Early Western Chalukyas and Pallavas

As has been mentioned above, the Kadambas were superseded by the Chalukyas of Badami in this region in the middle of the 6th century A.D. Since then, the history of South India for a period of about 300 years is practically the story of mutual con­flict among three powers each seeking constantly to extend its territories at the cost of its neighbours. These three powers were the Chalukyas of Badami, the Pallavas of Kanchi and the Pandyas of Madura. All the three rose into prominence more or less at the same time ; but the Chalukyas quit the stage about a century earlier than the other two powers, their place on the political map of Southern India being filled by the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed.

Badami, which was the capital of the Chalukyas, is said to have formerly been under the Pallavas34. From them it appears to have been taken by the Chalukya king, Pulikeshin I, who is stated to have fortified the hill near it and made it his capital in 543-44 A.D. His son Kirtivarman I (566-597) subdued the Mauryas of Konkan, the Kadambas of Banavasi and the Nalas ruling probably in the region of Bastar and Jaipur. Another son Mangalesha (597-G10), who was also an equally powerful ruler, continued the policy of expansion and extended the territories over Gujarat , Khandesh and Malwa. The most powerful ruler in the line was Pulikeshin II (610-642), who, in a fight for succes­sion to the throne of his father, killed Mangalesha. The most notable victory of Pulikeshin II, who had a number of conquests on all sides to his credit, was that he had over Harshavardhana of Kanauj, the emperor of the North. But it was also at the time of Pulikeshin II that the Chalukya kingdom received a serious setback at the hands of the Pallavas. At the end of a long-drawn-out conflict between the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, Pulikeshin II was not only defeated but perhaps even killed35 by the Pallava king Narashnhavarman, who was actually in occupation of the Chalukya capital for some time, as is evident from his title Vatapikonda and from an inscription engraved on a rock behind the temple of Mallikarjuna in Badami during the thirteenth year of his reign. But Pulikeshin's son and successor, Vikramaditya I (655-681) not only repelled the Pallava invasion, but also regained all the lost territories and thus restored the glory of his father's empire. The reigns of the next two rulers Vinayaditya (681-697) and Vijayaditya (697-733) were more or less peaceful and eventless so far as the Chalukya-Pallava relations were concerned. But the chief interest of the reign of the next king Vikramaditya II (733-744) lay in his wars with the Pallavas. He is said to have overrun Kanchi three times. The last ruler in the Badami Chalukya line was Kirtivarman II (744-757), in whose reign, Dantidurga, a Rashtrakuta feudatory, who was steadily undermining the power of the Chalukya ruler, delivered a successful attack on him in about 753 AD. After continuing to rule in an obscure way for three or four years, Kirtivarman was finally overthrown by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in 757.

This period, which was full of conflicts between the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, must have proved one of almost perpetual unrest to the territories comprising the Chitradurga district, which lay more or less on the borders of the two kingdoms. This state of affairs is probably reflected in the paucity of inscriptions belong­ing to this period, very few records pertaining to the Chalukyas of Badami having been found in this district. But from those found in the adjoining districts to the south and east of the Chitradurga district it appears that the area was under the Chalukyas throughout this period.

Of the early Pallavas also, we hear little in this district. The only inscription36 belonging to them has already been referred to under the section on the Kadambas above. It is only from the beginning of the 9 th century AD, that a branch of the Pallavas, under the name Nolambas, gains strength in this district.

Courtesy : Gazetteer of India, Chitradurga District, 1967.