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The founder of the earlier or western branch is said to have been related to the founder of the Valabhi kings, Bhatarka Senapati. The fourth king Pulakesin I. was the same who a hundred years before Houen Tsang's time harried the monastery at Amaravati and abolished Buddhism in those parts. He also probably conquered Chola, burnt Conjeveram and expelled the Pahavas, who were the dominant race in the Deccan before the Chalukyas rose in power. Tke seventh king Pulakesin II was the great rival whom Siladitya II of Kanouj could never defeat, and we have already quoted a spirited account of the Maharattas under this great and warlike king from Houen Tsang's travels. The Digitized by Google 266 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. dynasty seems to have flourished till about 750 A. D. After this the power of the family was alienated for a time until the time of Tailapa II, who restored the monarchy in 973 A. D. The dynasty enjoyed two centuries more of prosperity, after which it came to an end. The Chalukyas, like all the Rajput dynasties in Northern India, were staunch Hindus and were inimical to Buddhism, and we shall in a future chapter give some account of the works of Hindu architecture which India owes to this dynasty. We cannot conclude this brief notice of the Chalukya houses without quoting Sir Walter Elliot's observations on the great power they exercised at one time : " The two families ruled over the whole of the tableland between the Narmadd and the KrishnA, together with the coast of the Bay of Bengal, from Ganjam to Nellore, for about five centuries. The power of the Kalyan dynasty was subverted for a time in the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century, and the emi- grant prince or his son succeeded by marriage in 931 A. D. to the throne of Auhalwara Pattan in Gujrat, which his descendants occupied with great glory till 1145 A. D. But in 973 A. D. the dynasty of Kalyan was restored in the person of Tailapa Deva and ruled with great splendour till its extinction in 1 1 89 A. D- by Bijjala Deva, the founder of the Kala Churya dy- nasty. The junior branch extended their territories Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 267 northwards from Vengi to the frontiers of Cuttack, and ultimately fixed their capital at Raja Mahendri, the modern Rajamundri. More than one revolution ap- pears to have occurred in the course of their history, but the old family always contrived to regain its power until the kingdom passed by marriage to Rajendra Chola the then dominant sovereign of Southern India, in whose person the power of the Cholas reached its zenith." To turn now to the south of the Krishna river, we come to the ancient Dravidian country stretching south- wards to Cape Comorin. The ancient Dravidians appear to have had a rude kind of civilization of their own be- fore Aryan civilization was imported into their land in what we have called the Stitra Period. There can be no doubt that a flourishing kingdom, known as PANDYA, was established in the extreme south, some centuries before the Christian Era.* Strabo speaks of an am- bassador from King Pandion to Augustus, and it is conjectured that the ambassador was from the Pandya country. At the time of the "Piriplus" the Pandya king- dom included the Malabar coast, and from the frequent mention of this country by classical writers, we know that Pandya was sufficiently civilised in the centuries imme- diately after the Christian Era to carry on a brisk trade with the western nations. The seat of Government was > ■ ... 1.1 • The reader is referred to the map given in this Volume. Digitized by Google 268 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V] twice changed, and was at last fixed at Madura, wliere it was in Ptolemy's time, and remained in subsequent ages. The Pandya kingdom was situated in the extreme south of India, including, roughly, the modern districts of Tinnivelly and Madura. To the north of this arose, before the Christian Era, another civilized kingdom,that of Chola, stretching along the Kdveri river and to the north of it. The capital of this country, K&nchi, has a name and a repute for learning in classical Sanscrit liter- ature, and was a flourishing town when Houen Tsang visited India ; and there must have been constant com- munications between this seat of learning and Ujjayini and Kanouj in the north. In the eighth and succeeding centuries the power of the Chola kings extended over a great part of Karn&ta and Telingana. A third ancient kingdom called Chera included Tra- vancore, Malabar, and Kaimbatur. It is mentioned by Ptolemy and must have existed in the commencement of the Christian Era. Kerala also, including Malabar and Canara, was an adjoining kingdom, and was probab- ly often under the rule, or under the protection of the Pandyan kings. It has been discovered that the second edict of Asoka speaks of the Choda, Pada, and Kerala Putra countries ; and Dr. Kern believes that these names re- present the Chola, the Pandya, and the Chera (or Kerala) kingdoms. It will thus appear that this triarchy of an- Digitized by Google .HAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 269 cient Hindu kingdoms in the extreme south of India had already acquired a name before the third century B. C. The possessions of this ancient triarchy of Southern India varied according to the powers of particular kings and dynasties. The Chola or Kanchi kings were the most famed and the most powerful, and were often at war with the eastern branch of the Chalukya house. The reader will find in the list of the Eastern Chalukya kings the names Rajendra Chola and his three suc- cessors who were then the masters of Southern India. The whole of the Carnatic from the most ancient times owned the sway of the Cholas, the Pandyas, and the Cheras (and Keralas). Towards the close of the tenth century A. D. a great Rajput house rose in Mysore, named the Bellalas. In the eleventh century they subjugated the whole of the Carnatic, and, as we have seen before, annexed the southern dominions of the western Chalukyan house. The powerful house remained supreme in the Carnatic and Malabar until it was subverted by the Mahomme- dans in 1310 A.D. The Kakati family of Warangal rose to power about the close of the eleventh century, and, as we have seen before, they annexed the southern dominions of the east- em Chalukyan house in the twelfth century. The family rose to great power under Pratapa Rudra in 1 162, and in the next century, when they were said to be the masters of all Southern India. In 1323 their capital Digitized by Google 270 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V was taken, and their importance reduced by Juna Khan, afterwards Muhammad Toghlak, Emperor of Delhi. Warangal was, however, retaken by the Hindus in 1344 A.D., but was finally subverted by the Bahmani dynasty. We have to speak of one more Hindu kingdom in the south, although its history falls within the Mahom- medan period. After the fall of the Bellala kings of the Carnatic, a new family set itself up in the place of the Bellalas and founded its capital at VljAYANAGARA about 1344 A. D. The founding of Vijayanagara is ascribed to two princes — Bukkaraya and Harihara — with the aid of a learned Brahman, M&dhava Vidy&ranya. The earliest copper-plate grant of Bukkaraya is dated 1370 A. D. Mldhava, otherwise called SSyana, was his prime minister, and is the most learned and elaborate commentator that India has ever produced. The founding of a great Hindu kingdom in the fourteenth century was attended with a temporary revival of Hindu learning, and to Siyana we owe the series of com- mentaries on the Vedas, philosophical systems, law and grammar, which are to this day considered authoritative in all parts of India, For over two hundred years the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara prospered. It held its place among the Mahommedan kingdoms which arose in the Deccan, formed treaties and alliances, and won or lost territories by war. A closer intimacy sprang up between Hindus and Mahommedans than before, the Bahmani kings Digitized by Google CHAP. IV.] KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 27 1 employed Rajput troops ; and Deo Raj of Vijayana- gara recruited Mahommedan troops, assigned lands to their chiefs, and built a mosque in his capital for them. A fanatical spirit was, however, developed in the course of centuries, and the Mahommedan chiefs of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda, (states formed out of the old Bahmani kingdom), combined against the Hindu kingdom. A great battle was fought on the Krishna river near Telicota in 1565 A. D., and the Mahommedans were victorious. The old and brave Raja was barbarously put to death in cold blood, and his head was kept in Bijapur for centuries as a trophy. The monarchy of Vijayanagara was thus destroyed ; it was the last great Hindu kingdom in India. But the Mahommedans did not complete the conquest of Southern India ; and the Carnatic, Travancore, and other places were occupied by petty chiefs, princes, zemindars, and polygars who lived often in their hill forts, and came to notice in the time of the British wars in the Carnatic. The brother of the last king of Vijayanagara settled at Chandragiri ; and a descendant of his first granted the settlement of Fort St George (Madras) to the Eng- lish in 1640 A. D., ie. 9 within a century after the fall of the old kingdom of Vijayanagara. This petty transac- tion is a curious and interesting link connecting the past with the present ! Digitized by Google CHAPTER V. RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. The form of Hinduism which prevailed in India previous to the spread of Buddhism is generally known as the Vedic religion, while the form of Hinduism which succeeded Buddhism is generally known as the Pauranik religion.