Govinda III crushes the revolt of Stambha

01The revolt

Rashtrakuta grants describe Stambha leading a league of twelve kings against the new ruler. Govinda III had released the Ganga Shivamara II, perhaps hoping to win him over, but Shivamara joined the rebels. The Manne and Sisvai grants and later Rashtrakuta records tell how Govinda broke the confederacy in battle, captured his brother, and then, rather than punish him, restored him to Gangavadi, where Stambha served loyally for the rest of his life.

02Clearing the way north

Shivamara was put back in prison. With the south quiet and his brother bound to him by gratitude, Govinda III was free to do what his father had begun: march north. Within a few years he was on the Ganga, taking the submission of Dharmapala and the Pratihara Nagabhata II, as told in the entry on the tripartite struggle for Kanyakubja. Stambha’s loyalty in those years kept the southern flank safe while the king was a thousand miles away.

Dynasty · c. 350–1004 CEWestern Ganga dynasty of TalakadThe Western Gangas ruled Gangavadi in southern Karnataka for six and a half centuries, first on their own and then as the right hand of the Rashtrakutas. Their minister Chavundaraya raised the colossus of Gommateshwara at Shravanabelagola; the Cholas ended the kingdom by taking Talakad about 1004.Read →