The Shilahara Kingdom (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: Śilāhāra; also Sinhara, Shailahara, Shrilara, and Silara) was a royal dynasty that established itself in northern and southern
Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...
in 8th century CE, present-day
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
and
Southern Maharashtra (
Kolhapur
Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'.
Kolhapur is kn ...
) during the
Rashtrakuta period.
Shilahara Kingdom were split into three branches:
* First branch ruled
North Konkan
* Second branch ruled
South Konkan (between 765 and 1029 CE)
* Third branch ruled in modern districts of
Kolhapur
Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'.
Kolhapur is kn ...
,
Satara and
Belagavi (between 940 and 1215 CE) after which they were overwhelmed by the
Yadavas
The Yadava (literally, descended from Yadu) were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage. The community was formed of various clans, being the Abhira, Andhaka, Vrishni, and S ...
.
Origins
The dynasty originally began as vassals of the
Rashtrakuta dynasty which ruled the
Deccan
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...
plateau between the 8th and 10th centuries. Govinda II, a
Rashtrakuta king, conferred the kingdom of North Konkan (the modern districts of
Thane
Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven taluk ...
,
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
and
Raigad) on Kapardin (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
: Wearing the , a peculiar braid or knot of hair - also a term for god
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
/
Rishabhanatha
Rishabhanatha, also ( sa, ऋषभदेव), Rishabhadeva, or Ikshvaku is the first (Supreme preacher) of Jainism and establisher of Ikshvaku dynasty. He was the first of twenty-four teachers in the present half-cycle of time in Jain c ...
) I, founder of the Northern Silhara family, around 800. Since then North Konkan came to be known as Kapardi-dvipa or Kavadidvipa. The capital of this branch was Puri, now known as Rajapur in the Raigad District.
The dynasty bore the title of ''Tagara-puradhishvara'', which indicates that they originally hailed from Tagara (modern Ter in the
Osmanabad District).
Around 1343 the island of
Salsette
Salsette Island is an island in Konkan division of the state of Maharashtra on India's west coast. Administratively known as Greater Mumbai, the city district of Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban District, Mira Bhayander and a portion of Thane lie wit ...
, and eventually the whole archipelago, passed to the
Muzaffarid dynasty.
Shilaharas of Southern Maharashtra
The Shilahara Kingdom ( IAST: Śilāhāra; also Sinhara, Shailahara, Shrilara, and Silara) was a royal dynasty that established itself in northern and southern Konkan in 8th century CE, present-day Mumbai and Southern Maharashtra (Kolhapur) d ...
at Kolhapur was the latest of the three and was founded about the time of downfall of the Rashtrakuta Empire.
All the branches of this family traced their descent from the legendary Vidyadhara prince
Jimutavahana Jīmūtavāhana (c. 12th century) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and writer of legal and religious treatises on Vaishnavism of early medieval period. He was the earliest writer on ''smriti'' (law) from Bengal whose texts are extant.
Major works
Jī ...
, who sacrificed himself to rescue a Naga prince from the clutches of
Garuda
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda ...
. The family-name ''Shilahara'' (meaning "mountain-peak food" in Sanskrit) is supposed to have been derived from this incident. Even single inscriptions have more than one form of the name; one has the three forms Silara, Shilara and Shrillara.
North Konkan (Thane) branch (c. 800–1265 CE)
Find spot
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
s of inscriptions issued during the reign of the Shilaharas of North Konkan" width="400" height="400" zoom="7" longitude="72.99" latitude="18.4">
After
power became weak, the last known ruler of this family, Rattaraja, declared his independence. But
Jayasimha, the younger brother of Vikramaditya, overthrew him and appropriated his possessions. North
sometime in the second quarter of the eighth century.
(1022–1035 CE)
# Nagarjuna (1035–1045 CE)
# Mummuniraja (1045–1070 CE)
# Ananta Deva I (1070–1127 CE)
#
(1155–1170 CE)
# Aparaditya II ( 1170–1197 CE)
# Ananta Deva II (1198–1200 CE)
#
South Konkan branch (c. 765–1020 CE)