No More Learning



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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


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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


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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


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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
>


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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.


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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


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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


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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,


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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


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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 .


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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.


## p. 480 (#529) ############################################

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III
Map 7

72
78
co
84
es
Tropic of
Cancer
BENGAL
N. LĀTA
Dhår
No Bendte
ODDA
Tépil
Wains
Srubeldi
S. LĀTA
Nasik
20
Mahanadi
S Cuttack
Udayagiri
Mahendragiri
20
DAVAS
Deogiei
Penganga
Vziragarh
Jagdalpuro,
1
Sinnar
zu
AI
Warenez
NGA
Sinkáchalam
Vizagapatana
Kalyani
Mänfra
Godau
Blitar
avari
KAL
'Etagiri
(CH)
Bijapur
9
Kespo
Nasze
Tungaunddra. Kudelsangama
SIND
16
15
Kulpak
Rajahmandry
Mallched
Elore
Iz Kellner
PENG
Becnica
O Bidani
Mudgal
Richar
Krishna Amavati
wastür
Con Saundatio Gades
clbyre
D
a
K Koppal Kampli
ual Cagiri
Goned
Hãngel
gar
Nellore
Balageri
и •Корре.
Käkehast
Kolar
MADRAS
Chingleput
Table
Mahabalipur
Banevzal
• Parti
NOLAMBĀS
BANAVĀS
Belair Yedetor
CA
AVĀDI
NPLAY HILLS
o
S. Pennar
Kanců
NAMALAI
Karür
HILLS
10
Ncsapatam
Trichinopoly Tanjore
Pi. Kalimit
Modern Tondi,
Recand
10
VENÃO
SOUTH INDIA
about A. D. 1100
The boundary between the Chola and Chakikyas
Empires under Kulottunga I and Vikramaditya VI
is shown thus: -
Countries and Peoples thus BENGAL
Mountains . . . WESTERN CHATS
Towns
Bijapur
Rivers
Mahanadi
Seiko SANDY
Kouf
C. Comorin
Adam's
Peak
100 50
200
Scales
0
100
English Miles
100 200
Kilorgetres
100
300
76
80
84
es


## p. 480 (#530) ############################################

条
​

## p. 481 (#531) ############################################

XVIII)
THE PANDYAS
481
of strength there was a greater effort on the side of the Pandyas
to assert their independence, and this brought on a great war
between the Cholas and the Ceylonese. The Cholas managed ulti-
mately to turn the Ceylonese back into their island territory, and
punished the Pāndyas adequately for having thus brought on a
protracted war. While the war was still in progress the young
prince who distinguished himself in it succeeded to the throne under
the name of Kulottunga III, and ruled almost throughout the reign
of Vira Ballāla II. Severe punishment quelled the Pāndyas, but
sowed the seeds of future bitterness? . During this war Vira Ballāla
had so strengthened himself as to secure his dominions against
attack. Kulottunga died in 1216 and was succeeded by his son
Rājarāja III and Vira Ballāla's reign continued up to AD. 1220.
The two families seem to have entered into a marriage alliance,
as one of the queens of Vīra Ballāla bore the name Chola Mahā.
dēvi. The death of these great rulers created a new set of circum-
stances and gave the opportunity for a forward advance of the
Hoysalas.
Kullottunga III was succeeded by his son Rājarāja III who
reigned till 1246. Almost simultaneously with him came to the Pān:
dya throne an enterprising prince Māravarman Sundara Pandya I
whose period of reign extended from 1216 to 1239. Almost the first
act of this Pāndya's reign seems to be the organisation of an advance
upon the Chola territory with a view to taking vengeance for the
disgrace to which Kulottunga had subjected his predecessors.
Records of his ninth year claim for him the credit of having captured
and burnt the towns of Tanjore and Uraiyūr in the course of a
successful invasion of the Chola territory. This invasion must have
taken place therefore before the year 1225. From the inscrip:
tional records of Rājarāja III himself it is clear that the first few
years of his reign were peaceful. The Pāndya invasion therefore
must have taken place somewhere about the year 1220. For the
next half-century the feature of the history of the Tamil country
is the effort of the Pandyas not merely to reign their independence,
but to extend their authority over the Chola kingdom. This Chola-
Pāndya struggle provided the occasion for Hoysala intervention in
the Tamil country, and resulted in bringing about the dominance
of the Hoysala power in the south under their greatest ruler Vīra
Sõmēsvara. He fortified a permanent capital for himself at Kan-
nanūr-Vikramapura, five miles north of the island of Srirangam
in the Chola country, and his authority, was acknowledged from
is India and her Muhammadan Invaders, p. 11.
0,H. I, III,
31


## p. 482 (#532) ############################################

482
[CH.
HINDU STATE IN SOUTHERN INDIA
Pāndharpur in the Southern Marātha country to the extreme limit
of the Tinnevelli district.
Vira Ballāla continued to reign till 1220, and, according to the
usual practice, he had his son Narasimha II anointed to the succes-
sion about the . year 1217-18. With the accession of this ruler
begins Hoysala intervention in the Chola country. From inscrip-
tions in the Madura district and other sources we learn that he
intervened to protect the dominions of the Cholas from the attacks
of Māravarman Sundara Pandya I, but his help profited his ally
dittle, for by 1225 the Pāndya had destroyed the Chola cities of
Tanjore and Uraiyūr and soon afterwards occupied the capital
Mudikonda-Solapuram (Gangaikonda-Solapuram) and was anointed
in the hall of the great temple at Chidambaram, and it was only
by submitting to the conqueror that Rājarāja III regained his
kingdom. This must have happened before the year 1236-37,
very probably before 1230. The weakening of the Chola power by
this successful Pandya invasion made it possible for the Chola feu-
datroy Kö-Perum Singa (Sans. Mahārāja Simha) of Sēndamangalam
in South Arcot, the son and successor of the Pallava ch ſtain vho
was responsible for turning the Ceylonese out of the Pāndya terri-
tory in the war of Pāndya succession to declare his independence
of his Chola overlord. He either invaded the Chola country or
otherwise involved it in a war, and made Rājarāja III prisoner in
his own capital of Sēndamangalam. This insolence called for the
intervention of Hoysala Narasimha II who took the Magara or
Magadai kingdom, the eastern part of the Salem district, and sent
forward two of his generals to attack Sēndamangalam itself and
release the Chola ruler, who was imprisoned there. They succeeded
in this and restored Rājarāja III to his position of authority. It
was probably in this war that Narasimha himself marched towards
Srirangam with a view to preventing the Pāndyas from invading
the Chola country, carried the war into the Pāndya country, and
is said to have set up a pillar of victory. at Rāmēsvaram. In this
southern campaign he seems to have associated with himself his
young son Sõmēsvara who came to the throne in 1233 and ruled till
1264. In the course of these southern campaigns of Narasimha, the
Yādavas had been active on the northern frontier and had gained
some success as for south as Balagāmi in 1213, but they were easily
beaten back during the reign of Narasimha.
Sõmēsvara's accession marks the beginning of a more vigorous
reign both in the south and in the north. He carried on a successful
war against the contemporary Yādava ruler Krishna Kandara, and


## p. 483 (#533) ############################################

XVIII ]
SOMESVARA HOYSALA
483
extended his boundary northwards to the river Krishna as an
inscription of his in Pandharpur near Sholapur of 1236 indicates.
But his activities were chiefly along the Chola-Pāndya frontier
which called for his presence so constantly that he erected for him-
self a royal city there and ruled his kingdom from that distant
southern capital, except for one short interval in the middle of his
reign when he is said to have been in his ancestral Hoysala terri-
tory proper. As early as 1236 we find him in residence in the
Pāndyamandala which is said to have been acquired by his strength
and valour. Probably about this time or earlier, in the reign of his
father, the Hoysala entered into a marriage alliance with the Pān-
dyas, so that, in inscriptions of Māravarman Sundara Pāndya II of
about this date, the Hoysala monarch is called 'uncle Sõmsēvara,'
and a record of this Pāndya ruler in the Tinnevelli district namas
a village granted at the request of Sõmēsvara, Vikrama-Somi-
Chaturvēdimangalam in honour of this uncle. It was about this
time, or a few years later, that a younger brother of Rājarāja III,
afterwards Rājēndra III, became so actively hostile to his elder
brother that Sõmēsvara's intervention was called for as against this
new rival. Rājēndra had under his rule all the northern territory
of the Cholas, extending from the coast between Nellore and
Kānchi across to the Hoysala frontier, and was the most important
feudatory in the kingdom during the first twenty-five years of his
brother's reign. He appears to have become hostile some time
about 1242 or 1243, perhaps on account of Rājarāja's subserviency
to the Hoysala, who dominated from his central position in Kanna-
nür both the Pāndya and the Chola kingdoms. As a matter of fact,
the Chola power was little more than a feudatory of Sõmēsvara.
Rājēndra therefore rose as a rival claimant and had to fight against
Sõmēsvara rather than the nominal ruler, his brother. Both sides
claim the victory. They seem however to have ultimately come to
an understanding as Rājēndra is said to have let his brother rule for
yet another three years, and at last killed him. With the accession
of Rājēndra to power there was a change in the political relations
between the Chola and the Hoysala, and the accession of another
Pāndya to the throne in the person of Jaāvarman Tundara Pāndya I
in 1251 brought the Pāndyas into hostility to Sõmēsvara. How
actually this change of relations came about is not recorded, but
soon after his accession the Pāndya set out on a campaign which
lasted for more than ten years and carried the war successfully
through the Chola country as far north as Nellore. According to a
full prasasti which details the deeds of this great Pāndya, he began
31-2


## p. 484 (#534) ############################################

484 HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA (ch.
by an invasion of the Travancore country and, having compelled
the Chera ruler to submit, iarched into the Chola country. There
he defeated a number of Sõmēsvara's generals, and took Sēnda-
mangalam. He expelled from Kānchi the Telugu Choda chieftains
and was anointed there. He then invaded the territory of the
Telugu Chodas themselves, defeated and killed in battle Gandago-
pala of Nellore, and placed one of his brothers, who submitted, on
the throne instead, thus carrying the war to the frontier of the
Kākatiya territory, whence he turned back towards his capital. On
the return journey we find him in occupation of the Hoysala
capital, Vikramapura, in 1264-65, and it was either in this year, or
the end of the previous one, that he defeated and slew Sõmēsvara
in battle and brought this victorious campaign to a close by
magnificent gifts to the great temple of Srirangam, which according
to this record had suffered at the hands of the Hoysalas. They Hoy.
sala Sõmēsvara is said to have built the front gopura of the Siva
temple at Jambukēsvaram. He was probably an ardent Saiva and
had neglected the Vishnu temple at Srirangam. That is what is
hinted at in the first verse of the elaborate Sundara Pāndya in-
scription at Srirangam. He is said to have weighed himself against
gold and jewels, mounting his elephant in full panoply of war, and
made a grant of the money which he himself appropriated for the
various works of extension and restoration to the great Vishnu
temple. He was anointed again in the Vishnu temple and crowned
with the crown nagarodaya.
Sõmēsvara had two sons of whom one, Narasimha III, the son
of queen Bijjala Rāni, was left in charge of the ancestral dominions
of the Hoysalas. Nearly ten years before his death he associated
with himself his other son Vira Rāmanātha, son of his queen Dēvala
Mahādēvi. The activities of the Yādavas probably called for this
division, and Narasimha III as regent of his father had to resist
more than one invasion. In 1276 the Yādava general Sāluva
Tikkama reached the capital, Dvārasamudra, but was beaten back
by the efforts of the prince.