The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s2.t4: Saktivarman II
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s2.t4
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Saktivarman II
v2.c13.s2.t4.1
Though Vijayāditya seized the throne, he did not immediately begin to rule the kingdom. He placed on the throne his only son Śaktivarman II whom he loved devotedly, and himself retired into the background. But his paternal affection for Śaktivarman was perhaps not the only reason for this procedure. The services of Vijayāditya were required elsewhere. The Chōḷas were persistently attacking Noḷambavāḍi, which guarded the frontiers of Raṭṭapāḍi, the homeland of the Western Chāḷukyas, and it was necessary that its defence should be entrusted to capable hands. Vijayāditya was a veteran warrior and an experienced general, and Āhavamalla had appointed him as the governor of Noḷambavāḍi and charged him with the task of organizing the defence of the District.
v2.c13.s2.t4.2
Śaktivarman II ruled only for a short time. His reign, according to the Ryāli copper plates, lasted for but one year, at the end of which he is said to have gone to heaven like Abhimanyu, the heroic son of Arjuna, who lost his life while fighting against heavy odds in the Mahābhārata war.¹ The comparison of Śaktivarman’s death with that of Abhimanyu seems to suggest that he was killed in battle. He probably lost his life in the Chōḷa invasion which swept over Vengi at this time. Inscriptions dated in the 2nd year of Virarājēndra (A.D. 1063) refer to a defeat which he inflicted on a Western Chāḷukya army sent to Vengi by Vikramāditya.² This points clearly to a Chōḷa attack upon Vengi some time earlier, probably at the end of A.D. 1062. As this was actually the time when Śaktivarman II appears to have died in battle, it is not unlikely that he lost his life in fighting the Chōḷas on this occasion. Though Virarājēndra claims to have defeated the army of Vikramāditya, killed his general Chāmuṇḍarāyan, and cut off the nose of his daughter, the beautiful Nāgalai, he yet failed to gain a foothold in Vengi and was compelled to withdraw from the country. Sōmēśvara I thereupon retaliated by sending an expedition under Vijayāditya into the Chōḷa dominions,³ and advanced at the head of a large army towards Kūḍal-Saṅgam, at the confluence of the Tuṅgā and Bhadrā in the Mysore country. This movement of the Western Chāḷukya armies compelled Virarājēndra to abandon his campaign in Vengi and fall back on his own territories.
v2.c13.s2.t4.3
¹ CP, 8 of 1924-5; JAHRS, ix, pt. i, p. 24.
v2.c13.s2.t4.4
² Cōḷas, i, 318-19.
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³ EC, vii, Ci. 18.