The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c33: Chapter XV. The Kingdoms of the Deccan
The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c33
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Chapter XV. The Kingdoms of the Deccan
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THE term Deccan, a convenient and familiar corruption of the Sanskrit word (*dakshina*) meaning the South, may be, and sometimes is, extended so as to cover the whole of India south of the Narmadā ; but is usually understood as designating a more limited territory, in which Malabar and the Tamil countries of the extreme south are not included. Thus limited, the term connotes the whole region occupied by the Telugu-speaking populations, as well as Mahārāshtra, or the Marāthā country. Certain dynasties of Mysore, which had more concern with the Deccan than with the extreme south, are noticed in this chapter more conveniently than they could be in connexion with the Tamil powers. With reference to modern political divisions, the greater part of the Deccan in the restricted sense is occupied by the territories of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
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Physically, the country is for the most part a dry, hilly table-land, traversed by two great rivers, the Godāvarī¹ and the Krishnā (Kistna), the latter of which receives on the south an important affluent, the Tungabhadrā.
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¹ The Godāvarī is also called Gautamī (*Madras, Epigraphy*, Aug. 10, 1917, p. 121).
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In this region the dominant power for four centuries and a half, up to about A. D. 225, was the Āndhra, the history of which has been discussed in Chapter VIII of this work.
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Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, writing in 1896, observed that for some three centuries after the extinction of the Āndhra dynasty ‘we have no specific information about the dynasties that ruled over the country’. Although since that date some additional knowledge has been acquired concerning the rulers of the southern part of the table-land, especially the Kadambas,² who governed Kanara and the northern districts of Mysore between the third and sixth centuries, the particulars gleaned by archaeologists are not of sufficient general interest to justify detailed notice of them in this work. Mahārāshtra, the western portion of the territory, seems to have been under the rule of princes belonging to the Rāshtrakūta or Ratta clan, which, long afterwards, in the middle of the eighth century, became the ruling power in the Deccan for a time.
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² The Kadamba dynasty, of Brahman descent, was displaced by the Chalukyas about the middle of the sixth century. The Sangoli plates of Harivarman Kadamba are dated in a year equivalent either to A. D. 526 or 545; most probably the latter, as Harivarman came to the throne in 538 and may have been the last Kadamba (*Ep. Ind.*, xiv (Oct. 1917), p. 166). Copper-plates of King Ravivarman and of Krishṇavarman II have been discovered in North Kanara (*Prog. Rep. A. S. W. C.*, 1918, p. 35). For the Kadambas, see Rice, *Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions*, London, Constable & Co., 1909.
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It is still true to say that practically the political history of the Deccan begins in the middle of the sixth century with the rise of the Chalukya dynasty. The Chalukyas claimed to be a race of Rājpūts from the north, who imposed their rule upon the Dravidian inhabitants of the Deccan table-land, which had already been largely influenced by the Aryan ideas of the northerners before the appearance of the Chalukyas on the scene.¹ The statements in the later Chalukya inscriptions, which profess to trace back the clan to its origin in Ajodhya, and provide the royal family with an orthodox mythological pedigree, are of no historical value. There is some reason for believing that the Chalukyas or Solankīs were connected with the Chāpas, and so with the foreign Gurjara tribe of which the Chāpas were a branch, and it seems to be probable that they emigrated from Rājputāna to the Deccan.²
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¹ Except as otherwise stated, this chapter is based upon the second editions of Fleet's 'Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts' and R. G. Bhandarkar's 'Early History of the Dekkan', in *Bombay Gazetteer* (1896), vol. i, part ii. Full references to original documents will be found in both works. Kielhorn's 'Supplement to the List of Inscriptions of Southern India' (*Ep. Ind.*, vol. viii, App. ii) gives the most trustworthy dynastic lists and the results of epigraphic studies, up to Jan. 1906. The names of Pulakēśin and many other persons mentioned have numerous variants or equivalents. The spelling Pulakēśin is now generally approved. The name occurs in a Chāpa genealogy, which is the only instance known to Fleet of its occurrence outside the Chalukya family. This fact supports Jackson's view that the Solankīs or Chalukyas were connected with the Gurjaras, of whom the Chāpas were a branch (*Bomb. Gaz.* (1896), vol. i, part i, pp. 127 note 2, 138, 463 note 2, 467). See *ante*, pp. 339, 340.
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² D. R. Bhandarkar (*Ind. Ant.*, xl) suggests that their original habitat in India was Ahichchatra, the capital of the Sapādalaksha country in the Siwālik mountains (‘The Life and Times of Chalukya Vikramāditya,’ by A. V. Venkatarama Aiyar, *Ind. Ant.*, xlviii (1919), pp. 112 ff.).
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The dynasty was founded by a chieftain named Pulakēsin I, who made himself master of the town of Vātāpi, the modern Bādāmi in the Bijāpur District, about A. D. 550, and established a principality of modest dimensions. He aimed, however, at more extended power, and is said to have asserted his claim to a paramount position by celebrating an *aśvamedha*, or horse-sacrifice.
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His sons, Kīrtivarman and Mangalesa, extended the possessions of the family both eastward and westward. The clans more or less completely subjugated by the former include the Mauryas of the Konkan—the strip of coast between the Western Ghāts and the sea—who may have been descended from the ancient imperial Maurya dynasty.
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The succession to Mangalēsa was disputed between his son and one of the sons of Kīrtivarman. The latter, having overcome his rival, ascended the throne of Vātāpi as Pulakēsin II in A. D. 608, and was formally crowned in the following year. For the space of twenty years or more this able prince devoted himself to a career of aggression directed against all the neighbouring states. On the west and north, the kings of Lāṭa, or Southern Gujarāt; Gurjara, or Northern Gujarāt and Rājputāna; Mālwa, and the Mauryas of the Konkan felt the weight of Pulakēsin's arm.
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In the east he made himself master of Vengī, between the Krishnā and Godāvarī, and established his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana there as viceroy in A. D. 611, with his capital at the stronghold of Pishtapura, now Pithāpuram in the Godāvarī District.¹ A few years later, about A. D. 615, this prince set up as an independent sovereign, and founded the line of the Eastern Chalukyas,² which lasted until A. D. 1070, when it was absorbed into the Chola dynasty.
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¹ *Report on Epigraphy*, Madras G. O. No. 574, July 17, 1908. For the date (611) see ‘The Kopparam Plates of Pulakēśin II’, by K. V. Lakshmanrao in *Annals, Bhandarkar Institute*, vol. iv, part i, Oct. 1922.
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² A grant of Jayasimha I, Sarvasiddhi (A. D. 633–63), refers to places in Guntūr District (*Epigraphy*, Madras, Aug. 10, 1917).
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All the southern kingdoms, the Chola, Pāndya, and Kerala, as well as the Pallava, were forced into conflict with the ambitious king of Vātāpi, who undoubtedly was the most powerful monarch to the south of the Narmadā in A. D. 630.
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About ten years before that date he had successfully repelled the attack on his dominions led in person by Harsha, the lord paramount of the north, who aspired to the sovereignty of all India; but was foiled by the watchfulness and military skill of Pulakēsin, by whom the line of the Narmadā as the frontier between the southern and northern empires was successfully maintained.¹
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¹ *Ante*, p. 353.
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The fame of the king of the Deccan spread beyond the limits of India, and reached the ears of Khusrū II, king of Persia, who, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, A. D. 625–6, received a complimentary embassy from Pulakēsin.² The courtesy was reciprocated by a return embassy sent from Persia, which was received with due honour at the Indian court. A large fresco painting in Cave No. 1 at Ajaṇṭā, although unhappily mutilated, is still easily recognizable as a vivid representation of the ceremonial attending the presentation of their credentials by the Persian envoys.
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² The authority is the Muhammadan historian Tabari, as translated and quoted in Mr. Fergusson's paper in *J. R. A. S.*, April 1879, and Burgess's 'Notes on the Bauddha Rock Temples of Ajaṇṭā' (*Arch. S. W. I.*, No. 9, Bombay, 1897), pp. 90–2. For the frescoes, see Plate IV of that work; Plates II, III, IV in *J. A. S. B.*, part i, vol. lxvii (1878); the India Office atlas of the Ajaṇṭā paintings; and *Hist. of Fine Art in India and Ceylon*, p. 290, fig. 210.
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This picture, in addition to its interest as a contemporary record of unusual political relations between India and Persia, is of the highest value as a landmark in the history of art. It not only fixes the date of some of the most important paintings at Ajaṇṭā, and so establishes a standard by which the date of others can be judged; but also suggests the possibility that the Ajaṇṭā school of pictorial art may have been derived directly from Persia, and ultimately from Greece.³
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³ See *History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon*, p. 388. On date of the Ajaṇṭā Caves see V. A. Smith's essay 'The Vākāṭaka Dynasty of Berar' (*J. R. A. S.*, April, 1914).
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The wonderful caves in the Ajaṇṭā valley were duly admired by Hiuen Tsang, who visited the court of Pulakēsin II in the year A. D. 641. The king's head-quarters at that time were not at Vātāpi, but at another city, which has been identified for good reasons with Nāsik. The pilgrim was profoundly impressed by the military power of Pulakēsin, who was obeyed by his numerous subjects with 'perfect submission'.
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But his prosperity was not destined to last much longer. In A. D. 642, the long-continued war, which, since the year 609, had been generally disastrous to the Pallavas of Kāñchī, took a new turn, and brought ruin and death upon Pulakēsin. The Pallava king, Narasimhavarman, captured and plundered his capital, and presumably put him to death. Then for thirteen years the Chalukya power, which Pulakēsin had laboured so hard to exalt, remained in abeyance; while the Pallavas dominated Southern India.
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In A. D. 655, Vikramāditya I, a son of Pulakēsin, restored the fallen fortunes of his family, inflicting in A. D. 674 a severe defeat upon the Pallavas, whose strongly fortified capital, Kāñchī, was captured. The struggle with the southern power long continued, and victory inclined now to one side and now to the other. During this reign a branch of the Chalukya dynasty succeeded in establishing itself in Gujarāt, where in the next century it offered vigorous opposition to the Arabs.
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The main feature of the succeeding reigns was the never-ending conflict with the Pallavas, whose capital was again taken by Vikramāditya II, about A. D. 740.
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In the middle of the eighth century, Dantidurga, a chieftain of the ancient, and apparently indigenous, Rāshtrakūta clan, fought his way to the front, and overthrew Kīrtivarman II Chalukya, the son and successor of Vikramāditya II. The main branch of the Chalukyas now became extinct, and the sovereignty of the Deccan passed to the Rāshtrakūtas, in whose hands it remained for nearly two centuries and a quarter.
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During the two centuries of the rule of the early Chalukya dynasty of Vātāpi, great changes in the religious state of the country were in progress. Buddhism, although still influential, and supported by a considerable section of the population, was slowly declining, and suffering gradual supersession by its competitors, Jainism and Brahmanical Hinduism. The sacrificial form of the Hindu religion received special attention, and was made the subject of a multitude of formal treatises. The Purānic forms of Hinduism also grew in popularity; and everywhere elaborate temples dedicated to Vishnu, Siva, or other members of the Purānic pantheon, were erected; which, even in their ruins, form magnificent memorials of the kings of this period. The orthodox Hindus borrowed from their Buddhist and Jain rivals the practice of excavating cave-temples; and one of the earliest Hindu works of this class is that made at Bādāmi in honour of Vishnu by Mangalesa Chalukya, at the close of the sixth century. Jainism was specially popular in the Southern Marāthā country.¹ The religion of Zoroaster was introduced into India during the eighth century. The first colony of Parsee emigrants from Khurāsān which settled on the Indian mainland was established at Sanjān in the Thāna District, Bombay, in A. D. 735.²
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¹ ‘For more than a thousand years after the beginning of the Christian era, Jainism was the religion professed by most of the rulers of the Kanarese people. The Ganga kings of Talkād, the Rāshtrakūta and Kālachūrya kings of Mānyakheta, and the early Hoysalas were all Jainas.’ The Brahmanical Kadamba and early Chālukya kings were tolerant of Jainism. ‘The Pandyan kings of Madura were Jainas; and Jainism was dominant in Gujarat and Kāthiāwār. On the other hand, the Pallavas of Kānchī and the Cholas of Uraiyūr and Tanjore, were strongly Hindu and hostile to Jainism’ (Rice, *Hist. Kanarese Lit.*, p. 16).
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² *Ind. Ant.*, 1912, p. 174. The authority for the date is weak (*Ind. Ant.*, 1914, p. 151). See J. J. Modi, *A Few Events in the Early History of the Parsees and their Dates*, Bombay, Fort Printing Press, 1905.
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Dantidurga Rāshtrakūta, after his occupation of Vātāpi, effected other conquests. He was succeeded by his uncle, Krishna I, who completed the establishment of Rāshtrakūta supremacy over the dominions formerly held by the Chalukyas. A branch of his family founded a principality in Gujarāt.
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The reign of Krishna I is memorable for the execution of This page is blank and contains no text.
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[Figure: THE ROCK-CUT KAILĀSA TEMPLE AT ELŪRA (*from the north-west*)]
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the most marvellous architectural freak in India, the Kailāsa monolithic temple at Elūra (Ellora), now in the Nizam's dominions (N. lat. 20° 21′, E. long. 75° 10′), which is by far the most extensive and sumptuous of the rock-cut shrines. It has been fully described and illustrated by many writers, among whom Burgess and Fergusson possess most authority.¹
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¹ *Cave Temples* and *Arch. S. W. I.*, vol. v. The correct early form of the name is either Vellūra or Elāpura, with variants. The record of the building by Krishna Rāja is in the Baroda plates of Karkarāja (*Ind. Ant.*, xii (1883), p. 229). The work was intended to rival the temple of the same name at Kānchī (*Ep. Ind.*, xiii (1916), p. 277). The two known inscriptions of Krishna's reign are dated 690 and 694 Saka = A. D. 768 and 772.
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Krishna I was succeeded by his son Govinda II, who, after a short reign, was followed, and apparently superseded, by his brother Dhruva or Dhora, an able and warlike prince, who continued with success the aggressive wars so dear to the heart of an Indian rāja.² He prided himself especially on his defeat of Vatsarāja, the Gurjara king of Bhinmāl, whom he despoiled of two white umbrellas taken by Vatsarāja from the king of Gauda, or Bengal.³
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² The accession of Govinda II took place between A. D. 770 and 779 (Saka 602 and 701) (*Prog. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1903–4, p. 60). For Dhora, see *Rep. A. S., Mysore*, 1913–14, p. 37. Dhruva appears under the name Nirupama in a recently discovered copper-plate grant of the Śilahāra Mahāsāmanta Chhadvaideva (*Prog. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1919–20, p. 55).
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³ *J. R. A. S.*, 1909, p. 255.
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Govinda III, son of Dhruva, may justly claim to be the most remarkable prince of his vigorous dynasty. He extended his power from the Vindhya mountains and Mālwa on the north to Kānchī on the south; while his direct rule was carried at least as far as the Tungabhadrā. He created his brother Indrarāja viceroy of Lāta, or Southern Gujarāt.
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The long reign of the next king, Amōghavarsha, who occupied the throne for not less than sixty-two years, was largely spent in constant wars with the Eastern Chalukya Rājas of Vengī. He transferred his capital from Nāsik to Mānyakheta, the Mānkīr of the Arab writers, now Mālkhed in the Nizam's dominions (N. lat. 17° 10′, E. long. 77° 13′).⁴ Amōghavarsha was the long-lived Balhāra of the merchant Sulaiman (A. D. 851), who reckoned him to be fourth of the great kings of the world, the other three being the Khalīfa of Baghdad, the emperor of China, and the emperor of Constantinople. In his old age Amōghavarsha abdicated in favour of his son, Krishna II, and devoted the brief remainder of his life to ascetic practices.¹ The Digambara, or naked, sect of the Jains was liberally patronized by Amōghavarsha. The rapid progress made by Digambara Jainism late in the ninth and early in the tenth century, under the guidance of various notable leaders, including Jinasena and Gunabhadra, who enjoyed the favour of more than one monarch, had much to do with the marked decay of Buddhism, which daily lost ground, until it almost wholly disappeared from the Deccan in the twelfth century.
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⁴ Deoli plates (*Ep. Ind.*, v, 193, l. 18). Fleet erroneously ascribes the foundation of Mānyakheta to Govinda III.
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¹ Amōghavarsha had another son, Duddaya, hitherto unknown, whose name appears in a recently discovered lithic record (*A. S. I.*, 1912–20, p. 34).
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The brief reign of Indra III (A. D. 914–16) is signalized by his successful attack upon distant Kanauj, and the consequent temporary dethronement of Mahīpāla, king of Panchāla, the most considerable prince in Northern India. This war probably deprived Mahīpāla of Surāshtra and the other western provinces which were still under his control at the time of the accession of Indra III.²
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² Cambay plates (*Ep. Ind.*, vii, 36; *List*, No. 91); *ante*, p. 395.
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The war with the Cholas in the reign of Krishna III Rāshtrakūta, was remarkable for the death of Rājāditya, the Chola king, on the field of battle in A. D. 949. Much bitterness was introduced into the wars of this period by the hostility between the rival religions, Jainism and orthodox Hinduism.
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The last of the Rāshtrakūta kings was Kakka II, overthrown in A. D. 973 by Taila, or Tailapa II, a scion of the old Chalukya stock, who restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory, and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyāni; which lasted, like that which it superseded, for nearly two centuries and a quarter.
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The conquest of Sind by Muhammad son of Kāsim, early in the eighth century, firmly established the political predominance of Islam in that province, which was separated from India proper by the 'lost river', the Hakrā or Wahindah. The Gurjara kingdom of Bhinmāl to the east of that river was united with that of Kanauj from the beginning of the ninth century, and maintained relations of chronic hostility with its Muslim neighbours on the west of the great stream. But the Rāshtrakūta princes found their interest to lie in the pursuit of a different policy, and kept up friendly intercourse with the Arabs, while continually engaged in war with the Gurjaras. In consequence of this policy many Muhammadan merchants and travellers visited the western region of India, of whom some, beginning with the merchant Sulaiman in the middle of the ninth century, have left a record of their observations. All these writers agree in stating that they regarded the Balharā as the greatest sovereign in India. They called the Rāshtrakūta kings ‘Balharā’ because those princes were in the habit of assuming the title Vallabha (‘Beloved,’ *Bien aimé*), which, in combination with the word Rāi (prince), was easily corrupted into the form of Balharā.¹ The tribute of honour paid to the Rāshtrakūta kings by their Muhammadan visitors was justified by the achievements of their period. Although the art displayed at Ellora may not be of the highest kind, the Kailāsa temple is one of the wonders of the world, a work of which any nation might be proud, and an honour to the king under whose patronage it was executed. Many other temples were the outcome of the royal munificence, and Sanskrit literature of the artificial type then in fashion was liberally encouraged.
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¹ The epithet or title *vallabha*, used either singly or in composition with a noun like *śrī* or *prithivī*, was borrowed by the Rāshtrakūtas from the preceding dynasty, the Chalukyas of Vātāpi. Muhammadan authors usually describe a Hindu king as *Rāi* or *Rāe* (*Bom. Gaz.* (1896), vol. i, part ii, p. 209). The accounts of the early Arab geographers and the historians of Sind are translated in Elliot, *Hist. of India*, vol. i. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar was the first to explain the meaning of ‘Balharā’.
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Taila, the restorer of the Chalukya name, reigned for twenty-four years, and during that time succeeded in recovering all the ancient territory of his race, with the possible exception of the Gujarāt province.² Much of his time was spent in fighting Munja, the Pawār (Paramāra) Rāja of Dhārā, who claimed the victory in six conflicts. Towards the close of his reign Taila enjoyed the luxury of revenge. His enemy, having crossed the Godāvarī, which then formed the boundary between the two kingdoms, was defeated, taken captive, and for a time treated with the courtesy due to his rank. But an attempt to escape was visited with cruel indignities, the captive Rāja being forced to beg from door to door, and ultimately beheaded. These events may be dated in A. D. 995.¹
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² A. V. V. Ayyar (*Ind. Ant.*, xlviii, p. 116) states that Lata (South Gujarāt) was also under Taila’s control, and that he ordered Bārappa, ruler of Lata, to attack Mūlarāja, founder of the Anhilwāra dynasty in Gujarāt.
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¹ *Ante*, p. 410.
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Two years later Taila died, and transmitted the crown to his son Satyāśraya, during whose reign the Chalukya kingdom suffered severely from invasion by the Chola king, Rājarāja the Great, who overran the country with a vast host, said to number nine hundred thousand men, pillaging and slaughtering in a fashion so merciless that even the women, children, and Brahmans were not spared.
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In A. D. 1052, Somesvara I, who was called Āhavamalla, fought a battle at Koppam, on the Krishnā, in which Rājādhirāja, the then reigning Chola king, lost his life.² Somesvara also claims the honour of having stormed both Dhārā in Mālwa and Kānchī in the south, and of having defeated Karna, the valiant king of Chedi.
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² Fleet, apparently in error, dates the battle of Koppam 'shortly before the 20th January, 1060' (*Kanarese Dyn.*, p. 441). The date 1052 is determined by Kielhorn. The site of the battle was Khidrāpur, 30 miles east by south from Kolhāpur, where there is a notable temple of Koppeśvara on the bank of the 'great river' or Krishnā (Fleet, *Ep. Ind.*, xii, 298). This identification seems to be correct. Rice (*Coorg Inscrip.*, revised ed., 1914, p. 15) identifies Koppam with Kopana-tīrtha, or Kopal or Koppal, in the Rāichur District of the Nizam's Dominions, and applies the epithet 'big river' to the Tungabhadrā, while admitting that it usually means the Krishnā.
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In A. D. 1068, Somesvara, being seized by an incurable fever, put an end to his sufferings by drowning himself in the Tungabhadrā river, while reciting his faith in Siva. Suicide in such circumstances is authorized by Hindu custom, and more than one instance is on record of Rājas having terminated their existence in a similar manner.
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Vikramāditya VI, or Vikramāṅka, the hero of Bilhana's historical poem, who deposed his brother Somesvara II, and was formally crowned or anointed in A. D. 1076, reigned for half a century in tolerable, though not unbroken, peace. He is recorded to have captured Kānchī, and late in his reign was engaged in a serious struggle with Vishnu, the Hoysala king of Dōrasamudra in Mysore. Vikramānka considered his achievements sufficiently notable to justify him in establishing a new era, running from A. D. 1076, called after his name, but it never came into general use.¹ His capital Kalyāna, the modern Kalyāni in the Nizam's Dominions, which had been founded by Somesvara I, was the residence of the celebrated jurist Vijnānēsvara, author of the *Mitāksharā*, the chief authority on Hindu law outside of Bengal.²
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¹ The date is confirmed in *Ind. Ant.*, 1918, p. 290. See A. V. V. Ayyar, ‘The Life and Times of Chalukya Vikramāditya’ (*Ind. Ant.*, xlviii (1919), pp. 114–20, and 133 ff.).
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² See Introduction to Bühler's edition of the *Vikramānkadevacharita*, Bombay Sanskrit Series. 1875.
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After the death of Vikramānka, the Chalukya power declined; and in the course of the years A. D. 1156–62, during the reign of Taila III, the commander-in-chief, Bijjala or Vijjana, Kalachurya, revolted and obtained possession of the greater portion of the kingdom, which was held by him and his sons until A. D. 1183, when the Chalukya prince, Somesvara IV, succeeded in recovering his ancestral dominions from the successors of Bijjala. But he was not strong enough to resist the attacks of encroaching neighbours; and in the course of a few years the greater part of his kingdom had been absorbed by the Yādavas of Devagiri on the west, and the Hoysalas of Dōrasamudra on the south. The end of the Chalukya dynasty of Kalyāna may be dated in A. D. 1190, after which time the Rājas of the line ranked merely as petty chiefs.
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The brief reign of Bijjala, the usurping rebel, which terminated by abdication or death in A. D. 1167, was marked by a religious revolution effected by a revival of the cult of Siva and the foundation of a new sect, the Vīra Saivas, or Lingāyats, which is a power to this day.³ Bijjala was a Jain, and, according to one version of the legend, he wantonly blinded two holy men of the Lingāyat sect, and was assassinated in consequence in the year A. D. 1167. The blood of the saints proved, as usual, to be the seed of the church, which had been founded by Basava, the Brahman minister of Bijjala. But in other legends the tale is told quite differently, and the truth of the matter seems to be past finding out. There is, however, no doubt that the rise of the Lingāyats dates from the time of Bijjala. The members of the sect, who are especially numerous in the Kanarese districts, worship Siva in his phallic form, reject the authority of the Vedas, disbelieve in the doctrine of re-birth, object to child-marriage, approve of the re-marriage of widows, and cherish an intense aversion to Brahmans, notwithstanding the fact that the founder of their religion was himself a Brahman.
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³ A good summary account of the Lingāyat sect and literature will be found in *A History of Kanarese Literature*, by E. P. Rice (Heritage of India Series), 1918, chaps. iv, v. Fleet (*Bom. Gaz.*, p. 477) notes that 'it is due almost entirely to them that this beautiful, highly polished, and powerful [Kanarese] language has been preserved'.
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The growth of this new sect, which secured numerous adherents among the trading classes, up to that time the main strength of both Buddhism and Jainism, checked the progress of the latter religion, and drove another nail into the coffin of Buddhism, the existence of which in the Deccan is rarely traceable later than the first half of the twelfth century.¹
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¹ There are many references to Buddhism in the *Āchārasāra*. 'This clearly shows that in the Kanarese country there were numerous followers of Buddha in *Śaka* 1076' (A. D. 1154) (Pathak, *Ind. Ant.*, 1912, p. 89).
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During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, chiefs belonging to a family or clan named Hoysala, or Poysala, attained considerable power in the Mysore country. The first notable prince of this line was Bittideva, or Bittiga (about A. D. 1111 to 1141), who established his capital at Dōrasamudra, the modern Halebīd, famous for the fine temple which excited Fergusson's enthusiastic admiration. During the early years of his reign the Jain religion enjoyed high favour under the protection of his minister Gangarāja, and the Jain temples, which had been destroyed by the orthodox Chola invaders, were restored; but the king himself was converted to Vishnuism, under the influence of the celebrated reformer, Rāmānuja, and the magnificent buildings at Belūr and Halebid testify to the zeal and good taste which he devoted to the serving of his new religion.¹ On his conversion he assumed the name of Vishnu-vardhana, or Vishnu, by which he is best known. Vishnu boasts in his records of numerous conquests, and claims to have defeated the Rājas of the Chola, Pāndya, and Chera kingdoms in the south. About the year A.D. 1223, one of his successors, Narasimha II, who was then in alliance with the Cholas, actually occupied Trichinopoly.²
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¹ Fergusson and Meadows Taylor, *Architecture in Dharwār and Mysore*, atlas folio (Murray, 1866). For much detailed information about Vishnu's reign and buildings, see Rice's Introduction to *Ep. Carn.*, vol. v, p. i, especially p. xxxvi. S. K. Aiyangar has given a good account of the Hoysalas in his lecture 'The Making of Mysore' (Madras, 1905), reprinted in *Ancient India*, 1911.
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² *Ep. Ind.*, vii, 162.
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Vishnu's grandson, Vīra-Ballāla, in the course of a long reign extended his dominions widely to the north of Mysore, and was specially proud of having defeated the Yādavas of Devagiri, whose kingdom lay to the north, in A. D. 1191–2. His conquests made the Hoysalas fully independent and the dominant power in Southern India, including the southern parts of the Deccan table-land.
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The dynasty continued to be powerful until A. D. 1310, when the Muhammadan generals, Malik Kāfūr and Khwāja Hāji entered the Hoysala kingdom, laid it waste, captured the reigning Rāja, and despoiled his capital, which was finally destroyed by a Muslim force in A. D. 1326 or 1327. The Rāja's son is mentioned as a local chief in records a few years later in date.
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The Yādava kings of Devagiri were descendants of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom. The territory which they acquired, lying between Devagiri (Daulatābād) and Nāsik, was known as Sevana or Seuna. The first of the Yādava line to attain a position of importance was Bhillama, who was killed in battle by the Hoysala chief in A. D. 1191.
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The most powerful rāja was Singhana (*acc.* A. D. 1210), who invaded Gujarāt and other countries, and established a short-lived kingdom almost rivalling in extent the realms of the Chalukyas and Rāshtrakūtas.
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The Yādava dynasty, like that of the Hoysalas, was destroyed by the Muhammadans. When Alā-ud-dīn, Sultan of Delhi, crossed the Narmadā, the northern frontier of the Yādava kingdom, in 1294, the reigning Rāja, Rāmachandra, was obliged to surrender, and to ransom his life by payment of an enormous amount of treasure, which is said to have included six hundred *maunds* of pearls, two *maunds* of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, and so forth.
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When the Sultan's incursion was repeated by Malik Kāfūr in A. D. 1309, Rāmachandra again refrained from opposition, and submitted to the invader. He was the last independent Hindu sovereign of the Deccan. In wide territories to the south of the Krishnā (Kistna), the kingdom of Vijayanagar, founded in A. D. 1336, maintained the traditions of Hindu polity in unsurpassed splendour until 1565, when it was overwhelmed by a coalition of Muhammadan princes.
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After Rāmachandra's death, his son-in-law, Harapāla, stirred up a revolt against the foreigners in 1318, but, being defeated, was flayed alive and decapitated. Thus miserably ended the Yādava line.¹
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¹ Further information about the Hoysala and Yādava dynasties will be found in Rice, *Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions*, 1909.
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The celebrated Sanskrit writer, Hemādri, popularly known as Hemāḍpant, flourished during the reigns of Rāmachandra and his predecessor, Mahādeva. He devoted himself chiefly to the systematic redaction of Hindu religious practices and observances, and with this object compiled important works upon Hindu sacred law. He is alleged, although erroneously, to have introduced a form of current script, the Moḍī, from Ceylon;² and has given a valuable historical sketch of his patrons' dynasty in the introduction to one of his books.
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² The Moḍī script really was invented or introduced by Bālāji Avajī, Secretary of State to Śivājī, the celebrated Marāthā chieftain, who died in 1680 (B. A. Gupte, *Ind. Ant.*, 1905, p. 27. Grierson gives the alphabet in *Linguistic Survey*, vol. vii, p. 20).
Linked texts (5)
- Pithapuram
- Badami
- Kailasanatha Temple
- Ācārasāra (Gadādhara) — Gadādhara (Pāraskara commentator), Sanskrit
- Arulala-Perumal inscription of Saka-Samvat 1127 — Sanskrit