Vikramaditya II (Bana)

Vikramaditya II was a king of the Banas in the early 10th century.¹² He was the son of Vijayaditya Prabhumeru.¹ He is known from a set of copper plates found at Gudimallam, near Kalahasti.³ By them he confirmed an old gift of that village to its Brahmins.¹

Family

The Gudimallam plates trace his line back to King Nandivarman.¹ His grandfather was Jayameru, also called Vikramaditya, so the donor of the plates is counted as Vikramaditya II.¹⁴ See Vikramaditya I. The older Udayendiram plates name a Vikramaditya, son of Prabhumeru, and then two later kings.⁴ E. Hultzsch (1924) listed them as Vijayaditya III, called Pugalvippavarganda, and Vikramaditya III, called Vijayabahu.⁴

The Gudimallam plates

The plates were found at Gudimallam, in the Kalahasti zamindari.³ There are five plates, strung on a ring with a seal showing a bull lying down.³ Most of the text is in Sanskrit, in the Grantha script, with a short note in Tamil at the end.³ See the Gudimallam plates.

The plates say that an earlier king had granted the village of Viprapitha to Brahmins.¹ Hultzsch showed that Viprapitha was the Sanskrit form of Tiruvippirambedu, the old name of Gudimallam.¹ Vikramaditya had received a boon from the god of the Parasuramesvara temple there.¹ So, with his father’s consent, he gave the Brahmins of the village “protection”, that is, he confirmed the old grant.¹ The Tamil note says that the village’s revenue was 500 measures of paddy and 10 kalanju (a gold weight) of gold.¹

The end of the Bana kingdom

V. Venkayya (1912) wrote that Vijayaditya Prabhumeru ruled until at least 909.² So he thought Vikramaditya II became the leader of the Banas after that date.² Either he or his successor, Venkayya wrote, was conquered by the Chola king Parantaka I, in or before 921–22.⁵ Parantaka gave the Bana kingdom to his Ganga vassal Prithivipati II.⁵ Hultzsch saw Prithivipati II as the Chola king’s candidate for the Bana throne and a temporary usurper.⁴

Where the sources disagree

• His rank when the plates were made. In his table of the Bana kings, Hultzsch marked him as heir-apparent.⁴ The plates say that he made the grant with his father’s consent.¹ Venkayya placed his rule after 909.²
• The friend of King Krishna. Venkayya took the Udayendiram plates to make Vikramaditya II a friend of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II.⁶² Hultzsch showed that the friend was the later Vikramaditya-Vijayabahu, and the king Krishna III.⁴

Footnotes

1. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates” (1924), p. 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 237 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

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

4. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates” (1924), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 238 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. V. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions from Gudimallam”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1911–12), p. 236 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩