Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s4: 4. Kongālvas
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s4
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4. Kongālvas
c9.s4.1
The Kongālvas ruled a kingdom consisting of the Arkalgūd tāluq in the south of the Hassan District of Mysore and the adjoining Yēlusāvira country in the north of Coorg. It was more or less the Kongal-nāḍ Eight Thousand, of which the Ganga prince Ereyappa had been governor in about 880 (Hs 92). But the Kongālva State now in question was a creation of the Chōlas in about 1004, as recorded in Cg 46. It is there said that the great Chōla king Rājakēsarivarmma-Permmānaḍigal (Rājarāja), on hearing how Panchava-mahārāya had fought without ceasing in the battle of Panasoge (Yedatore tāluq) and annihilated the enemy (the Changālvas), resolved to bestow on him a crown and give him a nāḍ. Accordingly, when he appeared before the king, the latter bound on him a crown with the title Kshatriya-śikhāmani Kongālva, and gave him Mālavvi (now Mālambi, in Coorg). Of this Panchava-mahārāya we have an inscription at Balmuri (Sr 140), dated in 1012, in which he is described as a bee at the lotus feet of Rājarāja, and is said to have been invested by him with the rank of mahā-daṇḍanāyaka for Bengi-maṇḍala (the Eastern Chālukya territory) and Ganga-maṇḍala (the Ganga territory in Mysore). He then claims to have led an expedition throughout the western coast region, in the course of which he seized Tuluva (South Kanara), and Konkana (North Kanara), held Malaya (Malabar), and put to flight Chēramma (the king of Cochin or Travancore), after which he pushed aside Teluga and Raṭṭiga (countries to the north of Mysore), and desired to have even the little Belvola country (in Dharwar and Belgaum Districts).
c9.s4.2
Kongālva kings with Chōla prenomens continue down to 1115 (Cg 33), and disappear on the expulsion of the Chōlas by the Hoysalas at that time. They were Jains, and the titles ascribed (Ag 99) to Adaṭarāditya, who ruled from 1066 to 1100, are: entitled to the *pancha-mahā-śabda*, mahā-maṇḍalēśvara, chief lord of the city of Oreyūr (the early Chōla capital near Trichinopoly, now called Warriore), sun upon the eastern mountain — the Chōla-kula — with twisted top-knot, crest-jewel of the Sūryya-vamśa (or Solar race). Adaṭarāditya had a learned minister named Nakulāryya, who boasts of being able to write in four languages (Ag 99). Which these were is unfortunately not mentioned.
c9.s4.3
Two occasions are referred to, in Mj 43 and Ag 76, on which the Kongālvas came into collision with the Hoysalas. In the former, the Kongālva king attacked Nṛipa-Kāma-Poysala in 1022, when the latter was apparently saved by his general Jōgayya. In the latter, Kongālva claims to have gained a victory at Manni over the base (*muṇḍa*) Poysala in 1026. As no farther advance of the Chōla arms is recorded, it is evident that the Hoysalas checked the Chōla career of conquest in Mysore in this direction.
c9.s4.4
The Kongālva name survived till 1390 (Cg 39), when some Jain priests repaired the basadis at Mullūr (in Coorg) and a Kongālva-Suguṇi-Dēvī made grants for them, which are still continued.