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Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s5: 5. Punnāḍ Rājās

Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s5

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5. Punnāḍ Rājās

c9.s5.1

Punnāḍ was a very ancient kingdom, situated in the south of Mysore. It is the Punnāṭa mentioned in connection with the Jain migration from the North in the third century B.C. led by Bhadrabāhu, who at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa (Hassan District), in anticipation of his death, directed the pilgrims to go on to Punnāṭa (as stated by Hariṣēna in the *Brihatkāthakōśa*, dated in 931¹). It is also mentioned in the second century by Ptolemy as Pounnata, where (he says) is beryl. Its name occurs again in the fifth century in connection with the Ganga king Avinīta (Cg 1). It was a Six Thousand province, and had as its capital Kitthipura, now identified (Hg 56) with Kittūr on the Kabbani river in the Heggaḍadēvankōte tāluq. Avinīta's son Durvvinīta, who reigned from 482 to 517, married the daughter of Skandavarmma, the Rāja of Punnāḍ, who chose him for herself, although 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 was after this annexed to the Ganga kingdom (Tm 23), but the name continues to appear for some time.

c9.s5.2

¹ See above, p. 10.

c9.s5.3

Only one inscription has been discovered of the Punnāṭa Rājas (*IA*. xii. 13; xviii. 366). Its date is not certain, but it gives the following succession of kings: Rāṣṭravarmma; his son Nāgadatta; his son Bhujaga, who married the daughter of Singavarmma; their son Skandavarmma; and his son the Punnāṭa-Rāja Ravidatta. The latter makes a grant of villages to Brāhmans, from his victorious camp at Kitthipura.

c9.s5.4

There was also a small district called the Punnāḍ Seventy in the Devanhalli tāluq in the tenth century (Dv 41, 43), but whether it had any connection with the other is not apparent.

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