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Kara Dikallu vahni

Source: TW

About 15 km west of the fort of udayagiri (Udgir) in Eastern Maharashtra (near which the marAThA-s won a decisive victory against the Nizam under sadAshiva rAv) lies the hamlet of Karadkhed, which today is mostly plowed and cultivated fields with hardly any sign of being a major civilizational center. People in the state are hardly aware that its name has a Dravidian origin: karaDikallu (in Tam/Kan: Bear-Rock).

It is not clear why that name came to be, as we see no bears and the eponymous rock is probably the abandoned hill in the outskirts of the village. However, several inscriptions point to the place having once had prominence in the heydays of the chAlukya-s and the raTTa-s.

There was a chAlukyan warrior clan known as the vahni-s who developed the place and patronized numerous shrines. One of the chAlukyan generals (mahAmaNDaleshvara) from this family, karka, sponsored the someshvara temple, a shaiva shrine officiated by the kAlAmukha pAshupata-s. We see the names of a lineage of kAlAmukha chiefs named vAgIshvara paNDita, j~nAneshvara and chandrashekhara paNDita who managed this establishment.
Additionally, he and his wife rebbaladevI sponsored the construction of two other shaiva shrines named after their ancestors, whose affiliations were unclear and a bhairava shrine, prasannabhairava, in the same erstwhile town.
He also mentions supporting v1s and students at the place. Members of his entourage also gave the jaina-s a place in town for a shrine. An inscription here mentions a northern campaign of someshvara-deva of mAnasollAsa fame, and his prime minister but its details have been entirely effaced.

The karaDikallu vahni family has an unusual vahnikula myth differing from that of the traditional rAjaputra-s. Here they are said to have emerged from the homa-kuNDa during a rite performed by agastya. Apocryphally, I have heard of some drAviDa vahniyar-s having the same origin myth.

Today, if you look at the place on the map there is hardly anything to see – a rather non-descript village. However, one sights a “disputable structure” which probably holds the key to what happened to a once flourishing town.