The black-soil plain between Gadag and the Malaprabha, with the Krishna country beyond it, is the open ground between two kingdoms.
The campaign board describes a belt forty to eighty kilometres deep of villages, fords and cattle that both kingdoms ride into and neither garrisons, with the Ratta chiefs at Saundatti and the Kadambas at Hangal inside it, changing overlord with whoever is nearer with an army. Ballala II beat the Yadava king Bhillama V at Soratur and Lakkundi about 1191 and a Hoysala record of 1192 makes Lakkundi his capital; Wikipedia says he pushed his northern boundary up to the Malaprabha and Krishna rivers, and a record dated about 1196 claims victories over minor ruling families. Jaitugi, Bhillama's son, turned from about 1194 to the Kakatiya war.
The Hoysala hold the southern Belvola towns through officers we cannot name; the Yadava hold the north bank through their Ratta and Sinda vassals (sid's records). This is the southern half of the belt; the northern half and the Yadava-side towns are on the sid sheet.
How things stand that morning
A watched border in a lull: no source we read records a battle between the two kings after Soratur and Lakkundi about 1191, and the Yadava were committed against the Kakatiyas from about 1194 to 1198. The dry season (January to May) is the campaigning season; the Yadava succession (see the likely-course block) may unsettle it.
Sides
Hoysala officers of the Belvola (Lakkundi, Gadag, Dambal; names not known) against Yadava vassals across the Malaprabha (the Rattas of Saundatti and Belgaum, the Sindas of Yelburga: sid's records).
Raids
The campaign board describes a belt of villages, fords and cattle that both kingdoms ride into and neither garrisons. No raid is dated in our sources, and nothing records one in the winter of 1199-1200.
Anchor castles
Hoysala side: Lakkundi, Gadag, Dambal, Soratur. Yadava side (sid's ground): Saundatti, Belagavi, Yelburga. Badami and Bagalkot lie further north, on sid's ground.
Last campaign
The battles of Soratur and Lakkundi, about 1191 (the campaign board allows 1189 to 1191 for Soratur). The Hoysala record of 1192 and the record dated about 1196 are claims, not campaigns. Jaitugi's turn against the Kakatiyas, about 1194 to 1198, took the Yadava elsewhere. No later campaign is dated before 1 January 1200 in our sources.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1200, 1207 or 1210 (the sources disagree)The Yadava succession passes from Jaitugi to Simhana; the Yadava turn to the Hoysala frontier follows.Depends on: Jaitugi's death and the Yadava peace with the Kakatiya. Stopped by: A Yadava war elsewhere or a Hoysala move that closes the border.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board's frontier note ('the Malaprabha and Krishna frontier') and Wikipedia (Veera Ballala II) both put Ballala's northern boundary at the Malaprabha and Krishna rivers after Soratur; Wikipedia gives no year for the push on one reading of the page and the battles of about 1191 on another. The campaign board itself calls it a belt, not a border, so we draw the belt on the Malaprabha plain and treat the Krishna as a claim. The regional brief says the same: do not draw the Krishna as an exact border.
- The sid brief draws a Yadava reading on the Hangal march; here the Hangal side is Hoysala-held and the Malaprabha is the belt.
Evidence: One dated record (1192, Lakkundi), a record dated about 1196 that claims victories, the battles of about 1191 and the campaign board's description of the belt; no source records raiding in the winter of 1199-1200. The edges of the drawn belt are guesses.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A rough oval on the cotton plain; its edges are guesses.
Sources and studies
- Veera Ballala II, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- Jaitugi, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- Lakkundi, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- Hoysala Empire, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, checked against the other sources)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.