Kadambas

After the downfall of the Satavahanas, the empire was split up into a number of small principalities, under the Abhiras and the Traikutas in the north-western, the Rashtrikas, the Chutus and the Nagas in the western, the Kadambas and the Pallavas in the southern and the Ikshvakus and the Vakatakas in the eastern and the north-eastern portions of the Deccan . So far as the Chitradnrga district is concerned, it seems to have come under the Kadambas almost immediately after the fall of the Satavahanas. The earlier members of the Kadamba family must have been steadily progressing in the early centuries of the Christian era, during which time we find them occupying the middle-west portions of the Mysore State , where they ultimately succeeded the Satavahanas. The dominions of the Kadambas embraced the entire western portions of the Mysore State , including the districts of North Kanara, South Kanara, Dharwar, Belgaum , Chitradnrga and Shimoga, and parts of even the adjoining districts, with the capital at Banavasi (Jayantipum or Vaijayantipura) situated on the river Varada on the western border of the Sorab taluk. Banavasi is an ancient city, mentioned as one of the places to which a Buddhist mission was sent by Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C. It is also mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd centnry B.C. In later times Banavasi was the headquarters of a Twelve Thousand Province, corresponding more or less to the present Shimoga district.

The Talagunda inscription elucidates the circumstances leading to the establishment of the Kadamba power by Mayurasharma, an orthodox and learned Brahmin belonging to the Manavya gotra. The earliest Kadamba inscription in the Chitradurga district is the Prakrit inscription of Mayurasharma himself found in tlie Chandravalli valley, recording the construction of a tank by him in that place. According to this inscription, Mayurasharma defeated Traikuta, Abhira, Pallava, Pariyatrika, Sakasthana, Sayindaka, Punata and Mokari. The inscription is in large cave characters and is worn out to such an extent that its existence was, in spite of its site being readily visible and ideal for inscribing, unknown even to the people of the neighbourhood. On palaeographical and other grounds, the inscription has been assigned to about 258 A.D30. If this is accepted, the current view about the date of Mayurasharma, i.e., 340 A.D. to 370 A.D., will have to be revised30a. Another inscription, coming from Anaji31 which may be assigned to the 4th century A.D32, refers to a great battle between a Pallava king named Nanakkasa and a king named Krishnavarman.33, undoubtedly a Kadamba. The Kadambas continued to be powerful kings upto about the beginning of the latter half of the 6th century A.D., the last independent ruler probably being Krishnavarman II (c. 550-565). Ajavarman, son of Krishnavarman II became subordinate to the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I (560-7 to 597-8), who was 'the night of doom' to the Kadambas. Perhaps, Bhogivarman, the next ruler, tried to re-establish the independence of the family, but was put down by Pulikeshin II, who besieged Banavasi, an event mentioned in the Aihole inscrip­tion. The power of the Kadamba dynasty greatly declined with the death, probably in battle, of Bhogivarman and his son. But the family did not entirely disappear from history. From the 7th century onwards names of Kadamba rulers occur but not prominently, perhaps because they were subordinate rulers under the Chalukyas. From the end of the 10th century, however, they again emerge as sufficiently important rulers in different parts.

Though Banavasi was their principal capital, the Kadambas appear to have had three other secondary capitals, Uchasringi, identified with a hill of the same name near Molakalmuru in the Chitradurga district, which has been the find place of some Kadamba records, being one of them.

Courtesy : Gazetteer of India, Chitradurga District, 1967.