Shantala Devi, queen consort to King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala dynasty, has been a figure of historical intrigue and literary fascination. Her life, as recorded in inscriptions, offers glimpses into the political, religious, and cultural networks of her time. However, modern fictional narratives have often made us reinterpret her story, sometimes diverging from historical facts.

Shantala Devi was celebrated for her skill in dance, music, and dramaturgy. Having read the novels from the 20th century that depict her life as a romantic tragedy, tour guides recognize the female forms adorning the exterior of the Channakeshava temple as her portraits. But very few know that she was the driving force behind the politically significant commissioning of the Kappe Channigaraya Temple, which is located directly to its left. Rather than studying Shantaladevi in isolation, what can we learn about her by placing her within the institutions and systems of her own time? When done so, was she unique for the reasons her mythology has long espoused, or was she really no different from other aristocratic women of her time?

Shantala supposedly died by suicide at a site called Shivagange, where, to this day there is a precarious spot called Shantala Drop. Much to our surprise, however, the story we keep hearing is not what inscriptions and secondary scholarship reveal. Rather, it is a fictionalised account. In a way, stories of her and those imagined around her became synonymous with Hoysala Dynasty, and part of folklore and literary lore.

Historically, everything we know about Shantala comes from stone and copper plate inscriptions of the 12th century which primarily recorded the establishment and endorsement of temples.
This article explores the dual narratives surrounding Shantala Devi, contrasting the historical records with fictional representations, given the fact that there are more legends and literature about her.

Historical Sources

The Hoysala dynasty, emerging in the 11th and 12th centuries in southern India, played a significant role in the region’s political and cultural landscape. Vishnuvardhana’s reign (1108–1152 CE) marked a period of territorial expansion.

Primary sources, including inscriptions from temples and memorial stones, provide substantial information about Shantala Devi. The inscription at Belur contains verses that extol Vishnuvardhana’s military exploits as well as his strength and valour. In this inscription, Shantala first appears as Pattamahadevi, or Crowned Queen of Vishnuvardhana. At the coronation of Vishnuvardhana in 1117, Vishnuvardhana became the king and Shantala was given the title of Patta Rani. The circumstances of their marriage are unclear, as they appear already married by the time they appear in any inscription.
The inscription also contains the first formalised genealogy of the Hoysala Dynasty and extols Shantala’s beauty, intelligence, devotion to her husband, and her support of the four major paths: Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Inscriptions suggest that Shantala Devi was from Balipura or Baligavi, a significant detail highlighted by Vishnuvardhana in temple inscriptions.

There was something that truly set Shantala’s life apart from her contemporaries. Inscriptions detailing her life happened to be discovered at a temple that also contained many dancing sculptures, and the mention of her dancing was conflated with those sculptures to create this narrative. That could be how her dance became a part of her personality cult.

However, what is extremely rare about Shantala’s panegyric passages in the Belur Temple foundation inscription is the fact that she is not only praised extensively but personal details about her birth are provided in an inscription commissioned by her husband. This reflects the pivotal position she had in the rulership of the new Hoysala territory. Interestingly, many famous Hoysala sculptors like Dasoja, Malloja, Nadoja, and Siddoja hailed from Baligavi.

Shantala’s father was Marasingamayya, the Danayaka of Sivaganga Nadi. Her mother, Machikabbe, had been married for a long time without children. But through their heartfelt prayers and offerings to God, they were blessed with Shantala as their daughter. It was seen as a special gift, believed to be bestowed upon them by the grace of Shiva Parvati. Shantala received her education in Baligavi, where she truly excelled in a wide range of subjects. She had a knack for Vedas, Agamas, Upanishads, grammar, poetry, martial arts, painting, sculpture, dance, music, and more. She was a true prodigy, mastering various disciplines with ease and passion. Given her exceptional skills in Bharatanatyam, she was called “Natyarani”.

The second important set of inscriptions exists at Shravanabelgola, an important Jain site of pilgrimage where you have a cluster of temples on a smaller hill. These inscriptions at Shravanabelgola established Shantala as a lead disciple of the Jain teacher Prabhachandra Siddhanta Deva. There is plenty of information about queen Shantaladevi depicted in the stones at Shravanbelgola. It mentions the temples built by her, her death at Sivaganga, and the fact that she tolerated no rivals. She is compared to a ‘rutting elephant to co-wives’.

Shantala undertook the vow of Sallekhana at Shivagange in the present Tumkur district in 1131 A.D. An inscription of 1131 A.D.at Chandragiri hill in Shravanabelagola records the death of queen Santala-Devi at Sivaganga (in the current Tumakuru district, Karnataka) in 1131 A.D. through the practice of sallekhana in the presence of her guru Prabhachandra-siddhanta-deva, husband Vishnuvardhana and mother Machikabbe. It describes the achievements of the Hoysala kings from Vinayaditya to Vishnuvardhana and their conquests. It further proceeds to praise the queen Shantala and mentions the grants made by her. It details the family lineage of Queen Shantala and her mother Machikabbe. After Shantala’s death, her mother fasted to death at Belagola.

Shantala Devi is credited with commissioning significant architectural works, including Savati Gandavarana Basadi, a temple dedicated to Shanthinatha, the sixteenth Tirthankara of Jainas in 1123 CE, and Chennigaraya Temple in Belur in 1120 CE. These constructions reflect her active role in promoting Jainism and contributing to the religious and cultural landscape of her time. In 1123 CE, Vishnuvardhana granted her the village of Shantigrama near present-day Hassan, where her father built a temple dedicated to the deity Dharmeshwara, a form of Shiva. An inscription from 1123 CE reports that her father Marasingamayya commissioned the Dharmeshwara Temple, and he, Shantala, and Vishnuvardhana made donations to its upkeep and granted the revenue from the peripheral villages.

Shantala Devi’s inscriptions reveal her involvement in various networks, extending beyond her immediate family to include religious, artistic, and political connections. Her family’s adherence to the Mula Sangha, a prominent sect of Digambara Jainism, was another dimension that created an image of religious tolerance of Hoyasalas.

However, is this what forms the general perception of the visitors, tourists, and local guides of Belur and related areas today? Or is there something that conspicuously extrapolates from the historical details and influences the general perception?

Fictional Narratives

The earliest known fictional work around the queen is a 1949 film titled “Natyarani,” which portrays Shantala Devi as a dancer. G.V. Iyer’s Kannada novel of 1954, “Natyarani Shantala,” is a notable work of historical fiction that dramatises Shantala Devi’s life.

The fictionalised story is set in the background of Hoysalas’ reign when King Vishnuvardhana adorns the throne. Vishnuvardhana ( 1108 – 1152 ) inherited a kingdom after declaring his independence from the Chalukyas to reign supreme for nearly four and half decades.

In order to stabilise his kingdom, he had to confront Chalukyas, Pallavas, and Gangas many times. During this period of consolidation, he was busy in strategic warfare leaving no time to think of marriage. His mother used to goad him to marry and the King used to be steadfast in his resolution. His take on avoiding marriage was simple: a person who lives by the sword dies by the sword.

His godmother devised a plan which would ensure that Vishnuvardhana would fall into the trap of getting convinced about marriage. She arranged for him, a dance performance by Shantala and her close friend Lakshmi. During this performance, he falls in love with Shantala. However, Shantala declines the marriage proposal, emphasising that she performed the dance with her best friend Lakshmi, and would marry only when the king married both. She maintained her identity as a Jain, whereas the king was a Vaishnava. In order to accommodate her beliefs, Vishnuvardhana married not only her and Lakshmi as co-wives but also five other girls from the same community, while respecting Shantala’s religious faith.

The couple enjoyed several years of marital bliss but were plagued by the fact that Shantala could not bear him a male heir. Ultimately, when Vishnuvardhana refuses to consider anyone else for bearing the heir, Shantala sacrifices her life at Shivagange. In a supernatural twist, her soul occupies Lakshmi’s body, who then conceives Narasimha as his heir to the throne.

While it brings her story to a wider audience, it also introduces elements not supported by historical records, such as her supposed tragic death by suicide. This is in stark contrast to inscriptions, which simply state that she “became one with who has gone to heaven.” And so a dancing girl became a queen and then Shantala Devi, a goddess who protects temple ruins.

The idea that she was childless was debunked by author and historian CK Nagaraja Rao in his 1977 magnum opus spanning 2,162 pages, “Pattamahadevi Shantaladevi”. He personally discovered Hoysala inscriptions that established she had three sons and a daughter.

In his novel, CK Nagaraja Rao chooses to frame the central conflict as one between Shantala’s pacifist inclinations and Vishnuvardhana’s military ambitions. As a compromise, when Vishnuvardhana does not cease waging war, he puts Shantala in charge of the work at Belur Temple. The reason for her suicide in this narrative is portrayed as the growing distance from her husband due to their incompatible beliefs.

Amar Chitra Katha (1984) followed Nagaraja’s narrative and presented Shantala as a self-sacrificing figure attempting to dissuade her husband from constant warfare. The stunning and well-known figures dancing on the walls of the Chennakeshava temple are imagined to capture Shantala’s own dance. We have no evidence to substantiate this claim; however, the panels of Amar Chitra Katha depict this and guides to the temple at Belur often mention it.

There is another story that Shantala’s soul flame was extinguished in the conflict-ridden year of 1131 after she took a vow of Jainism and fasted continuously for 21 days. It is not known which of these stories is true. But till today it is believed that she is the guardian deity of the Belur temple.

Conclusion

Fictional narratives, while engaging, can obscure the complexities of historical figures and practices. They highlight the need for careful interpretation of primary sources to avoid projecting contemporary values onto historical events. However, they also play a role in keeping historical figures in public consciousness and can inspire further scholarly inquiry.

Though not explicitly connected, there has been an evolution of queenship studies, a sub-field of European history that began in the 1970s. It has moved the study of queens away from biographies of visible and exceptional queens and towards theorizations of how queens functioned as part of the larger political systems of which they were a part. As Theresa Earenfight, one of the pioneers of this field, has written in her foundational textbook “Queenship in Medieval Europe,” analysing monarchy as both kingship and queenship reveals a complex institution embedded in a patriarchal political environment that privileged rule by a king but that could both limit a woman’s range of options and propel her forward in both the personal and political spheres.

This branch of study departs from the linear study of dynasties and expands the understanding of royal households through the examination of kin networks and prosopographical information. It also expands the definition of royalty from the king’s immediate family to include nobles and subordinate rulers. Drawing on this framework, there is a need to move towards the exclusive study of exceptional and visible women and examine how they functioned both as agents and conduits in the larger political system of which they were a part.

Also, Shantala Devi’s exceptional prominence in historical records, marked by temple commissions, land grants, and extensive praise, does not indicate the empowerment of women during medieval India. While her achievements were remarkable, they were not accessible to all women, given the selective representation of elite figures like queens in historical narratives. Moreover, societal constraints on women’s autonomy and rights persisted despite her success, situating her within a broader context of hierarchical gender roles and regional disparities.

Shantala Devi’s story, as reconstructed from historical inscriptions, presents a picture of a queen deeply involved in the religious, cultural, and political life of her time. Her portrayal in modern fiction, while contributing to her legend, sometimes distorts historical facts. Only by examining both historical and fictional accounts, we gain a more nuanced understanding of her legacy and the broader context of the Hoysala dynasty.