Revatidvipa or Govapuri was a province under the

Chalukya dynasty The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dyna ...

, encompassing parts of modern-day

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to th ...

and Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Revatidvipa was an important trading port of the dynasties that controlled it, including the Chalukyas. It was conquered by the

Rashtrakuta Rashtrakuta ( IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...

ruler

Krishna I Krishna I ( kn, ಅಕಾಲವರ್ಷ ಶುಭತುಂಗ ಕೃಷ್ಣ) (reign 756–774 CE), an uncle of Dantidurga, took charge of the growing Rashtrakuta Empire by defeating the last Badami Chalukya ruler Kirtivarman II in 757. This ...

in 753 AD. It flourished as a maritime port with a flow of traders and foreign mercantile communities developing. The most significant communist among them were the Pahlavi-speaking Christian merchants from

Persis Persis ( grc-gre, , ''Persís''), better known in English as Persia (Old Persian: 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿, ''Parsa''; fa, پارس, ''Pârs''), or Persia proper, is the Fars region, located to the southwest of modern-day Iran, now a province. T ...

(modern-day Fars)

History

The town of Gopakapattana is identified with modern-day Redi in Maharashtra. The region was successfully ruled by the Kadambas, Bhojas, Mauryas of Konkana,

Chalukyas The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynast ...

Rashtrakutas Rashtrakuta (IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...

Shilahara 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) ...

Kadambas of Goa The Kadambas of Goa were a dynasty during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, who ruled Goa from the 10th to the 14th century CE. They took over the territories of the Shilaharas and ruled them at first from Chandor, later ...

and Seunas of Devagiri. Revatidvipa was an important territory of the Mauryas of Konkan. The

Chalukya The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynas ...

ruler

Kirttivarman I Kirttivarman I (IAST: Kīrtti-varman; r. c. 566-592) was a ruler of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi (present-day Badami) in India. He ruled parts of present-day Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Kirttivarman was the son of his pred ...

attacked the Konkan Mauryas with his main objective being to occupy the port of Revatidvipa.

's conquest of Revatidvipa, as Nilkanta Sastri says, "would not have been realised without an efficient naval organizaton". After defeating the Mauryas, Kirttivarman appears to have appointed a new governor for the former Maurya territory called Svamiraja, a prince of Chalukya ancestry who had won 18 battles.

Rebellion

Relations between Svamiraja and

Mangalesha Mangalesha ( IAST: Maṅgaleśa, r. c. 592-610 CE) was a king of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi in Karnataka, India. He succeeded his brother Kirttivarman I on the throne, and ruled a kingdom that stretched from southern Gujarat in north to Be ...

, Kirttivarman's successor, were not amicable and Svamiraja rebelled against

. The Aihole prashasti inscription states that Mangalesha's navy, "which was like the army of the deity

Varuna Varuna (; sa, वरुण, , Malay: ''Baruna'') is a Vedic deity associated initially with the sky, later also with the seas as well as Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). He is found in the oldest layer of Vedic literature of Hinduism, suc ...

", conquered the island. The later Chalukya inscriptions mention that Mangalesha's troops crossed the sea by a bridge made of boats. The Nerur inscription does not refer to the Revatidvipa, but suggests that Svamiraja was the governor of the

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 hinterla ...

coastal region, in which Revatidvipa was located. Subsequently, Mangalesha slew Svamiraja appointed Satyashraya Dhruvaraja Indravarman as the new governor of the Konkan region, a member of the Batpura or Bappura family.

References

{{improve categories, date=June 2022 Chalukya dynasty Goa Maharashtra History of India