No More Learning

The Foreigners of Bijāpur had, for the moment, gained their end.
Marāthā and Canarese troops, skilled in the guerrilla warfare of the
Deccan, were summoned to the aid of the beleaguered city, and
‘Ain-ul-Mulk easily persuaded the Foreigners of Ahmadnagar and
Golconda to retire before their armies were starved. The army
of
Golconda, which occupied Gulbarga during its retreat, was pursued
and defeated, but that of Ahmadnagar retired unmolested.
The retirement of the enemy revived the striſe of factions.
Ikhlās Khān attacked Dilāvar Khān, the leader of the moderate
party among the Africans, in the citadel, but was deserted by all
his officers and captured and blinded by his rival, who became
supreme in the state. Shāh Abu-'l-Hasan was blinded and shortly
afterwards put to death, and the Shiah religion was suppressed and
persecuted.
Dilāvar Khān remained in power from 1582 to 1590, and though
he established the Sunni religion in Bījāpur he sought peace with
the Shiah kingdoms, and endeavoured to secure it by means of
matrimonial alliances. Ibrāhim II married a princess of Golconda,
and his sister Khadīja was given in marriage to Husain, son and
heir of Murtazā Nizām Shāh, but this alliance bred nothing but


## p. 461 (#509) ############################################

XVII]
RETURN OF BURHĀN
461
strife, and the princess of Bījāpur was neglected until her brother,
by invading Ahmadnagar and besieging the fortress of Ausa, com-
pelied Murtazā to celebrate her marriage with Husain.
Murtazā, whose behaviour had always given indications of
insanity, entirely lost his reason. He attempted the life of his son
Husain by setting fire to his bedclothes, but the prince escaped,
and shortly afterwards, on June 14, 1588, put his father to death
by suffocating him in a heated bath. Ibrāhim II, who was still before
Ausa, upbraided the parricide, but retired to his own dominions in
accordance with the treaty which he had made with Murtazā.
Husain II was a dissolute and bloodthirsty youth who had in-
herited his father's malady, and his deeds of violence and dark
threats so alarmed his nobles that they deposed, imprisoned, and
finally murdered him, and on April 1, 1589, raised to the throne
his cousin Ismāʻil, the younger son of Burhān-ud-din, who had fled
from the wrath of his brother Murtazā and was now in the service
of the emperor Akbar.
During the short reign of Ismā'īl all power in Ahmadnagar was
in the hands of Jamāl Khān, a native Muslim who was followed
by the Deccani party. He belonged to a sect which then, in the
closing years of the tenth century of the era of the Hijra, had
some vogue. These heretics were the Mahdavis, who confidently
expected the manifestation, in the year 1000 of the Islamic era, of
the Mahdī, the twelfth Imām, who was to establish Islam through-
out the world. Jamnāl Khān disestablished the state religion and
persecuted both orthodox Sunnis and heterodox Shiahs.
Ibrāhīm II, moved by these innovations, and by the desire of
liberating his widowed sister, to intervene in Ahmadnagar, sent
Dilāvar Khān to invade that kingdom, and Jamāl Khān purchased
peace by the surrender of Khadīja and the payment of 70,000 hūns.
The advancement of Ismāʻīl to the throne aroused his father,
Burhān, to the assertion of his rights, and he sought and obtained
Akbar's permission to make an attempt to gain his throne. Akbar
indeed pressed upon him, to serve his own ends, the co-operation of
an imperial army, but Burhān wisely declined assistance which
would render him odious in the eyes of his subjects and of the
other kings in the Deccan and would involve him in humiliating
obligations. He believed that his subjects longed for his return,
and that he had only to appear in order to be acclaimed, but a
premature invasion of Berar with an insufficient force ended in his
defeat and his flight into Khāndesh. Here Raja 'Ali Khān assembled
his army to assist him, and secured the co-operation of Ibrāhīm II,


## p. 462 (#510) ############################################

462
(CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
who sent an army under Dilāvar Khān to invade Ahmadnagar from
the south. Jamāl Khān first faced this danger and, having inflicted
a crushing defeat on Dilāvar Khān at Dhārāseo, turned northward
to meet Raja 'Ali Khān and Burhān, who had invaded the kingdom
from the north.
The armies met on May 7, 1591, at Rohankhed", and Jamāl
Khān, who had exhausted his troops by a long forced march
through the burning heat, was defeated and slain. The young
Ismā'il was captured, and Burhān marched on to Ahmadnagar and
took possession of his kingdom under the title of Burhān Nizām
Shāh II. He re-established the Shiah religion and recalled the
Foreigners, who had been ruthlessly expelled.
Dilāvar Khān's defeat had led to his downfall, and he fled from
Bījāpur and entered the service of Burhān II. Ibrāhīm II protested
against his employment by Burhān and demanded the restitution of
300 elephants taken at Dhārāseo. Burhan's reply was a declaration
of war, and on March 15, 1592, he invaded the kingdom of Bījāpur
and restored the old Hindu fort to the south of the Bhima. A force
of Marāthā cavalry sent against him cut off his supplies and com-
pelled him to retire towards his own frontier to revictual his troops,
and the army of Bījāpur followed him and inflicted a severe defeat
on him. Muhammad Quli Shāh and Raja 'Ali Khān exerted them.
selves to restore peace, and Ibrāhīm accepted their conditions,
which obliged Burhān to superintend in person the demolition of
his works at Mangalvedha.
Burhãn in spite of his brother's treaty with the Portuguese,
assembled, in April, 1592, an army which attacked the weakly
garrisoned fortress of Chaul. The Portuguese were hard pressed,
but defended themselves with great vigour until reinforcements
arrived from their other settlements on the coast, when they
assumed the offensive and carried, with a loss of only twenty-nine
men, a fortress held by the Muslims on the opposite bank of the
creek, slaying ten or twelve thousand of Burhān's army. Farhād
Khān, who commanded the Muslims, was captured, with his wife
and daughter. His wife was ransomed, but he and his daughter
were converted to Christianity and went to Portugal.
This disastrous defeat was attributed in great measure to the
treachery of the officers, who, having learned that Burhān was
engaged in intrigues with their wives and daughters at Ahmad-
nagar, betrayed their trust. They belonged to the Deccani faction
and their master rejoiced in their defeat.
1 In 20° 37' N. and 76° 11 E,


## p. 463 (#511) ############################################

XVII
CIVIL WAR IN AHMADNAGAR
463
In 1594 Ismā'il, the elder brother of Ibrāhīm II, rose in rebellion,
and Burhān, who had assembled an army of Foreigners to attack
the Portuguese, marched to his aid, but Ismāʻīl was defeated and
slain before Burhān had advanced beyond Parenda, and the army
of Bījāpur, freed from its preoccupation with the rebel, attacked
him and once more defeated him. He was in weak health, and this
fresh disaster threw him into a state of nervous irritability. He
designated as his heir his elder son, Ibrāhīm. whose mother had
been an African, on which account his younger brother, Ismā'il,
had been preferred to him. Ismā'il was still attached to the Mahdavi
faith and the Deccani faction, and when his father put him to death
for these offences the Deccanis with the army in the field suspected
the Foreigners of complicity in the crime, and began to devise a
fresh massacre of their opponents, but the Foreigners left the army
and joined the king, who had already reached Ahmadnagar. Ikhlās
Khān led the Deccanis back to the capital with the object of de-
throning Burhān, but the king attacked him and drove him back
to Parenda. The exertion and the heat were too much for a frame
enfeebled by excess, disease, and mental anxiety, and on April 28,
1595, Burhān died.
Miyān Manjhū the Deccani, who became minister on the acces-
sion of Ibrāhīm Nizām Shāh, granted an amnesty to Ikhlās Khān
and his faction, and Ikhlās Khān returned to the city and, although
he was a member of the Deccani party and was under an obligation
to the minister, arrayed himself against him. He persuaded the
dissolute young king to declare war on Bījāpur, and, despite Miyān
Manjhū's efforts to avoid actual hostilities, the armies met and
Ibrāhīm was slain. His death was the signal for anarchy in the
kingdom. Chārd Bibi, who had returned to the home of her youth,
stood forth as the champion of order and supported Ibrāhīm's
infant son, Bahādur, but Ikhlās Khān produced a man named
Ahmad, whom he put forward as the son of the sixth son of
Burhān Nizām Shāh I, Khudābanda, who had taken refuge in
Bengal, and on August 16, 1595, proclaimed him king under the
title of Ahmad Nizām Shāh II. Inquiries proved him to be an
impostor, but he was supported by Miyān Manjhū, and civil war
broke out.
The Africans and Deccanis who supported Ahmad soon quar-
relled, and the former proclaimed as king, under the title of Moti
Shāh, a child of unknown origin, and Miyān Manjhū appealed for
help to Sultān Murād, Akbar's second son, who was now governor
of Gujarāt.


## p. 464 (#512) ############################################

464
(CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
?
Akbar, resenting the refusal of Burhān II to swear fealty to him,
had already decided to attack the kingdom of Ahmadnagar, and
the Khăn Khānān in Mālwa as well as the prince in Gujarāt had
been preparing for a campaign in the Deccan, and on receiving
Miyān Manjhū's appeal both set their armies in motion.
Fighting continued at Ahmadnagar and Miyān Manjhū, having
gained a success over the Africans, repented too late of his appeal
to the prince, who, with the Khān Khānān, arrived before the city
on December 26.
There were now four parties in the kingdom. (1) Miyān Manjhū
and the Deccanis, acknowledging the pretender Ahmad II, were on
Bījāpur frontier, seeking help from Ibrāhīm Il; (2) Āhang
Khān' and Habashi Khān, the Africans, acknowledging the third
son of Burhān Nizām Shāh I, the old prince 'Alī, whom they had
summoned from Bījāpur, were also on the southern frontier, with
the same object ; (3) Ikhlās Khān, at the head of another African
faction, acknowledging the child Moti Shāh, was in the neighbour-
hood of Daulatābād ; and (4) Chānd Bibi with the infant king
Bahādur was in Ahmadnagar. All sent envoys to Ibrāhīm II who,
perturbed by a peril which menaced the whole of the Deccan,
begged them to sink their differences and to present a united front
to the invader, and assembled, under the command of the eunuch,
Suhail Khān, an army of 25,000 horse, besides a contingent of 6000
horse contributed by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shāh.
Raja 'Ali Khān of Khāndesh had been obliged to join the
imperial army, but his sympathies lay with the kingdoms of the
Deccan, and his secret messages to the defenders of Ahmadnagar
encouraged them in their resistance.
For this reason, and also owing to the jealousy and the disputes
of Sultān Murād and the Khān Khānān, the siege progressed but
slowly. Ikhlās Khān marched from Daulatābād with 10,000 horse
to relieve the city, but was defeated at Paithan, on the Godāvari.
Āhang Khān then marched from the southern frontier with 7,000
horse, accompanied by Prince 'Ali and his son, Prince Murtazā,
but was so stoutly opposed by the Khān Khānān's troops that he
and the younger prince led no more than 400 horsemen into the
city, after cutting their way through the enemy. The rest of his
force, with the aged Prince 'Ali, fled back to the frontier.
Sultān Murād was much perturbed by the menace of the armies
of Bījāpur and Golconda, which had reached Naldrug, and en-
deavoured to hasten the fall of the city by mining the defences,
1 Also described as Abhang Khān.


## p. 465 (#513) ############################################

XVII)
CESSION OF BERAR
465
but treachery was at work, and secret information enabled the
defenders to remove the charges by countermining, and render the
mines harmless. One, however, remained intact and this, when
exploded, killed many of the garrison and destroyed fifty yards of
the curtain between two bastions, but the breach was so gallantly
defended by Chānd Bībi in person that the assailants were repulsed
and night permitted the defenders to repair the damage.
When Suhail Khān, responding to the urgent appeals of Chānd
Bibi and encouraged by a treacherous message from the Khān
Khānān, whose chief concern was to deprive the prince of the
credit of capturing the city, was within thirty miles Sultān Murad
sent an envoy to Chānd Bībi, offering to raise the siege in return
for the cession of Berar. The garrison was suffering from famine,
but it was with difficulty that the noble queen could be induced
to save the capital by the surrender of the province. After some
hesitation, she consented, and early in April the imperial army
withdrew to take possession of its new conquest.
On the retirement of the besiegers Bahādur Shāh was proclaimed
king Miyān Manjhū attempted to renew the civil war, but was
summoned, with Ahmad II, to Bījāpur by Ibrāhim, who took them
both into the service.
The arrogance and oppressive behaviour of the new minister,
Muhammad Khān, so alienated the nobles and enfeebled the state
that Chānd Bībi was obliged to appeal for assistance to Ibrāhim II,
who sent a force under Suhail Khān, instructing him to place him-
self entirely at her disposal. Muhammad Khān, after being besieged
for four months in Ahmadnagar, sent a message to the Khān Khānān,
begging him to come to his aid, but the garrison on discovering
this act of treason, arrested him and delivered him to Chand Bibi,
who appointed Ahang Khān lieutenant of the kingdom in his place.
War soon broke out again between the empire and Ahmadnagar.
There were complaints on both sides. Gāwil and Narnāla, the great
fortresses of Berar, were still held by officers of Ahmadnagar. On
the other hand the imperial troops had occupied the Pāthri district,
which, they plausibly contended, was part of Berar.
Āhang Khān again appealed to Bījāpur, and Suhail Khān was
sent to his aid, but the armies of Bījāpur and Golconda were
utterly routed by the Khān Khānān in the neighbourhood of Sonpet,
on the Godāvarī, after a battle lasting for two days, on February 9,
1597.
Ahang Khăn quarrelled with Chānd Bībi and besieged her in
the ſort of Ahmadnagar. The disputes between Murād and the
30
C. H. I. III.


## p. 466 (#514) ############################################

466
[ CH. XVII
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
Khăn Khānān continued until the latter was summoned to court
and the former died of drink at Shahpur, near Bālāpur in Berar.
Shaikh Abu-'l. Fazl was sent to the Deccan, but could effect little,
and Āhang Khān gained a success over the imperial officer who
held Bir.
In 1999 Akbar's youngest son, Dāniyāl, and Khān Khānān
were appointed to the Deccan, and the emperor followed them and
encamped at Burhānpur while his army besieged Asīt. The prir. ce
and the Khăn Khānān advanced towards Ahmadnagar, and Āhang
Khān, raising the siege, marched to meet them at Jeūr, but the
sight of the imperial army approaching him overcame his resolution,
and he fled in terror to Junnār, leaving Ahmadnagar to its fate.
Chānd Bībī at length lost heart. Summoning Jita Khān, a
eunuch who had been her confidant since Āhang Khān had turned
against her, she sought his advice. He replied it was for her
to take a decision, and she confessed that she could suggest nothing
but a surrender on terms. Jita Khān ran out crying that she had
turned traitress, and wished to surrender the fortress to the Mughul,
and a turbulent mob rushed into the inner apartments of the palace
and slew her.
Dāniyāl and the Khān Khānān appeared before the city, and
the mob who had found courage to murder their queen had little
left for the defence of their homes. The defences were destroyed
by mines and the place was carried by assault. The young king,
Bahādur, was sent as a state prisoner to Gwalior and Ahmadnagar
was garrisoned by a force of imperial troops.
a


## p. 467 (#515) ############################################

CHAPTER XVIII
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA,
1000-1565
INDIA, south of the Vindhyas, always exhibited a tendency
politically to fall into two well-marked divisions, the boundaries
of which varied at different periods of history. About the year
A. D. 1000 this tendency was working itself out by a new shiſting
of the powers under two large political divisions. The kingdom
of the Chālukyas, called for distinction the later Chālukyas or even
the Chālukyas of Kalyāni, had its capital at Kalyāni in the Nizam's
dominions. The Chālukyas may be regarded as a Deccan power
whose original territory comprised the central and southern divi-
sions of the Bombay Presidency and the western half of the
Nizām's dominions. Along the Arabian Sea coast their territory
extended well past Goa and varied from time to time in regard to
its exact southernmost limit. In the north their territory extended
even to Gujārat. But the simultaneous rise to power of the Para-
maras of Mālwa kept them limited on this frontier to the region
south of the Narbada, if not the Vindhya mountains themselves.
The really uncertain and therefore the changing frontier was the
eastern and southern. At the best, this frontier stretched so far as
to take into the Chālukyan territory, the modern State of Mysore,
and from there continued along the Tungabhadra till it joins the
Krishna, proceeding north-eastwards through the middle of the
Nizām's dominions across to the east of Nāgpur in the Central
Provinces. The most vulnerable part of this frontier was the part
extending along the Krishna from its junction with the Tunga-
bhadra almost to its source, so that the region between the rivers
Krishna and Tungabhadra constituted the bone of contention
between the rival powers throughout the eleventh century.
The southern power contemporary with the Chālukyas was the
great dynasty of the Cholas, coming into notice almost a century
earlier than their rivals. They slowly forged their way up despite
the crushing weight of the imperial power of the Răshtrakūtas of
the Deccan. When these were overthrown by the Chālukyas about
the end of the tenth century the Cholas had put themselves on a
footing of some permanence and power. The advent of Rājarāja.
the Great, who was to have succeeded almost at the same time as
the Rāshtrakūtas were overthrown, introduced a new spirit into
the activities of the Cholas. They took advantage of the change of
30-2


## p. 468 (#516) ############################################

468 HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA (CH.
on
dynasties and consequent neglect of the southern frontier to go
forward and occupy the territory of the Gangas by overthrowing
them finally. This gave them southern and by far the greatest
division of the territory of what is now the Mysore State, from
which as a salient, they could carry on their war against the
Chālukyas with advantage. This accession to the Chola territory
took place in A. D. 1000 or 1001.
When the dynasty revolution was developing in the territory
of the Rāshtrakūtas, the Eastern Chālukyas, whose territory in-
cluded the part of the Madras Presidency north of Madras, had
their own domestic troubles, which do not appear to have abated
very much by the success of their cousins in the Deccan. Rājarāja
took advantage of the opportunity and came to terms with them,
supporting Vimalāditya on the throne and scaling the treaty by the
marriage of his own daughter Kundavvai to the Chālukya prince.
This treaty proved of a lasting character, and the Cholas had no
trouble this frontier except when outside powers like the
Chālukyas tried to make a diversion. When Rājarāja's rule came
to an end in about A. D. 1016 his frontier extended so far as to take
into his territory the whole of the plain districts of the Mysore
country and outside the State of Mysore, with the Tungabhadra
marking the frontier. His son who ascended the throne nominally
in A. D. 1011 and actually in 1016 had alrcady seen considerable
service under his father. He proceeded from this base to beat the
Chālukyas back beyond the line of the Krishna, taking Banavāsi,
Mālkhed and Kollippākkai, which were the key to the possession
of the debatable land of the tract between the Krishna and the
Tungabhadra. That done he could feel that he had reached a
definitive frontier between the two powers and marched thence to
invade the territory of Kalinga, extending from the mouths of the
Ganges southwest and southwards along the coast to not far from
the mouth of the Godāvarī. This invasion seems to have been
undertaken with a view to bringing the Kalingas to such a sense of
subordination to him that they might refrain from molesting him
in his eastward expedition across the seas to the Malaya peninsula
and the island of Sumatra, where he had to fight against the rising
imperial power of Sri Bhoja in behalf of the various Tamil settle-
ments in the island and along the coast of the peninsula opposite?
The wars of his successors had no further object in view than to
maintain this frontier. They sometimes carried raids into the
"Overseas Conquests of Dājendra Chola” : The Madras Christian College
Magazine for April 1921.
1


## p. 469 (#517) ############################################

XVII ]
CHOLAS AND CHĀLUKYAS
469
a
interior of the Chālukya territory even as far as Kolhāpur itself,
where one of the Cholas claims to have planted a pillar of victory,
Notwithstanding these occasional raids the frontier remained where
Rajendra the Gangaikonda Chola had actually fixed it.
These powerful dynasties, the Cholas and the Chālukyas, were
well matched in resources both material and personal ; each had a
succession of capable rulers, and used its resources with a view to
the attainment of a frontier which would put an end to perpetual
wars. Further wars therefore resolved themselves into a fight for
the possession of the Doāb and the State of Mysore. This war was
ultimately decided in favour of the Chālukyas under their greatest
ruler and his equally great contemporary among the Cholas. These
two rulers were both of them usurpers in a sense, and used the
power that they acquired to get a final settlement of the long-
standing frontier problem. Vikramāditya VI, the second son of
Sõmēsvara Āhavamalla, overthrew his brother, also a Sõmēsvara,
after a short reign and ascended the throne in 1076. His contem-
porary, the Chālukya-Chola Kulottunga, ascended the Chola throne
in 1070. He was a grandson by the daughter of Rājendra, the
Gangaikonda Chola, and was the legitimate ruler of the territory
of the Eastern Chālukyas. He seems to have found this too small a
patrimony, and would succeed to the imperial Chola throne and
not remain content with his own territory. What exactly his title
to this was, except through his mother, is not made clear. He
seems to have bided his time and taken advantage of the machina-
tions of his contemporary Vikramāditya to place himself on the
throne of the Chālukyas. Sõmēsvara the father died in 1069, and
Somēsvara II, the elder son, succeeded. Vikramāditya already
held the position of viceroy of Banavāsi which included in it the
wardenship of the southern marches of the Chālukya territory,
While still viceroy of this province he concluded a treaty with the
contemporary Chola, Vira Rājendra, whose daughter he married.
Vīra Rājendra died and was succeeded by his son, the brother-in-
law of Vikramāditya, and Kulottunga found an opportunity of
over throwing this new ruler and of occupying the Chola throne.
Vikramāditya was baulked in his ambition by this coup of his con-
temporary, and had to wait for yet another five years before he
could put his own plans into execution. Both of them ruled for
about half a century, Kulottunga's reign lasting from 1070 to 1118
at least, and that of Vikramāditya from 1076 to 1128. During the
first decade of their rule Vikramāditya's efforts were so far success-
fuļ that a considerable part of the territory of Mysore passed into
a
>


## p. 470 (#518) ############################################

470
[CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
a
success.
his hands, and this progress continued till Chola rule in Mysore
was put an end to by Av. 1117, about the end of the reign of
Kulottunga Chola'. The chieftain who was responsible for this was
the feudatory of the Chālukya emperor who laid the foundations
of the greatness of the Hoysalas. The eleventh century for south
India may therefore be regarded as the century of struggle for the
fixing of a definitive frontier between the two contending empires.
The recurring frontier wars notwithstanding, this was a period
of very successful administration both in the territory of the
Cholas and that of the Chālukyas. It is the records of these two
dynasties that enable us to see at their best the highly organised
and systematic administration that obtained in the whole region.
The civil administration was carried on largely by local agency, the
central government retaining only oversight and control in cases
of dispute. The ordinary routine of the administration was carried
on by village and town organisations and as far as we can
see from
this distance of time, this administration was carried on with great
The main duty of the imperial rulers was to assure to the
people protection from external enemies and internal disturbances.
Except on the fighting frontiers the whole country seems to have
enjoyed this peace and protection in a very large measure. Large
public works were undertaken, and considerable stimulus was given
to learning and religion, in regard to the latter of which it was a
period of great ferment. In spite of the financial enthusiasm of
some of the religious leaders the movements were kept well under
control and proceeded smoothly to work themselves out. With the
passing away of these two rulers at the end of the first quarter of
the twelfth century, the usual process of disintegration sets in.
The kingdom of the Chālukyas underwent a dismemberment before
the end of the century, and that of the Cholas continued almost
intact until about the middle of the next century when it was
overthrown by the revival of the Pāndyan state of Madura, which
had been early reduced to subjection by the Cholas. At the period
of the Muhammadan invasions of south India therefore, the politi-
cal division of the country was very different from what it was in
the eleventh century. In the working out of this transformation
the feudatory dynasties of the Chālukyas played a very important
part, and among these the chief distinction must be given to the
Hoysalas of Dvārasamudra.
In the recesses of the Western Ghāts there is a small village,
called Angadi since the days of Achyutarāya of Vijayanagar, in
1 Ancient India, Ch. vi.
2 Ep. Car. VI, p. 14 and v, Bl. 197.


## p. 471 (#519) ############################################

XVII ]
THE HOYSALAS
471
over the
.
the Mudegare taluk of the modern district of Kadur in Mysore.
It apparently derived its importance from its situation at the point
where the two roads from the Mysore State meet the road
Ghāts from Mangalore. These two roads are of considerable im-
portance from the point of view of the coffee planting industry
now, and they seem to have enjoyed the same degree of import-
ance even in those earlier days when the trade was in other com-
modities for which the region has always been famous. Before the
days of the Vijayanagar king Achyuta, the place seems to have
been generally known as Vāsantikāpura, apparently from the temple
of the village goddess now popularly called Vāsantamma, or more
formally Vāsantikādēvi. It had the alternative name Sasakapura
(hare-town) with it modern equivalent Sosevur, and it was here
that the Hoysalas had their origin.
The Hoysalas were a family of petty hill chiefs of the Western
Ghāts, and each ruler, even in the days of their highest prosperity
styled himself, “the man among the hill chiefs” (Malaparol-Ganda).
The first reference to the Hoysalas in inscriptions is found in a
Chola record of A. D. 1007. The first member of the family of any
note was Nripakāma, who is mentioned in . 1022. The highest
achievement of this chief was the assistance that he rendered to
the chief of Banavāsi against his enemies, who are described by
name. The origin of his epithet, 'the Base,' has not been traced,
but it probably explains the omission of his name from the later
genealogies. In a record of 1026 he is said to have been defeated
by the Kongālva feudatory of the Cholas, Rajendra Chola Prithvi
Kongālva.
He is himself given the title Rājamalla Perumānadi'i
in another record, a clear indication that he was a Ganga feudatory,
who bore his overlord's title. His son was Vinayāditya’ the first
important member of the family to figure in the records of the
suzerain power, ihat of the Chālukyas. The period of Nripakāma
and his son
a period of wars between the Cholas and the
Chālukyas for the possession of Mysore. It was by distinguished
service in these wars that these chieftains rose to importance.
Vināyaditya's full style is Tribhuvana Hoysala, and later genealo-
gies generally begin with his name. His headquarters were yet at
Sasakapura, while in the days of his grandson, his successor, the
capital was shiſted to Belūrs. In the records of the great Chālukya
ruler Sömēsvara Āhavamalla 1044 - 1069, Vinayāditya's name occurs
as the Mahāmandalēsvara of Gangavādi, 96,000. This vast province,
1 Ep. Car. vi, Mg. 19.
2 Ibid. v, Ag. 141.
3 Ibid. vi, Cm. 160 and iv, Ng. 32.
was


## p. 472 (#520) ############################################

472
[ CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
which included almost the whole of the modern districts of Mysore,
Bangalore and Kolar, was a province of the Cholas at the time, and
was divided by them into three districts. The appointment of a
Chālukya governor over this province at the time, with a capital
far removed from the region itself, means that the governorship
was the wardenship of the southern marches, where there would be
ample opportunity for achieving distinction in war. It was from
this struggle for the possession of what now constitutes the plateau
of Mysore that the Hoysalas emerged into importance and suc-
ceeded ultimately in carving out for themselves from the
membered Chālukya kingdom a state which became the most
influential power in the succeeding period of South Indian
history.
Reverting to the history of this struggle between the kingdoms,
the Cholas had the upper hand to begin with, and carried all before
them in the days of Rājarāja and his son, leaving to the Chālukyas
the possession of only Banavāsi, one of the three divisions of what
is now the State of Mysore. It has already been stated that Rājendra
held possession of important fortresses on this frontier which are
oſten described as "the key to the south,' or 'the bolt against the
south. ' He seems to have inflicted a defeat upon his contemporary
Chālukya Jayasimha, but does not appear to have pressed the enemy
farther. When he died, in the forty fourth year of his reign, he was
succeeded by three of his sons, one after another. His immediate
successor carried the war into his enemy's country, as far north
as Kolhāpur itself. By this time the Chālukya territories were
under the rule of Somēsvara Āhavamalla (or 'the Great in War').
Sõmēsvara was able to hold up the Chola army at Koppa on the
Krishna, a few miles south east of Kolhāpur, and after a strenuous
fight the day went against the Cholas, Rājādhirāja falling in battle.
His younger brother, who brought up reinforcements, retrieved the
fortunes of the day, and claims to have set up a pillar of victory in
Kolhāpur itself. The war continued between Sõmēsvara and the
next Chola brother who succeeded these two with varying fortunes.
In the course of one of the wars Sõmēsvara seems to have entrusted
the southern division of his kingdom, the most vulnerable at the
time, to his second and most talented son, who afterwards ascended
the throne as Vikramāditya. This Prince did his utmost to main-
tain his position in the south and carried the war into the Chola
country itself, but was checked on the banks of the Tungabhadra
by the energetic Chola ruler Vīra Rājēndra. Vikramaditya tried
diplomacy when war failed, and seems to have created a diversion


## p. 473 (#521) ############################################

Vin]
VIKRAMĀDITYA CHĀLUKYA
473
against Vira Rājēndra on
Rājëndra on the eastern Chālukya frontier. He
ultimately succeeded in coming to an understanding with Vira
Rājēndra in regard to the debatable frontier, the treaty being
sealed by the marriage of Prince Vikramāditya with Vira Rājēndra's
daughter. While these negotiations were still in progress, the
Chālukya king Sõmēsvara had an attack of a malignant fever and
died, in obedience to religious advice, by drowning himself in the
Tungabhadra. His eldest son Sõmēsvara succeeded to the throne.
At the same time the other enterprising Chālukya prince Kulot-
tunga attempted to seize the Chola throne. Records bearing on this
affair are laconic, merely stating that Vikramāditya entered the
Chola capital Gangaikonda-Solapuram, a new foundation of Rājēn-
dra, the Gangaikonda Chola, and placed on the throne his brother-
in-law, who, however, was immediately deposed by his subjects.
Whether Kulottunga, the Chālukya, prince, had any share in this
is not known; but that he actually occupied the throne and suc-
ceeded to the kingdom is undoubted. His father died seven years
before this at Rājahmundry, his ancestral capital. There is nothing
to show that Kulottunga ever occupied his father's throne at Raja-
mandri. He seems to have remained in the territory of the Cholas
in the region round Kānchi, and let others govern the Eastern
Chālukya territory, perhaps in his name. Kulottunga occupied the
Chola throne from 1070 to 1118 at least, and his contemporary
Vikramāditya ascended the throne six years later and continued
to rule till 1128.
In all these transactions between the Cholas and the Chālukyas,
both diplomatic and warlike, the Governors of Gangavādi and
Nolambavādi have had their share. While inscriptions of Vira
Rājēndra claim for him the credit of having granted to Vikra-
māditya, the Chālukya prince, the Yauvarājya or the position of
heir-apparent to the Chālukya kingdom, Hoysala inscriptions of
1100 claim for Ereyanga the son of Vinayāditya the Hoysala
governor of Gangavādi, that he caused Tribhuvanamalla's (Vikra-
māditya's) eleder brother to sheathe his sword. His father-in-law
Irukkapāla similarly lays claim to having defeated Bhuvanaikamalla
(the Chālukya king Sõmēsvara), and gave the kingdom to Vikra-
māditya whose right-hand Ereyanga, the Hoysala prince, is described
to have been. It becomes thus clear that, not withstanding the
statements in Bilhana's Vikramāoka-dēvacharitam, Vikramāditya
planned and carried out the usurpation, and, in this enterprise, he
had the assistance of the southern chiefs. Ereyanga seems to have
taken part in the distant northern expeditions of the Chālukyas,


## p. 474 (#522) ############################################

474
[CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
as he claims a victory at Dhār in Malva, then under the successors
of the great Bhoja. Ereyanga obviously died before his father and
left three sons by his wife Echaladēvi, the daughter of the Nolamba
chief referred to already.
Vinayāditya was succeeded in the governorship of Gangavādi
96,000, by his eldest grandson Ballāla I in 1101. His capital was
at Bēlūr, with which the Hoysala dynasty was throughout the
period of their rule associated, though Dvārasamudra became later
on an alternative capital. The territorry under Ballāla I is given
the same boundaries as that of his grandfather, and he is said to
have paid a visit to the family capital Sosevur. In A. D. 1103 he
made a re-grant of Sindagere to Mariāne Dandanāyaka as wages
for wet-nursing his three daughters whom Ballāla married in the
same pavilion at Bēlür. The next year he led an expedition against
the Changālva chiefs whose territory lay in the Hole-Narasipur
taluk of the Hassan district of Mysore. He conducted a successful
expedition the same year with his younger brother Vishnu into
the neighbouring Pandya dominions of Nolambavādi, and had to
repulse an invader, Jagad-dēva, who had penetrated as far as
Dvārasamudra. An inscription of Ballāla's time is dated in Chālukya.
Vikramāditya's era (K. 55).
Ballāla I was succeeded by his younger brother Bitti-dēva
(Vishnu-dēva), better known by his later titles Vishnuvardhana.
He was the founder of Hoysala greatness, and his titles are carried
down in later inscriptions not only to his successors generally,
some of them posthumously to his predecessors. His name is
found mentioned for the first time in a record of 1100, associated
with that of his brother Ballāla I. Records of Ballāla I do not
go beyond 1105, at which date or soon after Vishnu must have
ascended the throne. His real exploits however begin ten years
later, according to the inscriptions, making it possible that Ballāla
continued his reign even for some time after 1106. Notwithstanding
all previous claims to conquest, Vishnu's signal achievements consist
of the conquest of Gangavādi and the partial conquest of Nolamba-
vādi, which together constitute his claim to greatness, as among one
of the greatest of Vikramāditya's Mahāmandalsēvaras. A number
of generals claim the conquest of Gangavādi, and inscriptions
generally make a great deal of these conquests. Vishnu even
assumes two special titles from this conquest namely, “Vira-
Ganga' and 'Talakādu-gonda' (taker of Talakād). This conquest
of Gangavādi took place before 1117. Vishnu took the province
after overthrowing the Chola generals Adiyama, Dāmõdara and


## p. 475 (#523) ############################################

XVIII ]
CONQUESTS OF THE HOYSALAS
475
Narasimhavarma. This conquest was apparently real, as Vishnu
was able to undertake a tour through the territories of Gangayādi
in the course of which at the Vijayāditya-mangala (mod, Betman-
gala) his niece, the daughter of his brother Udayāditya, died. At
about the same time he carried on a successful expedition against
Nolambavādi and won a victory over the Pāndya ruler of the
country at Dumme, on the borderland between Shimoga and Chittal.
droog districts. By the year 1117, therefore, Vishnu had become
master of Gangavādi 96,000, and had made himself felt in Nolamba-
vādi also. Inscriptions of Vishnu mark the year as an epoch in the
history of the Hoysala power. A number of inscriptions chiefly
the one at Bēlür, inscribed on the occasion of the dedication of the
temple after Vishnu had adopted the teachings of Rāmānuja, the
Vaishnava apostle, give an elaborate history of his conquests and
sum up his achievements previous to the date by giving his territory
the boundaries of the lower Ghāt of Nangali on the east, Kongu,
Chēram and Ānaimalai in the south, Bārakanūr and other Ghāts
of Konkana on the west, and Sāvimalai in the north. Of these
Nangali is the pass through the Eastern Ghāts six miles east of
Mulhagal on the Madras-Bangalore road. Kongu and Chēram are
the well-known divisions in the middle across to the west coast,
and Ānaimalai is a hill in the Coimbatore district belonging to the
Western Ghāts. Bārakanūr is the Bārkālūr Ghāt in the Western
Ghāts. So far the boundary gives him the boundary of the modern
State of Mysore on three sides. The northern boundary of Sāvi-
malai has not yet been satisfactorily identified. If it is a place
on the Krishna in its upper reaches it can only be regarded as an
anticipation of the conquests of his grandson. A record of the year
1118 describes him as in residence at Talakad, thus indicating full
possession of the Gangavādi province by him. He is said in the
year 1121 to be again at his headquarters at Dvārasamudra,
and it was in this year that Kētamalla, probably a merchant, built
the magnificent temple dedicated to Siva under the name Vishnu.
vardhana. Hoysalēsvara at Halēbid. In the same year he made a
grant, with his queen-consort and the council of five ministers, to
the temple of Jayangondēsvara, obviously a Siva temple of Chola
foundation,
In 1123 Vishnu is again on the banks of the Kāveri while his
northern boundary is described as the Pērddore, that is, the river
Krishna. In 1128 he is in his royal residence at Yādavapura
(Mēlkõtte), and makes a grant from there to Mārbalatirtha, the
Saiva shrine on the Chāmundi Hill in Mysore. It was in this year .


## p. 476 (#524) ############################################

476
(CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
that the Chālukya king Vikramāditya died, and his great con-
temporary Kulottunga died about a decade earlier and was succeeded
by his son Vikraina Chola. This last seems to have carefully checked
Hoysala aggression in the south so that Vishnu had to devote
himself to acquiring territory in the north. Vikramāditya was
succeeded by his son Sõmēsvara, with the title 'Bhūlõkamalla. '
During the first year of his reign the boundaries of the Hoysala
territory are defined exactly, as before, with Sāvimalai for the
northern limit. The new succession seems to have stimulated
Vishnu's activities afresh, and this renewed activity seems to have
frightened Sõmēsvara. Even while Vikramāditya was alive this
aggressive activity of the Hoysala chieftain attracted the attention
of the king, who deputed a number of his more loyal governors,
chief among them the Kadambas of Goa and the Sinda chieftain of
Elberga, to check the rising Hoysala. The Sinda chieftain Achugi II
who like the Hoysala Ereyanga, Vishnu's father, laid claim to
having rendered valuable services to Vikramāditya in his usurpa-
tion, seems to have inflicted a check if not a defeat on Vishnu's
general Gangarāja, which constrained him to suspend activities for
some time. These were renewed after the death of the great king.
In 1130 we find the Hoysalas supreme over the whole of the present
territory of Mysore with some territory in the region of Kongu
along the foothills of the Ghāts, together with portions of the
district of Dhārwār, Nolambavādi or Eastern Mysore being in large
part still out of thc Hoysala territory. Even within the narrow
limits of this territory he had enemies yet to overcome, such as the
Chengālva and Kongālva chiefs along the Western Ghats. Gangarāja
seems to have been so devoted to the Jain faith that he is given
credit for having restored all the Jain shrines destroyed during
the repeated invasions of the Cholas, and made Mysore shine like
Köpana (Koppal in the Nizāın’s dominions). For some year Vishnu
was chiefly engaged in the north against the chiefs on the frontier
for the final acquisition of Banavāsi and Nolambavādi. For, in spite
of the Mysore records, inscriptions of Sõmēsvara III show a series
of governors in charge of Banavāsi, and Vira-Pandya is said to
have been ruling from Uchangi-durga, the province of Nolambāvadi
32,000 Chālukya records of 1137 for the first time show Vishnu-
vardhana to be the Mahāmandalēsvara in charge of Gangavādi,
Nolambavādi and Banavāsi, constituting the whole of the present
State of Mysore. This year, therefore, may be regarded as marking
an epoch in the rise of the Hoysalas to independence, and the ten
years between the death of Vikramāditya and this must have been


## p. 477 (#525) ############################################

XVIII)
DECLINE OF THE CHÄLUKYAŚ
477
Even so,
a period of struggle to reach this assured position.
Bankāpur in Dhārwār must be regarded as the northern limit of his
conquests, all Hoysala statements to the contrary notwithstanding.
Vishnuvardhana then must be credited with having succeeded in
uniting the whole of the modern Mysore State under his rule ; but
he did not venture to assume the royal dignity. During the re-
maining years of his life he devoted himself to securing his position
on the northern frontier where things were moving fast towards
disruption. He marked his accession to royal power in this year
by the performance of the royal act of tulā purusha? . ' He weighed
himself against gold and distributed it among Brāhmans and other
deserving recipients of charitable gifts. The next year he had to
repulse an invasion of Dvārasamudra by Jagad. dēva and himself
laid siege to Hangal in Dhārwār thereby making it clear that his
position in the north was far from certain.
In this same year, 1138, the Chālukya Sõmēsvara III died and
was succeeded by his son Jagadēkamalla in the Chalukya kingdom.
Vishnu renewed his aggressions, taking advantage of the new succes.
sion, but was again baulked by the activities of the loyal governors
of the kingdom. His activity ceased in 1141 or soon after, and though
he was virtually independent he never ventured to assume the
royal title. He was succeeded by his son Vijaya Narasimha, who is
generally said to have been crowned at his birth. He was a child
of eight at his accession, and his territory could be preserved only
by the efforts of his father's generals in the struggle that followed
the disruption of the Chālukya kingdom,
Vikramāditya's long reign of fifty-two years was, as has already
been remarked, one of peace, except for one invasion of the Chola
territory and the occasional checks that had to be administered to
the rising ambitions of the Hoysala feudatory in the last years of his
reign. Vikramāditya had occasionally to carry on wars across the
Narbada ; but these wars were not of frequent occurrence. At his
l
death his kingdom extended from Broach to Erode and from Man-
galore to the Sītābaldi hills in the Central Provinces. This vast
territory was parcelled out into a number of viceroyalties ; the
Seunas or Yādavas with a capital at Sinnar near Nāsik and later
at Deogiri ; the Silāharas of the northern and southern Konkan-
and of Kolhāpur, and the Kadambas of Goa and Hangal. East
of these were the territories of the Sindas at Elberga, of the
Guttas of Guttal in Dhārwār, and of the Rattas of Saundatti in
1 Ep. Car. Bl. 17, cf. 1136.
? Ibid, vi, Cin. 161
3 lbid v, p. xviii.


## p. 478 (#526) ############################################

478
(CH.
HINDU STATES İN SOUTHERN INDIA
Belgaum. Then came the royal domain, namely, all the Nizām's
dominions except the most easterly part, the Khammamet division,
and lastly the viceroyalty in the Central Provinces with its capital
at Sītābaldi'. This leaves out Banavāsi, Nolambavādi and Ganga-
vādi under the Hoysalas, although up to the last years of Vishnu-
vardhana almost, other viceroys continued to be appointed for the
two former. This great kingdom passed in 1128 to his son Sõmēs.
vara III, who was succeeded in 1138 by his son Pērma Jagadēka-
malla who ruled till 1150. In this reign comes to notice a young
man of promise whose father was governor of Tardavādi 1000, a
district round Bijāpur, an alternative capital of the Chālukyas.
This was Bijjala. He became governor of the same province as his
father, and later was appointed viceroy of Nolambavādi and Bana.
vāsi, governing these provinces by deputies while he himself remained
at the capital like the Sayyid brothers under the Mughul emperor
Farrukhsiyar. This change in the position of Bijjala is already
noticeable under Jagadēkamalla ; but when the latter was succeeded
by his brother Taila III, his power grew perceptibly till in 1156 he
became virtually ruler, though Taila reigned nominally till 1163.
Another enterprising ruler about this time was rising on the
horizon of history on the eastern frontier. After the accession of
Vikrama Chola the Eastern Chālukya dominions fell into disorder,
and an enterprising chief between the two Chālukya kingdoms
found his opportunity. Just within the frontier of the Eastern
Chālukyas is the hamlet of Anamakonda, the ancestral capital of
the Kākatiyas, known generally as the Kākatiyas of Warangal,
which his son Prola founded and whither he had shifted the capital.
This Prola lays claim to having defeated Tailapa some time in his
reign, and it was very likely that this took place in 1155. This
external shock combined with the loss of hold on the Mahāmanda-
lēsvaras must have thrown Tailapa into the arms of Bijjala, who
for the time proved the saviour of the empire. Bijjala having thus
acquired power gradually assumed royal state. His usurpation was
opposed alike by the loyal Sindas, in spite of their family alliance
with him, and by the Pāndyas of Nolambavādi, but Bijjala succeeded,
and he and his three sons continued to rule the kingdom for twenty
years, from 1163 to 1183 when Bomma or Brāhma, son of Bijjala's
general Kāmadeva or Kāvana, restored the son of Taila III under
the title Somèsvara IV. Sömēsvara IV ruled till 1189, and his
rule was confined to the southern and south-western parts of his
dominions. A combination of some of his chiefs against him and
1 Fleet : Bom. Gaz. 1, Pt. i, pp, 450-1.
!


## p. 479 (#527) ############################################

Xvni
YADAVAS AND KÅKATİYAS
479
his loyal feudatories the Sindas compelled him to retire to the
northern frontier of his dominions, and nothing more was heard of
him. In the scramble for territory that followed two leading powers
divided the kingdom, the Yādavas of Deogir and the Hoysalas of
Dvārasamudra, the Kākatīyas of Warangal taking a humbler share
of the spoil.
Narasimha succeeded to the throne as a boy and ruled for thirty•
two years. His reign was co-eval with the reigns of Jagadekamalla
and Taila III, and ran into a part of the usurpec Bijjala's reign.
Though Vishnuvardhana's title to Banavāsi and Nola mbavādi had
been in a way recognised in 1137 or 1138 under Sömēsvara III,
other royal officers continued to be appointed for the viceroyalty of
each of these provinces. These were included in the commissioner-
ship of the southern treasury' held by Bijjala himself. As a matter
of fact no Hoysala inscriptions have co. ne from these provinces
dated before the reign of Vira Ballāla II. During the reign of
Narasimha therefore these provinces may be taken to have been
outside his territory though his general Bokimayya or Bokana
brought under subjection to him the Tulu, the Changālva, the
Kongālva territories, and Bayalnādu (Wainād) in 1155. The same
general marched upon Bankapura, then in the occupation of the
Kadambas, and defeated them. It was during this period that
Bijjala was carrying out his scheme of usurpation, and Narasimha
obtained some successes both against other viceroys and Bijjala
himself by means of the opposition set up to Bijjala's usurpation.
In the course of this struggle Narasimha was gradually able to
impose his influence upon both Nolambavādi and Banavāsi, leaving
his son to complete the conquests of these provinces. Narasimha
died in 1173, and was succeeded by his son Vira Ballāla II, who
ruled for forty-seven years, from 1173 to 1220.
Vira Ballāla's reign coincided in the earlier part with the reign
of Bijjala's sons, extending from 1167 to 1186, and he took advantage
of the unpopularity of the usurpation to consolidate his own king-
dom. Vira Ballāla had already distinguished himself under his
father's general Tantrapāla Hemmādi in the conquest of the hill
territories and those of the Kongālva, Changälva and others. From
the date of his accession references to Chālukya overlordship dis-
appear from inscriptions, as in fact it was the period of usurpation
by the Kalachūryas. Although Vira Ballāla did not assume formal
independence and even recognised the overlordship of Sankama.
the third son of Bijjala, he was more or less independent. About
the year 1178 he brought under subjection the province of


## p. 480 (#528) ############################################

480
CH,
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
Nolambavādi after capturing its capital Ucchangidurga. He restored
the capital to Vijaya Pāndya on his submission. The loyalist opposi-
tion to the usurpers does not appear to have died out, and the
Hoysalas seem to have acted against the Pandyas of Nolambavādi
with the countenance of the last usurper. This brought on an in-
vasion of the Hoysala territory by the loyalist general Bamma who
restored the Chālukya dynasty by setting Sömēsvara IV on his
ancestral throne in 1183. Sõmēsvara was compelled to retire to the
southwest of his dominions before the rising power of the Yādavas
under Bhillama on the one side, and that of the Kākatiyas under
Prola and his son Pratā parudra I on the other. This extension of
the Yādava power brings the Hoysalas and the Yādavas face to face
on the banks of Mālprabhā and then the Krishna. It was in this
neighbourhood that a battle was fought, at Soratūr near Gadag,
where Bhillama Yādava was finally defeated, and the fort of Lokundi
in Dhārwār was occupied by Vira Ballāla in 1190. He captured
besides other fortified places in the same neighbourhood, between
the present Mysore frontier and the Krishna. Sömēsvara had dis-
appeared before this as a reuslt of a defeat suffered by him from
his feudatories, and this victory gave Vira Ballāla the occasion for
assuming formal independence, as no suzerain remained. The loyal
Sindas had already been overpowered, and there was no power
between the Hoysalas and the Yādavas. The Mālprabhā and the
Krishna formed the boundary between these two contending powers
on the western side of the Chālukya dominions, the eastern territory
passed into the hands of the Kākatiyas. Vira Ballāla therefore
assumed in 1191-92 the titles of a paramount power, and signalised
the event by starting an era in his name. The remaining thirty
years of his reign were devoted to the work of settling a definitive
northern frontier for the Hoysalas and consolidating the territory
acquired by them.
During this period the Chola kingdom on the south remained
intact except for the loss of hold on the northern part of the terri-
tory which, during the period of the Kylachūrya usurpation, was
fast passing into the hands of the rising power of the Kākatiyas,
Vikrama Chola was followed by a succession of three rulers who
managed to keep their territory free from disturbance except for
the attempt of the Pāndyas in the distant south to regain their
independence. This was kept well under control on the whole till
the Pāndyas enlisted on their side the support of the powerful con-
temporary Celyon ruler Parākrama Bāhul. With this new accession
1 S. India and her Muhammadan Invadrs, Lect. I.