Reviews

The Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi: By Dr. N. Venkataramanayya. (Published by Vedam Venkataraya Sastry and Bros., 4. Mallikeswar Koil South Lane, Linghichetty Street, G. T. Madras: Demy Octavo: Pp. 315. Price Rs. 15.)

Of all the ancient ruling dynasties of the Andhra country, Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi were the only one that ruled for a period of four hundred and odd years, with the exception of the Eastern Gangas of Kalinga whose rule extended to a period of nearly nine hundred years. With the conquest of Pulakesin II, the coastal Andhra country, came under the sway of the Early Chalukyas of Badami or Vatapi. Pulakesin’s brother, Vishnuvardhana I, ruler of the region around Satara, who, as Yuvaraja, helped his brother considerably in the eastern campaign, was put in charge of the conquered countries. He ultimately assumed independence and became the founder of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty of Vengi. The period of rule of this dynasty may be correctly described as one in which the elements of life that went to weld the Andhra people into a nation were consolidated and the characteristic traits of the Andhras were formed permanentely. Hence, the Eastern Chalukya period is one of the most important the periods of the Andhra history; yet a complete history of this dynasty has not seen the light of the day till now, though some attempts at it were made before.

This history has to be reconstructed mainly with the help of the copper-plate grants issued by this dynasty which, till now discovered, come to as many as one hundred, as it was the age of the copper plate records. The Stone records of this dynasty are very few, but they furnish very important information which is otherwise difficult to get. The other source in reconstructing this history is that of coins, though those belonging to this dynasty so far discovered are few and consequently of little help. Literature comes to the aid of the historian in reconstruction almost at the fag end of this period, as the ‘Mahabharata’, the very first book so far extant in Telugu, was written by Nannaya-bhatta, the court-poet of Rajaraja I, practically the last or, to be more precise, the penultimate ruler of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty, whose son Rajendra Choda alias Kulottunga Choda. I was the first member of the Challlkya-Chola line to rule Vengi, his paternal kingdom, and also the Chola country, which belonged to his mother’s family.

It was Dr. J. F. Fleet who first made a systematic study of this dynasty, taking all the copper-plate grants till then discovered into consideration, formulated a chronology of the Ea.stern Chalukyas according to which the year of the foundation of the Eastern Chalukya kingdom in Vengi was 615 A. D. He also noted the important events in each reign as gleaned from their records. The writer of this review was the next to write in Telugu a regular history of this dynasty and to publish it in the Telugu monthly, Bharati, but unfortunately it was left incomplete with the close of the reign of Amma I. The history of the Eastern Chalukyas published by Mr. Ganguli, first in the ‘Indian Historical Quarterly” and then in the form of a book, cannot be reckoned as regular history, as he merely recounted the contents of the grants of each reign and made no attempt to reconstruct it in correlation with the history of the neighbouring kingdoms, to identify the unidentified places and persons and even to recognise the existing problems. The writer comes to know that Sri B. V. Krishna Rao has also written this dynastic history but it has not yet been published. Hence, the work under review happens to be the only authenticated, regular and complete history of the Eastern Chalukyas published till now, and thus relieves a long-felt want. It is a solid contribution to the historical literature about the Telugu country.

With three appendices on (1) the commencement of Kulottunga I’s rule in Vengi, (2) Dramila-ahava or Chaulikarana and (3) the Penneru copper-plate grant of Saktivarman I from the Elliot’s collection (so far unpublished) this work contains 23 chapters, all dealing with political history with the exception of the last chapter entitled ‘Administration’ which, besides the system of Government obtaining during the rule of the Chalukyas, contains also some information about the heterogeneous society, religion and literature, in the last of which was included an account of the three great Kannada writers, Ponna, Pampa and Nagavarma I who “were closely associated with Kammanadu”. The first five chapters of this work deal with the sources, the Chalukyas–their origin and caste, Early history of the Chalukyas of Badami, the history of the E. Chalukyas as described in their inscriptions, and lastly, the Eastern Chalukyan chronology. The remaining 17 chapters, with the exception of the sixteenth and seventeenth bearing on the Interregnum and Restoration respectively, after the rule of Danarnava and prior to Saktivarman I, are devoted to individual reigns. Thus the author of this work deals thoroughly with the history of each reign and tries to solve the problems, if any, connected with it.

Though the records of this dynasty discovered till now are very many, the historical information furnished by them is not proportionate to their length. Subsequent to the rule of Gunaga Vijayaditya III, the Chalukyan records repeat the same facts with a few additions here and there. Consequently, the history of this dynasty bristles with many problems. Another important fact to be noted is the absence of dates, either in Saka years or cyclic years, in the early records up to the reign of Chalukya Bhima I whose coronation date. Saka 814, has been the bedrock of the Eastern Chalukya chronology. Though the Chalukyan records furnish the length of each reign from the beginning of their rule in Vengi, a practice set up for the first time by Gunaga Vijayaditya III, the predecessor of Chalukya Bhima I, and followed by his successors, and some astronomical detail that admit of verification, the chronology of the kings of this dynasty remains a tough problem at which the writer of this review and Mr. B. V. Krishna Rao have worked before. Mr. Krishna Rao’s date 624 A. D., for the foundation of the Eastern Chalukya kingdom which is unconvincing, has been provisionally accepted till now. The author of this work takes his stand on the Terala record of the fifth regnal year of the hitherto unidentified Sarvalokasraya Vishnuvardhana whom he identifies with Vishnuvardhana II, corresponding to the cyclic year Bahudhanya, and thus confirms the same 624 A. D. But he writes: “It (624 A. D.) has been adopted here as a working hypothesis; and the dates of the early rulers of the dynasty are calculated on its basis.” But judged from the script employed there in the above record does not seem to be so early as to assign is to Vishnuvardhana II. “Though several of his (Rajaraja’s) inscriptions which are dated in Saka as well as his regnal years definitely indicates that his reign commenced in 1019 A.D., his coronation was not celebrated, as a matter of fact, until 1022 A.D., three years later” (p. 218). This statement requires some modification. Inscriptions of Rajaraja which furnish both the Saka dates and Regnal years are not many and they do not definitely indicate that his reign commenced uin 1019 A.D. For instance, Rajaraja’s inscriptions from Valiveru and Nandivelugn in the Guntur District and Daksharam in the East
Godavari District furnish Reg. yr. 41 and Saka 983, Reg. yr. 37 and Saka 980 and Reg. yr. 26 and Saka 969 respectively. These sets of dates clearly indicate that the above statement is not absolutely correct.

The author is definitely of the opinion that Vishnuvardhana Maharaja Vijayadityadeva, the governor of the province of Nolambavadi, is the same as Sarvalokasraya Vishnuvardhana Vijayaditya, half-brother of Rajaraja I Chalukya. This Vijayaditya’s identity has been a baffling problem from the time of Dr. Fleet. Though the author of this work discusses it at length and comes to the conclusion noted above, still, in the opinion of this review, this problem cannot be said to have been finally settled. This has still to be investigated. There is bound to be–some difference of opinion among scholars regarding the reconstruction of the history of some of the Eastern Chalukya campaigns attempted by the author with so much thoroughness and diligence; for, inscriptions which recount the conquests of kings being the main source, there is scope enough for divergence of opinion in reconstructing the history of the campaigns and in the fitting of facts in their proper set-up. The evidence of inscription may be the same, but the fixing of events and incidents known from them in the course of reconstruction may vary in accordance with the line of thought one follows.

Every page in this work is indicative of the author’s industry and his thorough grasp of the subject. He has thrown light on many a question. One may not agree with him on all points; but no one can deny that this is a solid contribution to the history of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi. The author had left no problem untouched and deserves to be congratulated for producing this important work.

An elaborate index running to nearly forty three pages, and three political maps enhance the value of the work.

But after going through the work one feels disappointed to find so little about the cultural history of the period which is really more important than the political one.

M. SOMASEKHARA SARMA

TELUGU

Ravindruni Aru Natikalu (Six Plays of Tagore) By B. Gopala Reddi (Triveni Publishers, Masulipatam. Pp. 108; Price Rs. 1.8.0 Ordinary; Rs. 2-8-0 Deluxe)

The distinguished author, the Hon. Sri Gopala Reddi, Finance Minister of Madras State, is too well known for his literary taste and talent to need any introduction to the public. In fact, he enjoys the distinction of representing Andhra in the galaxy of the public men of our country, like Pandit Pant and Sri K. M. Munshi, noted equally for constructive statesmanship and pronounced cultural outlook. This translation of the six playlets of Tagore was made by Sri Reddi while he was a detenu in Vellore and published in the Telugu literary journals, Samata, Krishna Patrika and Bharati, in the course of the last five or six years; but their republication in book form serves to draw to them the serious attention of the literary Public which they richly deserve.

Knowledge and appreciation of the work of Tagore is confined, even among the highly educated mostly to the translations available in English of his lyrical poems and a few novels, short stories and plays. These playlets, translated direct from the original Bengali belong to a distinct literary form rendered popular by the national Poet of Modern India. In these we find the Poet developing in his own unique manner, stirring situations selected mostly from our classical literature–the exultation of Duryodhana over the exile of the Pandavas after their defeat in the game of dice; the noble response of Karna to the request of Kunti when she reveals herself to him as his mother just before the war and the fine frenzy of Valmiki when the spirit of poetry for the first time moves him to rhythmic utterance. Through them he expresses with dramatic power and in poetic language, his own criticism of life, his interpretation of the psychology of power and personal integrity of the nature of parental love, and the function of language and of metre, etc.

Sri Gopala Reddi’s Telugu style is fluent and idiomatic, while it has succeeded in a large measure in keeping to the spirit of the original.

M.S.K.