inscriptions in the hassan district

xxiv
INTRODUCTION.
king's chief supporters 1 '. On. 203 says: why describe his forcible capture, of
Adiyama, Chera, Pandya, Makara (or Magara), and the powerful Kadavas?
Rather describe how he lifted up Chola, brought under his orders all the land as
far as Setu, and pursuing after the Tri-Kalinga kings, penetrated their train of
elephants. His queen Kalala-Devi had by this time (1223) borne his son Sdyi
or Somesvara-Deva, to whom the king's sister S6vala-Devi was like a mother
(see Ak. 123). His chief accountant was Visvanatha, a Brahman of Lokkagundi
in Belvola, whose eldest brother Isvara-deva claims to have taught the king
letters and accounts and made him proficient in arts, while Visvanatha himself
was so clever that he could write the letters with both hands, and perform a
hundred avadhdnas (or mnemonic feats) so that the learned who examined him
nodded their heads (in approval). He obtained a copper iasana for an agrahara
from the king -when the latter was marching against Magara, and in the royal
camp pitched at the kqppa of Chudavadi was holding a festival on adding to
his necklace the emerald which came from Munivaraditya. Bl. 161 of 1227,
says that he had protected Chola, captured Magara's elephants and wealth and
uprooted him, and reduced the Pandya and Pallava kings to the condition of
servants. Ak. 81 is a memorial of a woman who performed sahagamana,
owing to the Mahadevi having put her husband to death. On. 204 tells us
that in 1228 the king was ruling the Gangavadi, Nolambavadi, Banavase and
Kadambahke provinces, with Nangali on the east, Kongu on the south, Alvakheda
on the west, and the Heddoje on the north, as his boundaries. He now
had a son named Ereyanga by Gaurala-Devi, the daughter of one of his bodyguards.
Hn. 84 of about 1230, says that on his expedition to the north the
Tungabhadra was filled to the banks with streams of blood, owing to his
slaughter of Vikramapala, Pavusa and others, and the bloodshed of the Sevuna
army. Bl. 74 says that his sword, which he had soiled with the brains of
Vikramapala and Pavusa, he cleansed with the hot blood of Makara, and
setting up Choja, who was covered up by the dust from the feet of hosts of
enemies, he acquired fame as the establisher of Chola and the destroyer of
Pandya. Bl. 238 is a Sanskrit couplet inscribed on the Hoysalesvara temple
at Halebid, the author of which describes himself as the poet Vaijanna. I
have assumed that he may be the Vedartha Vaijanatha-bhatta mentioned in
Ak. 123. This inscription describes the king as encamped in 1234 at
Ravitadana-kuppa, while on a victorious expedition over Pandya. His sword
being Vasugi, and his arm Mandara, by violently churning the ocean the army
of the hostile Magara, Narasimha obtained jewels of elephants and jewels of
horses. When this uprooter of the Magara king and establisher of the Chola
1)This inscription contains a description of the ocean, followed by an account of Jambu-dvipa,
Meru, Bbarata-vartha, the Kuntala-desa and the Hoysala-nad One Terse on the ocean (1. 40-42) it
qaoted in Kavyasara as from Gunavarmma's Sudraka.