The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s2.t2: Kīrtti-varman I
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s2.t2
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- v1.c9.s2.t2.1 — 3 parts
Kīrtti-varman I
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The 12th regnal year of Kīrtti-varman (fame-armoured) fell in Ś. 500 (Bādāmi cave inscription); consequently he must have ascended the throne after his father in A.D. 566-7. In the inscriptions of his son Pulakēśin II he is called the first maker of Vātāpi and the night of death (kālarātri) to the Naḷas, Mauryas, and Kadambas. Vātāpi having become the capital under Pulakēśin I, his son must be taken to have adorned it by the construction of temples and in other ways. His successes against the Naḷas, the Mauryas, and the Kadambas doubtless marked important stages in the expansion of the newly established kingdom, and their memory is preserved in the praśastis of the line issued in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The expansion of the Chāḷukya power was effected at the expense of that of the Kadambas, and they were indeed the chief power attacked by Kīrtti-varman. In inscriptions of the second half of the seventh century he is said to have, by the exercise of his valour, occupied Vanavāsi and other kingdoms (maṇḍalas) belonging to his enemies. The contemporary Kadamba ruler reduced to subjection by Kīrtti-varman was perhaps Ajavarman. The Naḷas were at that time probably ruling the territory known as Naḷavāḍi which ‘lay in the direction of Bellary and Karnul’.¹ An early stone inscription of the Naḷas comes from the border between the Jeypore agency and the Bastar state, and it shows that as early as the second half of the fifth century A.D.
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the dynasty had already experienced many violent changes of fortune.² The Mauryas were ruling in Konkan with their capital at Purī described as ‘the Lakshmī of the Western ocean’. It is clear that under Kīrtti-varman the sway of the Chāḷukyan kingdom was extended in all directions, and we may well believe that he fought many victorious battles, performed the Agniṣṭoma and Bahusuvarṇa sacrifices, and earned the title of puru-raṇaparākrama, ‘puissant in many battles’. But the Mahākūṭa pillar inscription asserts that the hostile rulers of Vanga, Aṅga, Kaliṅga, Vattūra (?), Magadha, Madraka, Kerala, Gaṅga, Mūshaka, Pāṇḍya, Dramila, Cōḷiya, Āluka, Vaijayanti, and other kingdoms were overcome by Kīrtti-varman; we can accept this only as a measure of the knowledge of Indian geography possessed by the writer of the praśasti. The same inscription states further that an extremely beautiful cave temple to Viṣṇu was constructed under the king’s orders by his younger brother Mangaleśa; the work was completed and the image of Viṣṇu consecrated perhaps after the death of Kīrtti-varman, during Mangaleśa’s reign. From an inscription of Pulakēśin II we learn that his mother, Kīrtti-varman’s queen, was a sister of Rājā Śrīvallabha Senānanda of the Sendraka family which held a subordinate position in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa division of the Banavāsi province, at first under the Kadambas and then under the Cāḷukyas;
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the marriage alliance of Kirtti-varman with the Sendrakas confirms the evidence of other records regarding the southward expansion of the Cāḷukya power at the expense of the Kadambas. A certain Dhruvarāja-Indravaram began his rule in Konkan as a subordinate of the Cāḷukyas about A.D. 590; he was stationed in Revatidvīpa (Goa) and was governor of four viṣayas and maṇḍalas; he is called Satyāśraya, an ornament of the ādi-mahā-Bappūra-vamśa, probably the same line as that of Durlabhadevī, the queen of Pulakeśin I. The date of Dhruvarāja-Indravarman’s appointment as governor here shows that he became ruler of a new province added to the growing Cāḷukyan empire after Kirtti-varman’s conquest of Konkan; in this capacity he continued for at least twenty years, for his Goa copper-plate grant, which yields these particulars, is dated in Ś. 532 (A.D. 610-11) and in the twentieth year of his government. But if Goa was conquered for the first time only by Mangaleśa, as seems probable, Indravarman must have ruled his province from some other centre before he moved his capital to Goa. Considering his title Satyāśraya, and the dating of his records in his own regnal year, it seems probable that he was a member of the royal family.
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¹ Fleet, DKD, p. 345.
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² EI, xxi, 154.