Veera Ballala II

Who he is

Name

Veera Ballala II (also written Vira Ballala II)

Title

King (Hoysala maharaja; he takes the titles of an emperor of the Karnataka country from about 1192)

Since

22 July 1173

Born

not recorded; probably in his late forties or fifties in 1200 (our inference from his adult accession in 1173)

Family

Son of Narasimha I (reigned 1152-1173) and a mother Wikipedia does not name; grandson of Vishnuvardhana. Wives: Umadevi (crowned queen), Ketaladevi, and a Chola princess Cholamahadevi (Wikipedia). Heir: Vira Narasimha II. Daughter Somaladevi, married to Kulottunga III Chola (Wikipedia).

Confidence

high

Wikipedia (Veera Ballala II; Hoysala Empire; Kulottunga Chola III) for reign, family and campaigns; the dated records of 1174 (Meruhalli grant to Jain monks), 1192 (Lakkundi; Nanjedevaragudda at Somepur) and about 1196 (victory record) are the fixed points. We did not re-read the inscriptions.

What it holds

• the royal demesne round Dorasamudra, Belur and Hassan (villages, tank lands, the quarries and the temple estates he confirms)
• Talakad and the Kaveri plain, with the governors' charges of Gangavadi
• Lakkundi and the Belvola, held by his dandanayakas
• the ghat tolls (Shiradi, Charmadi, Agumbe, Bisle) and the sandalwood and spice share
• the right to appoint and confirm feudatories: Alupas, Santaras, Changalvas, Kongalvas, Kadambas of Hangal, Guttas

How it was acquired

Succeeded Narasimha I on 22 July 1173 (Wikipedia says he overthrew him with the help of the Malnad chiefs). The north was won by campaign between about 1178 and 1196.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Kulottunga III Chola by marriage; the Malnad chiefs (Changalvas, Kongalvas) who helped him to the throne and whom he has since kept from rising. Rivals: Jaitugi of Devagiri (whose father Bhillama V he beat); the old Western Chalukya remnant (Someshvara IV, beaten about 1190); Kadambas of Hangal and Banavasi, the Pandyas of Uchchangi, the Rattas of Saundatti on the north edge. Wikipedia reports a Kalachuri invasion about 1179 that ended in a truce with Ballala accepting nominal subordination, since reversed.

How things stand that morning

In his twenty-seventh year, at peace with the Cholas, and with the Yadava question put off by Jaitugi's turn against the Kakatiyas. Where the king is on the morning of 1 January is not known; the dry weather of January to April is the campaigning season and he has two fronts. Queen Umadevi is credited with running Halebidu and putting down rebellious feudatories while he was away on campaign (Wikipedia, Hoysala Empire); she is not dated.

Wealth

Revenue from tank villages assessed by whether the field is wet or dry, agrahara and devadana villages he confirms, ghat tolls, the pepper and sandalwood share, Kolar gold, the Lakkundi mint and the gadyana coinage. The temples he endows (Belur, Halebidu, Melkote, Shravanabelagola) hold villages whose grants are the record of his revenue.

Military

His generals are the dandanayakas, who also govern: Kuvara Lakshma (minister and bodyguard, Wikipedia, Hoysala Empire), Amriteshvara Dandanayaka (builder of the Amruthapura temple of 1196, a commander of Ballala II on the campaign board's reading), and the unnamed commanders of the northern garrisons at Lakkundi, Gadag, Hangal and Banavasi. The kingdom's offices (Wikipedia): the pancha pradhanas, the sandhivigrahi (foreign affairs), the mahabhandari (chief treasurer) and the dharmadhikari (chief justice); each province has a mahapradhana and a bhandari under a dandanayaka; the nadu, vishaya, kampana and desha are the units, from largest to smallest.

Threats

• Simhana (Singhana II) of Devagiri once he is free of the Kakatiyas
• Revolt of feudatories while he is in the north
• A Chola change of mind after the delta famine (the famine itself is reported only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar)
• The slow loss of the north if the Belvola garrisons are thin

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.

In 1200

1. 22 July 1200Ballala's twenty-eighth regnal year begins.Depends on: The date of accession, 22 July 1173. Stopped by: Nothing; it is a calendar fact.
2. during 1200 (month not known)Jaitugi dies and Simhana succeeds on one reckoning; the Yadava court may turn south.Depends on: Which epigraphic reckoning holds (1200, 1207 or 1210). Stopped by: A Yadava war elsewhere.

Later, on the likely course

1. c. 1209The poet Janna finishes the Yashodhara Charite under Ballala; he already holds the title Kavichakravarti from the king (Wikipedia gives the work as c. 1209: a later event).Depends on: The poet's career at court. Stopped by: Nothing.
2. 1216 to 1217 (later)The Chola emperor is driven out by the Pandya Maravarman Sundara; Prince Narasimha II leads the Hoysala army that restores him and Ballala takes the titles Cholarajyapratishtacharya and Dakshina Chakravarti (Wikipedia, Veera Ballala II).Depends on: A Pandya invasion of the Chola country. Stopped by: A Hoysala defeat in the north first.
3. 1220 (later)Ballala II dies and Vira Narasimha II succeeds (Wikipedia, Veera Ballala II).Depends on: A natural end to a long reign; no date of birth is recorded. Stopped by: An earlier death or a war that changes the succession.

Places of note

• Amruthapura temple (Amriteshvara), 1196: built by Amriteshvara Dandanayaka under Ballala II; Janna's verses, Mallitamma's early work (board)
• Belavadi, Veeranarayana temple (about 1200): Veeranarayana temple, dated 1200 in Wikipedia's table; the campaign board has the main shrine finished about now and a great building site round it
• Mosale, twin temples (reign of Ballala II): Nageshvara and Chennakeshava
• Kedareshwara temple, Halebidu: begun or about to be begun (1200 in Wikipedia's table; the campaign board gives a longer range)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry region text: the Chola emperor married Ballala's daughter; regional brief: Ballala married a Chola princess. Wikipedia gives both (Cholamahadevi among his queens; Somaladevi his daughter, given to Kulottunga III).
• Wikipedia's temple table gives the Kedareshwara temple at Halebidu as 1200; the campaign board gives a range from about 1200 to 1219 and credits him with Queen Ketaladevi. Treated as just begun or about to begin.
• The campaign board has Ballala 'holds the Malaprabha and the Krishna'. Wikipedia (Veera Ballala II) says he pushed the northern boundary up to the Malaprabha and Krishna rivers (no year on one reading of the page, the battles of about 1191 on another). A boundary on a record is not control on the ground, so we draw the Malaprabha as a contested belt and the Krishna as a claim only.

Evidence: Reign, campaigns and temples are firm in the secondary sources; the queens, the heir's age and the officers' careers rest on Wikipedia summaries of inscriptions we did not read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The king's own lands are a small part of the realm; the provinces carry most of it.

Primary sources for Hoysala kingdom

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
• Inscriptions of the Silaharas, Various (Silahara chanceries), edited by V. V. Mirashi (inscriptions of the 9th to 13th centuries; edited 1977). Collects the records of the three Silahara houses: North Konkan (Thana), South Konkan, and Kolhapur.
• Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions relating to the Yadava Kings of Devagiri, Various (Yadava chancery), edited by J. F. Fleet (inscriptions of the 12th and 13th centuries; edited 1876). The first collected edition of the Yadava (Seuna) records, with texts and translations, from the Indian Antiquary. Read online
• South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online