Early Dynasties

The rule of tlie Chalukyas of Badami. as has been seen above, sties practically came to an end in 733 when Dantidurga defeated the Chalukya prince Kirtivarman II. The Rashtrakutas, who were probably an ancient people and the native rulers of the country, held the field for well over two centuries, until, in 973, the last Rashtrakuta king Karkka II was dethroned again by a scion of the Chalukya family, Taila II. The glory of the Chalukyas, thus restored by Taila II lasted for about an equal period, until about 1200, with a short Kalachuri interregnum for about 27 years from 1156 to 1183. During this period, particularly under the Chalukyas. Chitradurga district, which is more or less identical with the Nolambavadi-32000 region of those days, continued to be a bone of contention and the cause for many a battle between two powerful kingdoms-Chalukya in the north and Chola in the south. While these were the successive powers at the imperial level, the principal local dynasties that administered the region as their feudatories were the Nolambasa37 of Henjeru, modern Hemavati (from about 70U to 1050) and the Pandyas of Uchangi (from about 1073 to 1183). Parts of the Chitradurga district have also been called Kadambalige, after the Kadambas, and Nolambalige, which is supposed to have been the nucleus of the Nolambavadi-32000 kingdom, in the inscriptions belonging to this period.

Courtesy : Gazetteer of India, Chitradurga District, 1967.