The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s1.12

v2.c15.s1.12

Thus, in all the important campaigns of the Western Chāḷukya Sōmēśvara I and his son Vikramāditya, the Kākatīyas played a very definite part in helping them to win their victories. At first Bēta I and after him his son Prōla I remained firmly loyal to the Western Chāḷukyan standard, and thus won the affection and favour of their overlords. Delighted by the military ability and unswerving loyalty of Prōla I, the emperor Āhavamalla Sōmēśvara I granted him Anumakoṇḍa-vishaya as a permanent fief. Prōla I thus became the founder of the Kākatīya principality, which under his ambitious successors grew into a powerful kingdom embracing the whole of the country. Although he was engaged in various wars throughout his reign, Prōla I seems yet to have found time to bestow attention on the civil administration of the kingdom and to promote its economic prosperity. According to the inscriptions in the temple of Ekāmranātha at Kāñchī and Mōṭupalli of his grandson Gaṇapati, he constructed an irrigation tank of the name of Kēsari or Jagatikēsari in commemoration of one of his own birudas.¹ Like his father before him, Prōla I was a Śaiva by faith, having been a pupil of Rāmēśvara Paṇḍita, a well-known exponent of the Lākulīśvara-Āgama, on whom he bestowed the village of Vaijanampalli, making it a Śivapura.²