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Rejuvenating false histories: Cālukyarāja-Ayyaṇavaṁśacarita-kāvya, published in 1966 and 2005
Shreenand L. Bapat
Curator In-charge, BORI, Pune 411004 However skillfully may a spurious text be composed, its reality will
not remain unexposed in the modern scientific age. Sanskrit scholars should, thus, refrain from such nasty activities and employ their
scholarship into the right work. V. V. Mirashi
1
This paper deals with a spurious historical kāvya. Its reality is necessitated to be
reasserted due to the publication of its second edition. The paper is divided into three sections, viz. 1: the 1966 edition,
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2: the 2005 edition, and 3: conclusion.
1.1: It was in 1966 that
rī Cālukyarāja-Ayyaṇavaṁ acaritam kāvyam sic. containing 17 cantos was published by the Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Delhi.
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Its publication was financed by Sardar Sabajirao alias Appasaheb Patil Chalukya , BA, MRAS, IAS Retd., residing at Kalyani Kothi, 20, Radhaganj, Devas Madhya Pradesh.
The Sanskrit kāvya was reportedly edited using two manuscripts and it was translated
into Hindi by Vishwanath Shastri Bharadvaj of Varanasi.
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It was reportedly composed in the year 1815 CE
by yāmabhaṭṭa Bhāradvāja of Varanasi, an ancestor of the editor and priest of the Patil Chalukya family. The
kāvya attempts to establish the Patil Chalukyas as descendants
of Cālukya ruler Ayyaṇa II of Kalyaṇī and narrates their story till the 18th century CE. The Editor does not forget to mention that the original manuscripts of
the kāvya were reduced to dust due to termite infestation.
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1.2: The said book is dedicated to Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of
India and President of the Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth. Its copies were presented to various important persons including Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the then
President of India. The book is divided into introductory matter, Sanskrit text, kavipra asti, Hindi translation and three appendices enumerating sūkti-s from the kāvya,
index of names and a 62-generation-long genealogy of Sardar Chalukya. It also includes the photographs of: 1 Smt. Indira Gandhi, 2 the occasion on which a copy of the book
was presented to Dr. Radhakrishnan on October 02, 1966 presumably printed and pasted in the copies in hand after the said date, 3
Cālukya-kuladīpaka Sabajirao alias
1
Conclusive remark of the Marathi article on the Ayyaṇavaṁ acarita kāvya Saṁ odhana-muktāvalī, Vol.
7, p. 189, cited from an earlier article on the Yajñaphala Saṁ odhana-muktāvalī, Vol. 2, p. 63.
2
The present author was initiated in this matter by G. B. Mehendale s writing rī Rājā ivachatrapatī published in 1999, Vol. 1, part 2, book 1, pp. 531-561. Most of the information given in the sections 1.1 to
1.5 of this paper is cited from his work. However, Mehendale does not seem to have got the opportunity to see the copy of the
kāvya which is mentioned below and used for this paper.
3
While the text is in Sanskrit, the other matter of the book is in Hindi. A number of copies of the book are available in the Library of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. The most remarkable of them
is the one donated to the Library on August 10, 1984 by Devisingh Chauhan, which was evidently presented to him by A. P. Chalukya, Kalyani Kothi, Dewas, M.P. on January 24, 1Ś73. This copy bears
the BORI Library s accession number 45170 of September 03, 1Ś84. The year of publication on the title page of this copy is pasted on the original matter, and it reads 1ś90 vīra vikrame , which should match
the year 1834 CE Perhaps this was actually meant to be the aka year 18Ś0 which corresponds 1Ś68 CE.
4
One of the manuscripts was reportedly received by the Editor from the Sardar, while he found out the other one from his own collection
Bhūmikā Introduction by Vishwanath Shastri Bharadvaj, pp. 5-7.
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Bhūmikā, p. 9.
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Appajirao Chalukya sitting in the attire of a Sardar, 4 the same Sardar Chalukya on the background of the fort of Kalyani, 5 ancient
paintings of the Sardar s ancestors, and 6 various locations from the fort of Kalyani. Interestingly, the editor reports in his
Bhūmikā that both the original manuscripts were thrown by him into the Ganga due to heavy termite-infestation, and hence the text was brought out only from the press-copy
prepared by the editor and possessed by the Sardar.
1.3: Attention of V. V. Mirashi was drawn to the book by a letter written to him in
