The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t2: Mahādēva
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t2
- Language
- English
Mahādēva
v2.c15.s2.t2.1
(A.D. 1195/6-98/9)
v2.c15.s2.t2.2
Rudra left no issue; and so after his death in the war with the Yādavas of Dēvagiri, his younger brother Mahādēva ascended the throne, and ruled the kingdom for a short period of about three years. Only one single damaged and fragmentary record of his time has come to light so far, and this gives little or no information about the events of his reign.¹ As for the accounts of his rule embodied in the inscriptions of his successors, these are too vague and general to have much value for the historian, and offer practically no authentic information about his activities. The tradition preserved in the *Pratāpa-charitramu* represents him as a doughty warrior who invaded the Sēuṇa kingdom and perished in an attack on Dēvagiri, the Sēuṇa capital, while fighting seated on the back of an elephant.² This story is partly corroborated by the evidence of the Yenamadala inscription dated Ś. 1172 (A.D. 1249-50), in which it is stated that Mahādēva fell asleep in a great battle on the two temples of a female elephant and awoke to find himself reclining on the bosom of a celestial nymph.³ The contemporary and near contemporary inscriptions of the Sēuṇa kings refer to victories won by them or their predecessors over a Teluṅga king. Their evidence, however, is not consistent. Whereas in some records of Siṅghaṇa he is spoken of as the uprooter of the water-lily, that is, the head of the Teluṅga king, the conqueror of the Teluṅga king, and the establisher subsequently of the Teluṅga king on his throne,⁴ the same acts are attributed in others not to Siṅghaṇa but to his father Jaitugi or Jaitrapāla I. In the Bhawal inscription of Siṅghaṇa dated A.D. 1222-3 it is stated that Jaitrapāla, the ocean of compassion, made Gaṇapati, whose life had been spared in battle, the lord of the Āndhra country.⁵ According to the Paiṭhan copper-plate grant of Rāmachandra, dated A.D. 1271, Jaitugi (Jaitrapāla) slew the king of Trikaliṅga (an obvious mistake for Triliṅga due to confusion caused by the similarity of names) in battle, rescued Gaṇapati from his prison, and made him lord of the land.⁶ As no Teluṅga king either suffered death or began to rule during the time of Siṅghaṇa, the events referred to in the Sēuṇa inscriptions cannot have taken place in his reign (A.D. 1210-47). Jaitugi or Jaitrapāla, who ascended the throne in A.D. 1191, ruled until A.D. 1210; and during this period Rudra was killed, if we can depend upon the evidence of Hēmādri, in a battle with Jaitrapāla in A.D. 1196; Mahādēva, who succeeded him on the throne, lost his life in a battle with the Sēuṇas in A.D. 1199, and his son Gaṇapati succeeded him in the same year. It is therefore certain that the incidents mentioned in the inscriptions cited could only have taken place during the reign of Jaitugi I. It is not unlikely that Siṅghaṇa, as the heir apparent of his father, participated in the fight with the Kākatīyas and took an active part in effecting the release from prison and the restoration of Gaṇapati to his kingdom; and that perhaps was the reason for his assumption of the titles *Teluṅarāya-śiraḥ-kamal-ōtpāṭana* and *Teluṅarāya-sthāpan-āchārya*.
v2.c15.s2.t2.3
¹ *Corpus*, 15.
v2.c15.s2.t2.4
² *Pratāpa-charitramu* (Śaivagranthamāla, Warangal), pp. 40-41.
v2.c15.s2.t2.5
³ *EI*, iii, p. 101.
v2.c15.s2.t2.6
⁴ Fleet: *DKD*, Bombay *Gazetteer*, vol. i, part ii, pp. 524-5; *EC*, viii; Sb. 135, 276.
v2.c15.s2.t2.7
⁵ *EI*, iii, p. 111.
v2.c15.s2.t2.8
⁶ *IA*, xiv, p. 316; *EI*, iii, p. 111.
v2.c15.s2.t2.9
The Sēuṇa inscriptions do not, however, throw any light on the identity of the Teluṅa king whose head was cut off by Jaitugi. As both Rudra and Mahādēva were killed by him in battle these records may be taken to refer to the death of either. The fact that, in almost all these epigraphs, the cutting off of the head of the Teluṅa king is coupled with the release of Gaṇapati from prison and his restoration to his kingdom, demands attention. It clearly indicates that the king who was slain was the immediate predecessor of Gaṇapati, that is, his father, Mahādēva. It is therefore more likely that Gaṇapati accompanied his father rather than his uncle to the battle. However this may be, there is no doubt that the short reign of Mahādēva ended in disaster, and that as a consequence the country was thrown into confusion.
v2.c15.s2.t2.10
Mahādēva had, besides his son Gaṇapati, two daughters, Mēlāmbikā or Mailamā and Kundāmbikā,¹ both of whom were given in marriage to the Natavāḍi chief Rudra, son of Buddha. The marriage of his two daughters with this Natavāḍi prince, Rudra, shows that Mahādēva adhered to the policy of friendship and intermarriage with the feudatory families initiated by his predecessor. Mahādēva was a staunch Śaiva by faith; he was a disciple of the sage Dhruvēśvara from whom he had learnt the *Dharma*. Though he had acquired, by the grace of the Lord of Gauri, the sovereignty of the earth, he is said to have ‘cared not a straw for it, and to have become one completely engrossed in the worship of the lotus feet of the god Śiva’.² In spite, however, of his alleged indifference to worldly power and possessions, he showed no lack of interest in the protection of his kingdom, and never hesitated, when the call of duty came, to sacrifice his life in defence of it.
v2.c15.s2.t2.11
¹ SII, x, 254; AR, 204 of 1905; The Kākatīya Sañchika, App. No. 14.
v2.c15.s2.t2.12
² Corpus, 15.