably had Jain wives. They continued beyond the fall of Vijayanagar in the sixteenth century, and were finally absorbed into the Keladi State.
c9.s2.2
¹ Plates lately discovered in Tarikere tāluq (Mys. Arch. Rep. of 1908).
c9.s2.3
² Paṭṭi was apparently the name of the country in which Pomburchha was situated. The Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana is said (Sr 49, Bl 58) to have set up Paṭṭi Perumāla.
c9.s2.4
Among the early Śāntara kings are mentioned the brothers Śrīkēśi and Jayakēśi, and the son of the former, Raṇakēśi. We have the Chānta king Jagēśi in Sk 283 ruling the whole of Sāntalige under the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Nṛipatunga Amōghavarsha. He may therefore be placed in about 830. But a connected genealogy begins with Vikrama-Śāntara, who had the titles Kandukāchārya and Dāna-vinōda. He is credited with forming the Sāntalige Thousand into a separate kingdom, of which the boundaries were the Sula river on the south, Tavanasi on the west, and Bandige on the north. No eastern boundary is named (Nr 35). In about 920 a Śāntara king, whose name is not given, was defeated in a battle with the Nolambas, and slain and beheaded by the Ganga prince, the son of Pilduvipati or Pṛithuvipati (Gd 4). In 1062 and 1066 Vīra-Śāntara and his son Bhujabala-Śāntara are said (Nr 47, 59) to have freed the kingdom from those who had no claim to it. The reference may be to certain Chālukya princes, Bijjarasa and his brother Gōna-Rāja, who are stated (in Sa 109 *bis*) to be in full enjoyment of the Sāntalige-nāḍ in 1042. A glowing description is given of the fertility of the province, which was such that hunger was unknown there, and grass, firewood, and water were so abundant that many learned Brāhmans were induced to make it their abode. The Sāntalige-nāḍ, it says, had been ruled by many, but among them none was more famous than Gōna-Rāja. He established an agrahāra for the Brāhmans at Andhāsura (still so called, near Anantapur). Andhāsura is named among one of the first conquests of Jinadatta.
c9.s2.5
After this the Śāntaras completely recovered their power and influence. For of Nanni-Śāntara, the brother of Bhujabala, it is said (Nr 36) that he gained much greater distinction than even Būtuga-Permmāḍi (the Ganga king) had obtained, as the emperor came to meet him half way, and, giving him half the seat on his metal throne, placed the valiant Śāntara, whom he had protected, at his side. In the third generation from this we have Jagadēva, who must be the king that attacked the Hoysalas in Dōrasamudra and was beaten off by Ballāla I and Biṭṭi-Dēva in 1104, as his nephew Jayakēśi is given the date 1159 (Sa 159).
c9.s2.6
The centre of the State was later removed southwards to Kalasa (Mudgere tāluq), and from 1209 (Mg 65) to 1516 (Mg 31) it is called the Kalasa kingdom. Inscriptions at Kalasa give us the names of its rulers, two of whom, from 1246 to 1281, were queens, Jākala and Kālala-mahādēvīs; then Vīra-Pāṇḍya and Bhairarasa-Woḍeyar alternately recur. In 1292, at the time of the coronation of the Hoysala king Ballāla III, Kālala's son Pāṇḍya-Dēva successfully defended his country from an attack (Cm 36). But for the fourteenth century there are no inscriptions; it was the time of the Musalmān invasions from Delhi. In 1432 was erected the gigantic image of Gōmaṭa at Kārakala by Vīra-Pāṇḍya. From 1516 the State is called the Kalasa-Kārakala kingdom (Mg 41), and is described (Mg 62) as the kingdom below and above the Ghats. Kalasa is above the Ghats, in Mysore, and Kārakala below the Ghats, in South Kanara, both in about the same latitude. In 1530 the king is only said to be on the throne of Kārakala (Kp 47). The extension of the kingdom below the Ghats probably took place in the fifteenth century, when the kings had the title (Mg 42) ari-rāya-gaṇḍara-dāvani (cattle-rope to the champions over kings). The Vijayanagar king Krishna-Rāya soon after invaded the Tulu country and encamped near Mangalūr (Mg 41).¹ Bhairarasa fled, but made a vow that if the imperial army should retire and he return in peace to his country, he would repair the temple at Kalasa. What he wished for happened, and his right to the territory which he had occupied may then have been recognised. In 1542 and 1555 the crown is said (Mg 40, 60) to be that of Keravase, which may have been then the capital. It is near to Kārakala, on the east. The latest grant we have by the Bhairarasa-Woḍeyars is dated 1598 (Kp 50). But another colossal image of Gōmaṭa was erected at Yenūr (in South Kanara) by the brother of a king named Pāṇḍya in 1603 (see SB, Introd. 31, 32; *EI.* vii. 110, 112).
c9.s2.7
¹ The invasion is said to have been made by Bhujabala-Rāya. If this be taken as a name and not a title, it may refer to Krishna-Rāya’s elder brother Narasimha, who is called Busbalrao by Nuniz (see *Mys. Arch. Rep.* of 1908).