The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s1.t5: Vijayāditya III Guṇaga
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s1.t5
- Language
- English
Vijayāditya III Guṇaga
v2.c13.s1.t5.1
On the death of Kali Viṣṇuvardhana, or Viṣṇuvardhana V, after his short period as king, his eldest son Vijayāditya III, better known as Guṇaga Vijayāditya, ascended the throne in A.D. 849 and ruled the kingdom for forty-four years. He had several titles of which Guṇake-nallāṭa (the lover of excellence or virtue), Parachakra-Rāma (Rāma amid the circle of his enemies), Tripura-martya-maheśvara (the mortal *maheśvara* to the three cities), and Vallabha (the lord) are the most important. Three well-defined stages are clearly noticeable in the history of his reign: (1) It began with a short period of victory and expansion; (2) then followed a disastrous defeat and prolonged subjection to foreign rule; and (3) the end was again a period of brilliant military victories leading to the assumption of imperial authority over the whole of the Deccan.
v2.c13.s1.t5.2
As soon as he had ascended the throne, Vijayāditya III had to send an expedition against the Bōya-Koṭṭams—the districts inhabited by the Bōyas in the south. The Bōyas were a race of hardy warriors who occupied the northern marches of the Pallava kingdom corresponding to the present Nellore District, and they offered stubborn resistance to the advance of the Chāḷukyan arms in the south. Though their country appears to have been overrun and brought within the pale of the Eastern Chāḷukya territory some time before the accession of Guṇaga Vijayāditya, their power was not completely broken. The death of Viṣṇuvardhana V, and the accession of his youthful son, inspired them with fresh hope of regaining their freedom. They refused to obey his orders and attempted to assert their independence.
v2.c13.s1.t5.3
Vijayāditya III, who was a strong and powerful monarch, could not brook this defiance of his authority. He resolved to put down the rebellion with a stern hand and to chastise the Bōyas for their insolence. He dispatched an army under Paṇḍaranga, the son of Kaḍeyarāja, with instructions to demolish the strongholds of the Bōyas and to subjugate their country. Two important forts, Kaṭṭem and Nellore, where the rebels had concentrated their forces, are mentioned in this connexion. The hand of the invader fell heavily on both. Paṇḍaranga dismantled the former and reduced the latter to ashes. He advanced triumphantly to the frontier of Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam and halted on the shore of the Pulicat lake, where he founded a new township called Paṇḍarangam and built a temple in honour of Śiva, Paṇḍaranga Maheśvara, both named after himself.¹
v2.c13.s1.t5.4
¹ NDI, i, G. 86-105.
v2.c13.s1.t5.5
Paṇḍaranga’s expedition against the Bōya-Koṭṭams was not a mere military raid. It resulted in the permanent annexation of the south-eastern Telugu country which had probably been until that time a fief of the Pallavas. The kingdom of Vengi increased in extent; and Paṇḍaranga, on whom the king seems to have bestowed the governorship of the conquered territory, established himself at Kandukur in the Nellore District, which he is said to have made as famous as Bezwada, the Eastern Chāḷukya capital.²
v2.c13.s1.t5.6
² EI, xix, 275.
v2.c13.s1.t5.7
Vijayāditya was next involved in a war with a chief called Rāhaṇa; nothing is known about the identity of this individual or the country over which he bore sway. Paṇḍaranga worsted him in battle, and won a great victory for his master.³
v2.c13.s1.t5.8
³ Bhārati, v (i), 619.
v2.c13.s1.t5.9
The series of victories which marked the opening years of Vijayāditya’s reign was, however, broken by a serious reverse. Although Vijayāditya was, through his mother Śīlamahādēvī, the daughter of Indravallabha, the younger brother of Govinda III and a scion of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa royal family, he yet came into conflict with his cousin Amoghavarsha I some time subsequent to his victory over Rāhaṇa. The circumstances leading up to the war are not clearly known. Flushed with victory over the Bōyas and Rāhaṇa, Vijayāditya attacked and destroyed Stambhapuri, the modern Cumbum in the Kurnool District, which was then included in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dominions. This inroad naturally provoked reprisals. Amoghavarsha sent an expedition to Vengi to chastise Vijayāditya and reduce him to subjection. The two armies met at Vingāvalli, a village which probably stood somewhere in the neighbourhood of Cumbum, and a sanguinary battle took place. The Eastern Chāḷukya forces sustained a crushing defeat, and Vijayāditya was obliged to submit to Amoghavarsha I and to acknowledge him as his liege and sovereign.⁴
v2.c13.s1.t5.10
⁴ EI, vi, 103; ix, 39; xviii, 246.
v2.c13.s1.t5.11
Vijayāditya could not easily shake off the Rāṣṭrakūṭa yoke thus imposed on him, and it was not until the death of Amoghavarsha I about A.D. 880 that he was able to regain his independence. His loss of independence and submission to the Rāṣṭrakūṭa authority did not, however, completely curtail his military activity. He did not embark, it is true, on any war on his own account, but he joined the forces of his overlord and rendered him valuable service against the rebellions of the feudatories who attempted to overthrow his power. Nitimārga Permānaḍi, the Western Ganga king of Talakāḍ, stirred up a rebellion in Gangavāḍi about A.D. 866 and asserted his independence.¹ Several of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa feudatories, specially the Pallava chiefs of Nolambavāḍi, following his example, repudiated the imperial authority and made common cause with him. The situation became so formidable that Amoghavarsha was obliged to send Bankeya Sellaketana, the commander of the imperial mūlabala, to the south with all the forces available. Though Bankeya was successful in the war against the rebels, and won several victories over them, he was recalled by his master before he could finish off the campaign and was dispatched to the north, owing to a rising in Lāṭa in which the crown prince Kṛṣṇa, the future Kṛṣṇa II, was somehow involved. Amoghavarsha did not, however, allow the Ganga king and his confederates to carry on their rebellion unchecked. He ordered Vijayāditya III to proceed to Gangavāḍi with his army to suppress the rebels and restore the imperial authority. Vijayāditya set out accordingly and marched at the head of his forces towards Gangavāḍi. When he arrived at the frontiers of Nolambavāḍi which lay on his route, he found that his path was barred by Mangi (Nolambadhirāja I), the king of the Nolambas and the ally of Nitimārga Permānaḍi. A fierce engagement took place in which the Eastern Cālukya army gained a complete victory thanks to the counsels of Vinayaḍi Śarman, Vijayāditya's military adviser. Mangi was slain in the fight, and the way being thus freed from obstacles, Vijayāditya advanced upon Gangavāḍi and inflicted a severe defeat on the Ganga army which had taken refuge on the lofty summit of the Gangākūṭa, i.e. the Śivaganga hill in the Nelamangala tāluk of the present Bangalore District in Mysore State.² The back of the Ganga rebellion was thus broken, and Nitimārga Permānaḍi was obliged to make peace with Amoghavarsha I.
v2.c13.s1.t5.12
¹ EI, vi, 30-31.
v2.c13.s1.t5.13
² EI, ix, 47.
v2.c13.s1.t5.14
The death of Amoghavarsha I, which took place about A.D. 880, gave an excellent opportunity to Vijayāditya III to repudiate the Rāṣṭrakūṭa supremacy and reassert his independence. Kṛṣṇa II, who ascended the Rāṣṭrakūṭa throne on the death of his father, was not popular and it is not unlikely that owing to his unfilial conduct he had failed to secure the allegiance of his sāmantas, especially those administering the southern provinces of his kingdom. In any case it would seem clear that Kṛṣṇa II had to depend upon the aid of the Chedi king Sankila (Śankaragaṇa) throughout his struggle with Vijayāditya III.
v2.c13.s1.t5.15
The Dharmavaram epigraph which describes the wars waged by Paṇḍaranga in the service of his king and master implies that Vijayāditya was engaged in a war with Kṛṣṇa II on two different occasions. Kṛṣṇa II accompanied by his ally and brother-in-law Sankila (Śankaragaṇa) above mentioned, the Chedi ruler of Dāhala, seems to have made an attack upon Vijayāditya, but having sustained a defeat in the battle, he had to leave his dominions, and seek safety in the court of his ally at Kiraṇapura in distant Ḍāhala. Vijayāditya, greatly encouraged by his victory over the Rāṣṭrakūṭa forces, next planned an expedition against Ḍāhala and dispatched it under the command of his able general Paṇḍaranga. The details of this campaign and the route followed by the Eastern Chālukya forces are not, it is true, fully recorded; but with the help of fragments of information which occur sporadically in the Eastern Chālukya inscriptions it is not impossible to trace the probable course of their march and to reconstruct the history of the campaign.¹ The expedition set out most probably from Vengi and marched through Kalinga towards the passes in the Eastern Ghats leading to Southern Kosala and the central Indian plateau. The advance of Vijayāditya’s army was not, however, unobstructed. Several princes, mostly the feudatories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa and Chedi monarchs whose territories lay along Paṇḍaranga’s route, took up arms against him and impeded the progress of the expedition; but the military genius of Paṇḍaranga triumphed over all his enemies and surmounted every obstacle. The kings of Kalinga and Kosala and the Chālukya chief of Vemulavāḍa in the north of Telingana, who attempted to oppose his advance and turn back the invasion, were worsted in the field and had to yield place to him and allow him to march forward. He arrived at last in the Chedi dominions, devastated Ḍāhala and Daleṇāḍ, defeated Kṛṣṇa and Sankila in battle, and set fire to Kiraṇapura and Achalapura, the principal cities of the Ḍāhala kingdom. Vijayāditya’s victory was complete, and Kṛṣṇa, unable to offer further resistance, laid down his arms and sued for peace. Vijayāditya, who did not entertain any territorial ambitions at this point, satisfied himself by the assertion of his supremacy. He took over from the vanquished monarch the pāli banner, the symbols of the rivers Gaṅgā and Yamunā which constituted the insignia of Rāṣṭrakūṭa imperialism, assumed the title Vallabha, and proclaimed himself the lord paramount of the entire Dakṣiṇāpatha together with the Trikalinga country. Kṛṣṇa II met him in person, rendered him homage as a vassal and propitiated him by offering worship to his arms. Vijayāditya, who was evidently pleased with the Rāṣṭrakūṭa for the unique honour which he had thus shown him, restored his kingdom to him and returned to Vengi in great triumph.
v2.c13.s1.t5.16
¹ Bhārati, v (i), 619; JTA, xi, 241; iii, 407; CP, no. 15 of 1917-18; JAHRS, xi, 80 ff. Madras Govt. Or. MSS. Library, 15-6-26, i, 348-58.
v2.c13.s1.t5.17
The Eastern Chālukya inscriptions attribute to Vijayāditya III victories over several southern kings beside those mentioned already. The Dharmavaram epigraph, for instance, alludes to the protection which his general Paṇḍaranga offered to a Choḷa king who had been reduced to helplessness by an unnamed invader, and the Sataluru grant refers to his wars with the Pallavas and the Pāṇḍyas. The circumstances under which Vijayāditya came into conflict with the rulers of the south are nowhere recorded; nor has any account of the incidents of his campaigns against them come down to us.
v2.c13.s1.t5.18
Vijayāditya III was the greatest monarch who ever sat upon the throne of Vengi. During his reign the Eastern Chālukya kingdom extended from the Mahendragiri in the north to the Pulicat lake in the south. He was a great warrior, and though for a time he was constrained to submit to the Rāṣṭrakūṭa authority, he recovered his power soon after the death of Amoghavarṣa I, and turned the tables so completely on Kṛṣṇa II that the latter was compelled to acknowledge him as his overlord and the emperor of Dakṣiṇāpatha, and to render him homage. Some of the ancestors of Vijayāditya III, especially his grandfather Narendramṛgarāja, had no doubt waged war relentlessly on the Rāṣṭrakūṭas and even won victories over them, but none had ever succeeded in reducing them to submission and exacting from them tribute and homage as Guṇaga did. The success of Vijayāditya must be attributed to a great extent to the skill and ability of the Brāhman officers in his service, especially the celebrated general Paṇḍaranga, the greatest military genius of the age. This commander distinguished himself early in the reign during the southern campaign against the Bōyas, and took a prominent part in defeating the enemies of the Chola and restoring him to his kingdom. The most brilliant achievement of his career, however, was the Dāhala campaign, in the course of which he inflicted defeat after defeat on his enemies and reduced the mightiest monarch of the Deccan to abject submission.
v2.c13.s1.t5.19
After a long reign of forty-four years Vijayāditya III breathed his last in A.D. 892. He had no sons, and his younger brother Vikramāditya whom he had chosen as the heir-apparent predeceased him, leaving behind a son Bhīma to whom the crown passed on the death of his uncle.