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Vikramaditya I Jayameru (Bana)

Vikramaditya I, also called Jayameru and Banavidyadhara, was a Bana king of the Chittoor country in the 9th century. The Gudimallam plates make him the father of Vijayaditya Prabhumeru, and one of his queens was a daughter of the Ganga king Prithivipati I. His records are found round Punganur, and a Gudimallam stone of the 24th year of the Pallava king Nripatunga names Vanavidyadhara as ruler of the country west of the Telugu road. V. Venkayya read one Punganur record of his as telling of a battle at Soremati against the Nolambas.

Vikramaditya I, also called Jayameru and Banavidyadhara, was a king of the Banas in the 9th century.12 The Banas ruled the country round Kalahasti and Gudimallam as subordinates of the Pallava kings.3 Inscriptions of Vikramaditya have been found round Punganur, and a stone at Gudimallam seems to belong to his reign.1452

Family

The Gudimallam plates, edited by E. Hultzsch in 1924, give the Bana line.1 In them Jayameru, also called Vikramaditya, was the son of Malladeva and the grandson of Vijayaditya.1 His son was Vijayaditya Prabhumeru, and his grandson Vikramaditya II issued the plates.1 Hultzsch showed that he was the Banavidyadhara of the older Udayendiram plates.1

One of his queens, Kundavvai, was a daughter of the Ganga king Prithivipati I.4 V. Venkayya (1912) took this marriage as a sign that the Gangas and the Banas were sometimes friends.5 A Gudimallam record calls Vijayaditya the son of another queen of Banavidyadhara.4

Records round Punganur and Gudimallam

Venkayya listed Bana inscriptions found in the Punganur zamindari, in the old North Arcot district.2 Two of them name kings he took to be this Vikramaditya:2

  • Mahavali-Banarasa-Vikramaditya-Banakandarpa-Jayameru
  • Mahavali-Vanarasa-Banavidyadhara2

One record of the first king tells of a battle at Soremati.2 There the Bana fought, for the Permanadi (perhaps the Western Ganga king), against the Nolamba, Rachamalla and Mayindadi.2 The epigraphical report for 1912–13 noted another record, from Budidepalle.6 It says that a Nolamba raided Pulinadu, the home district of the Banas, in the reign of Banavidyadhara.6 H. Krishna Sastri took this Nolamba to be Mahendra I.6

At Gudimallam, a stone of the 24th year of the Pallava king Nripatunga names Vanavidyadhara-Mahabali-Vanaraya.7 It says that he ruled the country west of Vadugavali, the Telugu road.78 The rest of the record is too broken to translate.7 Venkayya thought this Vanavidyadhara was probably the son-in-law of Prithivipati I.5 Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1932) dated the stone to 877–78.8

Where the sources disagree

  • Who led the Banas at Soremati. Venkayya read a Punganur record of Vikramaditya Jayameru as telling of the battle.2 Sewell and Aiyangar gave the leading part to his son Vira-Chulamani, Vijayaditya Prabhumeru.8
  • His names. Sewell and Aiyangar called the ruler of 877–78 “Vanavidyadhara alias Vikramaditya Prabhumeru I”.8 The Gudimallam plates give the name Prabhumeru to his son, and Jayameru to him.1
  • The earlier Vikramaditya. A Gudimallam stone names a Bana Vikramaditya under the Pallava king Nandippottaraiyar.5 Venkayya thought that if this king was Nandivarman Pallavamalla, the Bana could not be Vikramaditya I.5

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates of the Bana King Vikramaditya II”, Epigraphia Indica XVII (1923–24), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 235 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 229 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates” (1924), p. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 234 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. H. Krishna Sastri, Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1912–13, Part II, para. 13, p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. V. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions from Gudimallam”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1911–12), p. 227 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 38 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

Dynasties

Banas

c. 700–921 CE

The Bana or Mahabali chiefs ruled the hill country 'west of the Andhra road': roughly the later Chittoor district, from Kolar to Kalahasti. They served the Pallava and Ganga-Pallava kings of Kanchi. Their Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions at Gudimallam date from the 8th century to Saka 827 (905), and a copper-plate grant found there gives their family tree. In the late 9th century one of their outposts reached Pottipadu in the Cuddapah country. They fought the Nolamba-Pallavas at Soremati. Soon after 900 the Chola king Parantaka I removed them from power and gave their country to a Ganga prince. A Bana chief still ruled near Podili in Nellore in 968.

References

Sources (4)
  1. H. Krishna Sastri (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XVII (1923–24) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1924, pp. 2–3. E. Hultzsch, Gudimallam Plates of the Bana King Vikramaditya II. [Public domain]
  2. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI (1911–12) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1912, pp. 227, 234–235. V. Venkayya, Five Bana Inscriptions from Gudimallam. [Public domain]
  3. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1910-11 to 1914-15 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, Report for 1912–13, Part II, p. 90. [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 38. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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