History of Indian and Eastern Architecture

by James Fergusson

However mistaken Albiruni may be in his dates, there is little doubt that he is quite correct in his statement to the effect that “L’ère de Ballabha est postérieure à celle de Saca de 241 ans. Apparemment Ballabha suivit immédiatement les Gouptas, car l’ère des Gouptas commence aussi 241 de l’ère de Saca.”[703] This we learn also, with the particulars how it happened, from Colonel Watson’s account of the transaction; while Colonel Tod’s celebrated Puttun Somnath inscription makes it also certain that the Ballabhi era commenced A.D. 319.[704] This being so, it seems difficult to understand why the era should have been called that of Ballabhi as well as that of the Guptas, unless it were that it was adopted by the first-named dynasty, and that they dated from it their acts and inscriptions, which are extremely numerous. There may be reasons why this should be otherwise; but, though the point has been generally and fiercely contested by eminent Indian chronologists, I fail to appreciate the arguments brought forward in favour of either the Vicramaditya or Saka eras,[705] and look upon their own era (A.D. 319) as certainly the one from which all the Gupta inscriptions are dated.

My impression is, that this would never have been considered doubtful but for an incautious statement by Colonel Tod that Ballabhi was destroyed by the Parthians A.D. 524,[706] in the reign of a Siladitya, its last king. Its inhabitants were, according to this account, slaughtered with the usual romantic incidents; but after a while a remnant established themselves in Sidhapore, and finally built a new capital, which they called Anhilwarra.

The utter falsity of the information so supplied to Colonel Tod is proved by the fact that when Ballabhi was visited by Hiouen Thsang, 115 years after its reputed destruction, he found it not only standing, and neither Sidhapore nor Anhilwarra thought of, but the old capital still remaining one of the richest and most prosperous cities of India, and its king one of the three greatest kings of northern India. The king’s name was Dhruvapaton, and he was a nephew or grand-nephew of Siladitya of Malwa, and the son-in-law of Siladitya, the reigning king of Canouge.[707] Lastly, we have the dates in copper-plates of a Dhruvasena, one in 310+319=629; the other 322+ 319, or 641,[708] the very year that Hiouen Thsang met him at Allahabad, if we assume them dated from the Ballabhi Samvat.

It would be satisfactory if we could determine the date of the destruction of Ballabhi with precision, as it is one of these events that mark an epoch in Indian history. It was one of the concluding acts of the old drama that closed the mediæval period of Indian history, and ushered in the dark ages which lasted more than two centuries from that time.

The materials for this hardly exist at present, though it may be approximated. We have numerous inscriptions of this dynasty, dated 310, 326, 338, 348, &c.,[709] or A.D. 629, 645, 657, 667 respectively, if the figures are all correctly read, which is not quite clear; and lastly, Mr. Burgess reports one dated 400, or A.D. 719, belonging to the last Siladitya, and consequently approaching very nearly to the event. Two accounts are current as to the mode in which the destruction was effected: one, that it was caused by an earthquake, which may have happened at any time;[710] the other (by Tod), that the city was destroyed by the Parthians. If it was by a foreign foe, it could only have been by the Mahomedans. They were on the Indus in strength in 22 Hegira,[711] or A.D. 644, or before Hiouen Thsang had left India, and no foreigner could have crossed the Indus or attacked Ballabhi after that time, or for some years before it, without being noticed by Mahomedan historians. They remained there in strength till after Mahomed Kasim, 711-715,[712] and it was to him that I was at one time inclined to ascribe the destruction. If, however, Mr. Burgess’s date is correct, his death was three years too early. But I do not think it at all improbable that Ballabhi is one of the cities—Barus and Uzain—said to be plundered by Junaid in A.D. 725 or 726.[713] Barus looks very like Baroach, and Uzain is almost certainly Ujjain—but whether Maliba is Ballabhi, I must leave others to determine.

All the accounts agree that Anhilwarra Puttun was founded Samvat 802, or A.D. 746,[714] which may be correct within a year or two; but from the accounts we have, it is clear that an interval of from twenty to thirty years must have elapsed between the two events, during which the inhabitants of the destroyed city sought refuge at Punchâsur and Sidhapore before they undertook the building of their new capital. If, therefore, we assume 725 as the date of the destruction of Ballabhi, we shall probably not err more than a year or two either way.

The earliest date of this family yet discovered is one on a copperplate of Dharasena II., which has been read by Professor Bhandarkar as 272,[715] or, according to the views here adopted, 591. It is hardly probable that any much earlier will be found; for it must be borne in mind that though the Ballabhis wrested the sovereignty of Gujerat from the Guptas two years before Skanda’s death (ante, p. 724), neither the first nor second of the race ventured to assume even the modest title of Raja; they were content to remain Senâpatis, or Generals. The third calls himself Maharaja; but their greatness only culminated in or about A.D. 650, when one of them, Sri Dharasena III., became Maharaja Adhiraja—King of kings or Emperor of Northern India.[716] The reason of this, as we shall presently see, was that the family that really succeeded the Guptas in the place of supreme authority in India was that of Ujjain, the second or third monarch of this race being the celebrated Vicramaditya, whose date, for reasons to be given hereafter, seems almost certainly to have been from 515 to 550. Be this as it may, as we shall presently see, it seems quite certain that a great Brahmanical revival took place in the beginning of the 6th century, which quite overshadowed all the Buddhist dynasties in northern India. For a while these were again eclipsed by a reflex wave of Buddhism, which for a century—A.D. 550-650—again illumined India. It was a last expiring effort, however, and after the last-named date it was only a struggle for existence on the part of the Buddhists, and in another century they are known no longer in those central countries where they had so long reigned supreme.

Chalukya Dynasties.

Western Branch. Capital Kalyan.	Eastern Branch. Capital Rajmehendri.
1. Jaya Sinha Vijayaditya. 2. Raja Sinha, Rana Raga, Vishnu Vardhana. 3. Vijayaditya II. 4. Pulakesi, A.D. 489? 5. Kirtti Varma I. 6. Mangalisa. 7. Satyasraya began to reign 609. 8. Amara. 9. Aditya. 10. Vikramadiya I. 11. Vinayaditya, Yuddha Malla, began to reign A.D. 680. 12. Vijayaditya III. began to reign A.D. 695. 13. Vikramaditya II. began to reign A.D. 733. 14. Kirtti Varma II. 15. Kirtti Varma III., cousin of the last, A.D. 799. 16. Tailapa. 17. Bhima Raja. 18. Ayya, or Kirtti Varma IV. 19. Vijayaditya IV. 20. Taila Bhupa II. or Vikramaditya III., in A.D. 973 restored the monarchy which had been for some time usurped by the Ratta Kula. He died A.D. 997. 21. Satyasraya II. Irivi Bhujanga Deva, A.D. 997. 22. Vikramaditya V. began to reign about A.D. 1008 (?) 23. Jaya Sinha Deva, Jagadeka Malla, about A.D. 1018 (?) 24. Someswara Deva I., Trailokya Malla Ahawa Malla, about A.D. 1040. 25. Someswara Deva II., Bhuneka Malla A.D. 1099, expelled by his brother. 26. Vikramaditya VI., Kali Vikrama, Tribhuvana Malla, in A.D. 1076. 27. Someswara Deva III., Bhuloka Malla, A.D. 1127. 28. Jagadeka Malla, A.D. 1138. 29. Tailapa Deva III., Trailokya Malla, A.D. 1150. 30. Someswara Deva IV., Tribhuvana Malla, A.D. 1182. Dethroned by Bijjala Deva of the Kalabhuriya line.	1. Vishnu Vardhana II., or Kubja Vishnu Vardhana, conquered Vengi A.D. 605. 2. Jaya Sinha I. 3. Indra Raja, his brother. 4. Vishnu Vardhana III. 5. Manga Yuva Raja. 6. Jaya Sinha III. } 7. Kokkili. } brothers. 8. Vishnu Vardhana IV. } 9. Vijayaditya I. 10. Vishnu Vardhana V. 11. Narendra Mriga Raja. 12. Vishnu Vardhana VI., or Kali Vishnu Vardhana. 13. Vijayaditya II., or Guna Gunanka Vijayaditya, conquered Kalinga. 14. Chalukya Bhima I., his brother. 15. Vijayaditya III., or Kollabhiganda Vijaya. 16. Amma Raja. 17. Vijayaditya IV., or Kaudagachita Vijaya. 18. Talapa. Usurper. 19. Vikramaditya V., the son of a brother of Amma Raja I. 20. Yuddha Malla. 21. Raja Bhima II. 22. Amma Raja II. 23. Dhanarnava. Interregnum of twenty-seven years. 24. Kirtti Varma, son of Dhanarnava. 25. Vimaladitya, his brother. 26. Raja Raja Narendra. 27. Rajendra Chola. 28. Vikrama Deva Kulottunga Chola. 29. Raja Raja Chola, viceroy for one year. 30. Vira Deva Kulottunga Chola, or Saptama Vishnu Vardhana. Viceroy from A.D. 1079 to 1135.
After this the southern part of these dominions fell under the sway of the Hoisala Bellalas, whose rise in the Mysore dates from A.D. 984; their destruction by the Mahomedans in 1310.	After Vira Deva Kulottunga Chola the country fell under the sway of the Kakatya dynasty of Worangul, of whom Pratapa Rudra was the chief (A.D. 1162). The latest of their inscriptions is dated A.D. 1336.