The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s2.t6: Vinayāditya
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s2.t6
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Vinayāditya
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Vinayāditya succeeded his father Vikramāditya I. In his inscriptions his regnal years are counted from two different starting points,¹ one set starting from some day between 2 June and 4 July A.D. 681, and the other from between 18 October A.D. 678 and 2 July 679; the explanation of this is not easy; it has been suggested that at the earlier date Vinayāditya might have become Yuvarāja, but we have found him actively engaged in the administration and defence of the kingdom during his father's absence in the south, and it seems probable that he had become Yuvarāja much earlier than A.D. 679. Vinayāditya's rule continued till A.D. 696 when his son Vijayāditya succeeded him. The inscriptions of Vinayāditya, of which there are a fair number, give the impression of a prosperous and peaceful reign; the king took an active part in the work of the state and was constantly on the move, fixing his camp successively in different parts of the realm; it is interesting to note in passing that one of his camps was located at Pampātirtha, celebrated both in the Rāmāyaṇa and in the annals of Vijayanagar. The king was loyally served by feudatories like the Ālupas, Sendrakas, and others, and ably assisted in his tasks by his son Vijayāditya who is called Yuvarāja in a record of the 11th regnal year. Vinayāditya's queen, the mother of Vijayāditya, was Vinayavatī; she survived her husband and set up in A.D. 696 the images of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara in Vātāpi.²
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¹ EI, xxii, also ARE (1936), ii, 11.
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² KI, p. 3.
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The Pallava, Kaḷabhra, Kerala, Haihaya, Viḷa, Māḷava, Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya, and others are said to have been reduced by Vinayāditya to a state of servitude comparable to that of the original feudatories of the Chāḷukya family like the Ālupas and the Gaṅgas; such omnibus statements not accompanied by any details are obviously embellishments by court-poets which should be considered as such by the historian, and not treated as serious records of facts. The Rāyagaḍ plates of the reign of Vijayāditya (A.D. 703)³ give the story of a northern expedition of Vinayāditya in which his son Vijayāditya played a prominent part, and this is repeated in almost all subsequent grants of the period. The story is preceded by a phrase which is calculated to rouse our suspicion about what follows: it says that Vinayāditya made the kings of Kavēra, Pārasīka, Simhaḷa, and other dvīpas pay tribute to him. The story that follows is given only in part under Vinayāditya, the rest of it being credited to his son Vijayāditya. The father is said to have procured for himself the pālidhvaja (a particular arrangement of flags in rows)⁴ and all other signs of supreme sovereignty by attacking (lit. churning) all the monarchs of the northern country. Of the son we learn that when his father was desirous of conquering the north, he took an active part in the fighting in the very presence of his father, that he had the edge of his sword blunted by its being used against hosts of enemy elephants, that he took the lead in all fighting, being fond of displaying heroism in a just cause, that he forced his enemies to turn their backs, and delivered to his father the images of Gaṅgā and Yamunā, and pāli dhvaja, the ḍhakkā (drum), the insignia of the (five) great sounds, rubies, and rutting elephants. No one has so far succeeded in throwing historical light on this grandiloquent description of Vinayāditya’s northern campaign, of which we hear first in the inscriptions of his son, whose glorification appears indeed to be the chief object of this part of the praśasti. There is, however, one statement in the early Rāṣṭrakūṭa records¹ to the effect that the Cālukyas won victories against a certain Vajraṭa who seems to have been a North Indian ruler, and this may after all be the basis for all these statements. The identity of this Vajraṭa is not clear.
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³ EI, x, 14.
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⁴ IA, xiv, 104.
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¹ IA, xi, 112.