Chalukyan Wars
The Chalukyan Wars were a series of conflicts involving the Chalukyas of Vatapi, the Pallavas of Kanchi, and the Pāṇḍyas of Madura, primarily during the 6th to 12th centuries in southern India. The Chalukyas, established under King Pulakeśin I around 550 CE, expanded significantly, particularly during the reign of Pulakeśin II, who famously repelled an invasion by the north Indian ruler Harsha and extended Chalukyan influence into regions like Gujarat and Malwa. However, the tide turned when the Pallava king Narasimavarman invaded and sacked the Chalukyan capital, Vatapi, leading to a prolonged conflict between the two kingdoms.
The struggle for supremacy saw numerous power shifts, with the Chalukyas achieving notable victories against the Pallavas but ultimately facing challenges from the Rashtrakutas and later the Cholas. Key battles marked this tumultuous period, including significant defeats and victories that shaped the political landscape of southern India. By the late 12th century, the Chalukyan kingdom dwindled, absorbed by emerging powers such as the Hoysalas and the Yadavas, culminating in the eventual decline of Hindu rule in the region with the Muslim invasions of the early 14th century. The Chalukyan Wars thus represent a critical chapter in the history of southern Indian dynasties, characterized by fierce rivalries and shifting allegiances.
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Chalukyan Wars
At issue: Control and domination of southern India
Date: 543-1189
Location: Karnataka, south India
Combatants: Early Chalukyas vs. Harsha and the Pallavas; later Chalukyas vs. Eastern Cholas and Southern Cholas
Principal commanders:Early Chalukyan, Pulakeśin I (r. c. 550-566), Pulakeśin II (r. 609-642), Vikramā ditya I (r. 655-681); Pallava, Narasimavarman I (r. 630-668); Later Chalukyan, Somesvara I (r. 1042–1068), Vikramāditya VI (r. 1076–1126); Chola, Rājarāja the Great (r. 985-1014)
Principal battles: Vatapi, Kanchi, Koppam, Banavasi, Kudal-Sangaman
Result: Establishment of a great Hindu dynasty in southern India
Background
In the middle of the sixth century, three kingdoms, the Chalukyas of Vatapi (Badami), the Pallavas of Kanchi, and the Pāṇḍyas of Madura, struggled for control of southern India below the river Narmada. The early Chalukyas rose to power in northern Karnataka under King Pulakeśin I in 550, and he and his successors expanded the kingdom. The most vulnerable part of the kingdom was the region between the rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra, as this territory was claimed by the Chaulakyas and their rivals to the south.
Action
Under the fourth Chalukyan king, Pulakeśin II, the kingdom reached its greatest expansion. Pulakeśin was powerful enough, in part because of his elephant corps, to repulse an attack in 632 by the great north Indian king Harsha of Kanauj. He also conquered Gujerat, Rajputana, and Malwa. His fame reached Persia, and he even exchanged ambassadors with its king, Khusru II. After Pulakeśin’s victory over Harsha, no northern ruler attempted to conquer the south for nearly six hundred years. Pulakeśin conquered the east coast of India and appointed his brother as viceroy. In 611, he was installed as a feudatory king. The descendants of this branch of the family became known as the Eastern Chalukyas or the Chalukyas of Vengi. In 642, while Pulakeśin was in the north of Karnataka, the kingdom was invaded by Narasimavarman, a Pallava king, who sacked the Chalukyan capital of Vatapi. Pulakeśin rushed south but was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle.
Disorder followed, but in 674, Pulakeśin’s son, Vikramāditya I, invaded Pallava country and avenged his father’s death. The war between the two kingdoms would be waged for more than sixty years. In 740, Vikramāditya II (grandson of the original invader) inflicted a great defeat on the Pallavas and captured their capital, Kanchi. In about 757, the Chalukyas were overthrown by the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga, and the Rashtrakutas dominated the south for more than two hundred years, although the Eastern Chalukyas survived until the end of the eleventh century. The Rashtrakutas were, in turn, defeated by the later Chalukyas. Weak rulers, imperial overreach, numerous and costly military campaigns, external invasions, decentralization, and rebellion all contributed to the collapse of the Chalukyas.
In 973, Taila II, who claimed to be a descendant of the Chalukyan dynasty of Vatapi, reestablished the sovereignty of the Chalukyas in the Deccan, with a capital at Kalyani. To the east, the Cholas overthrew the Pallavas and established a powerful kingdom whose twenty kings challenged the twelve Chalukyan kings for dominance of the south. After the Cholas captured Gangavadi, Nolambavadi, and Banavasi (later Mysore), they were able from this salient to attack the Chalukyas and push them back beyond the river Krishna. The fortresses on the frontier of Mysore were known as “the key to the south” or “the bolt against the south.”
In the early eleventh century, the Chola king Rājarāja the Great invaded Chalukyan territory and inflicted a massive defeat that led to the death of tens of thousands of Chalukyas. This defeat was not avenged until fifty years later, when the Chalukyan king, Somesvara I, defeated and killed the Eastern Chola king, Rājadhirāja I, at Koppam in 1054. Chola power, however, was regained at the Battle of Kudal-Sangaman sometime between 1064 and 1069. The most powerful ruler of the later Chalukyas was Vikramāditya VI, whose long reign of some fifty years was, for the times, comparatively peaceful. His rivals for dominance of the south were the Southern Cholas, with their capital at Kanchi. Vikramāditya invaded the Chola territory once, around 1085, and occupied Kanchi. He also had to put down the usual uprisings by various ambitious viceroys, especially the Hoysalas of Mysore who were his feudatories. By 1137, a decade after Vikramāditya’s death, the Hoysalas had succeeded in becoming independent in Mysore.
During the reign of the eleventh Chalukyan king, Tailappa III (r. 1151–1156), his commander in chief Bijjala usurped the greater part of the kingdom. Somesvara IV was the last of the Chalukyan kings, and after he fled the kingdom in 1189 and sought the protection of the king of Goa, he was never heard from again.
Aftermath
The Chalukyan kingdom was absorbed by the Yadavas of Devagiri in the west and the Hoysalas in the south. A century later, in 1310, the south was overrun by the Muslims under Malik Kafur, and all the Hindu kingdoms ceased to exist.
Bibliography
Basavaraja, K. R. Administration Under the Chalukyas of Kalyana. Madras, India: New Era, 1983.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. History and Culture of Karnataka: Early Times to Unification. Dharwad, India: Chalukya Publications, 1984.
Ramesh, K. V. Chalukyas of Vatapi. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1984.
Singh, Birendra Kumar. The Early Chalukyas of Vatapi, c.a.d.5000 to 797. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers, 1991.
Suryanarayana, Kolluru. Feudatories Under Eastern Chalukyas. Delhi: Gian Publishing House, 1987.