A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.14

c14.14

Krishna III was succeeded by his half-brother Khottiga early in 967. In his reign, the Paramāra Harsha Siyaka invaded the Rāshtrakūta kingdom after defeating its forces on the banks of the Narmada and sacked the capital Mānyakheta (Malkhed) in 972-3. Once more Mārasimha II assisted his overlord in regaining the capital after the Paramāra forces withdrew. Khottiga died soon after the Paramāra raid, and was followed by his nephew Karka II (973). He was dethroned within a few months by the Chālukya, Taila II, who had been biding his time ever since he got Tardavādi for his fief from Krishna III. Later tradition hailed Taila as an incarnation of the Lord Śrī Krishna who fought 108 battles against the race of Ratta demons and captured 88 fortresses from them. Taila's success was the beginning of the Chālukyan empire of Kalyāni. Mārasimha II made a futile attempt to revive Rāshtrakūta power by setting up Indra IV, the issue of a son of Krishna III by a sister of Mārasimha himself. Mārasimha killed himself by starvation (*sallekhana*) in 975. His feudatory Pāncāla-deva who claimed sovereignty over the whole country south of the Krishna river was also killed by Taila in battle. Indra IV also performed *sallekhana* in 982.