Kadambas of Banavasi

Kadambas of Banavasi (C.345 - 540 A.D)

Kadamba Raja

Mayuravarma, son of Bandhushena founded the Kadamba Dyanasty in c. 345 A.D. He was a Brahmin student from the celebrated Talagunda

Agrahara (an Agrahara is a settlement of scholarly Brahmins, engaged in religious and academic pursuits) in Shikaripur taluk of Shivamogga district. He had gone with his grandfather Veerasharma to the Ghatika of Kanchi for higher studies. Being subjected to some kind of humiliation at the Pallava capital Kanchi, Mayuravarma gave up his hereditary priestly vocation (but his Brahmin origin has been questioned often by several researchrs in recent times) and took to the life of a warrior and revolted against the Pallavas. This forced the Pallavas to recognise him as a sovereign, when he crowned himself at Banavasi in Uttara Kannada district. His Chandravalli inscription speaks about the construction or repair of a tank at Chandravalli by Mayuravarma near Chitradurga. One of his successors, Kakustha Varman (c.435-55) was such a powerful ruler that even the Vakatakas and the Guptas cultivated matrimonial relations with this family during his time. The great poet Kalidasa seems to have visited his court.

The earliest Kannada record found at Halmidi (C.450 A.D.) in

Belur Taluk, Hassan district, is of this dynasty (now displayed in

the State Archaeology Museum, Bengaluru). However, recent

researches trace the antiquity of Kannada language to Ashoka’s

period. The Sittanavassal inscription from Tamilnadu of first century A.D. has few Kannada words in it. Some scholars even argue in vain that the Jalagaradibba and Sravanabelagola inscriptions, as earlier than the Halmidi inscription. The Kadambas built some fine temples and the Kadamba Nagara style of stepped Shikharas, is their contribution. They also got excavated the first rock-cut shrine of Vedic tradition at Aravalem (in Goa, which was, then under their control) in a laterite hill range. The tanks at Chandravalli and Gudnapur are among the many irrigation tanks built by them. They had ‘Lion’ as their royal insignia.

The Kadambas were over-throwned perhaps by the the Chalukyas of Badami in c. 540 and at later stages, two branches of Kadamba family (one from Hanagal and the other from Goa) ruled during medieval period, as subordinates of the Chalukyas of Kalyana. A branch of the Kadambas was also ruling from Orissa as subordinates of the Gangas of Kalinga in medieval times.

Alupas of Tulunadu (C. 2nd – 14th Cen. A.D)

Alupas were the earliest to rule over the southern part of Coastal Karnataka. They called themselves as Soma-Vamsajas and possessors of Mina-lanchana. They ruled the kingdom from c. 2nd century to c.14th century A.D. They were the feudatories of all major dynasties of Karnataka commencing from the Kadambas of Banavasi to that of the Hoysalas. Halmidi inscription provides us the name of the first Alupa King Pasupati. Talagunda inscription mentions the name of

Kakustha-Bhatari, probably the son and successor of Pasipati, born to the Kadamba princess Lakshmi. Kakustha-Bhatari was probably the

contemporary of Santivarma (c.430-455 A.D.) the Pillar inscription, son and successor of Kadamba Kakusthavarma. Talagunda, Shivamogga Dist. Halmidi Inscription, State Archaeolgy Museum, Bengaluru.