Chalukya dynasty

The Chalukya dynasty of Badami was a royal house that ruled much of the Deccan plateau of southern and central India from 543 to 753. Founded by Pulakeshin I, who made the hill fort of Vatapi, today's Badami in northern Karnataka, his capital, it united the lands between the Kaveri and Narmada rivers for the first time under a southern power. Its rulers are remembered for their wars with the Pallavas and for some of the earliest stone temples of South India.

The Chalukyas first appear as subordinates of the Kadamba kings of Banavasi, and they rose as Kadamba power declined. Most historians consider the family native to the Kannada-speaking region: their inscriptions are in Kannada and Sanskrit, they called themselves Karnatas, and several princes bore Kannada titles. Later court genealogies, written in the eleventh century, traced the line to Ayodhya in the north or to a warrior born from the water in the god Brahma's palm, claims that many scholars regard as later embellishment. Pulakeshin I's Badami cliff inscription of 543 marks the dynasty's starting point.

The dynasty's most celebrated king, Pulakeshin II, extended its rule across the whole Deccan in the early seventh century. He checked the southward advance of the northern emperor Harsha in a battle on the Narmada, defeated the Vishnukundins of the eastern Deccan around 616, and pushed south against the Pallavas of Kanchipuram. His Aihole inscription of 634, composed by the court poet Ravikirti, records his victories. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited his court, and the Persian emperor Khosrau II is said to have exchanged envoys with him. In 642 the Pallava king Narasimhavarman struck back and occupied Badami, and Pulakeshin is presumed to have died in the fighting.

The Pallavas held Badami for about thirteen years before Vikramaditya I drove them out and restored the kingdom. Vijayaditya's long reign, from 696 to 733, was a time of peace and temple building. Vikramaditya II (733–744) invaded Pallava territory several times and entered Kanchipuram, where he is remembered for generosity towards the city and its temples; a Kannada inscription he left on a pillar at the Kailasanatha Temple records his victory. A Chalukya governor in Gujarat also repelled Arab raiders from Sind. In 753 the Rashtrakuta chief Dantidurga overthrew the last king, Kirtivarman II.

Under Pulakeshin II the kingdom was organised into large provinces, subdivided into districts and groups of villages, with feudatory families such as the Alupas and Gangas governing their own lands. The army combined infantry, cavalry, elephants and a navy that took Goa and Puri. The kings minted their own coins, with Kannada and Nagari legends, and took the boar as their royal emblem. Royal women held notable roles: the queen Vijayanka was praised as a Sanskrit poet, and two queens of Vikramaditya II paid for major temples.

The Chalukyas supported Hindu, Jain and Buddhist foundations alike, and scholars still debate their personal faith. Their builders worked in local sandstone in a small heartland along the Malaprabha river. The cave temples at Badami include one dated to 578; Aihole holds some seventy structures; and the eighth-century temples of Pattadakal, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, mix southern dravida and northern nagara towers.

After 753 a branch of the family continued to rule at Vengi as the Eastern Chalukyas, and in 973 a family claiming Chalukya descent revived the name in the western Deccan as the Western Chalukya Empire, which lasted into the late twelfth century. Karnataka still celebrates the dynasty with an annual festival at Pattadakal, Badami and Aihole.

Our 600 and 700 maps show the kingdom, labelled Chalukyas, across the western and central Deccan of India, with the Pallavas to the south-east. Earlier maps show the Vakataka dynasty in this region, and the 800 map shows the Rashtrakuta state in its place.