SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The object of the Thesis is to demonstrate from all available sources the origin, rise, prosperity and decline of the Hoysala dynasty, and to explain its sudden disappearance, into which questions no sufficient investigation has hitherto been made. The information has been derived from the very numerous inscriptions in Old Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, available both in published and unpublished form; from various literary sources in each of the above-mentioned languages; from Persian chronicles, including the valuable Eutuh us balatin of' Isami never before investigated from the point of view of hysorean history; and from the works of Arabic geographers. Attention has been paid to legendary and semi-legendary material, largely collected by Europeans during the nineteenth century and existing for the most part in unpublished form. The whole political history of the dynasty has been illuminated by a thorough geographical investigation of the limits of the kingdom throughout the period of three centuries, and the thesis is illustrated by a series of maps, which facilitate a Knowledge of the extent of Hoysa4.a power and influence to a greater degree of precision than has been possible hitherto in the case of any Hindu dynasty. The main body of the thesis describes the origin of the family from the chiefs of a hill-tribe, obscure but enjoying certain natural advantages; its early rise at the expense of neighbouring dynasties; its prowess against the Cola, and its period of apprenticeship under the Calukya; its subsequent hostility towards and successes against the latter and against his successor the Kalacuri; and its eventual triumph during the ascendancy of the Yadava. A aeries of reverses than led to an aberration under Ballala II, consisting in the commencemeit of a series of interferences in the affairs of the southern Cola and Paridya kingdoms, which, apparently confirming, in fact undermined the stability of the Hoysala empire. A civil war between the sons of Somesvara stimulated the decline & vain attempts were made by Ballala III to stave off the disruption of his kingdom before a sudden blow at the hands of the Muslims made it a suitable object for the ambitions of the Hindi Vijayanagara family. The thesis is accompanied by a brief description of the administrative methods employed during the period, together with lists of officials, which, it is hope, will enable the epigraphic material which is constantly being discovered to be thereby more easily dated, collated and utilized. Throughout the thesis further light is thrown on the political history of twenty contemporary dynasties.