Badami Chalukyas

Badami Chalukyas

News: Two Badami Chalukya temples at least 1,300-1,500 years old and a 1,200-year-old label inscription were recently discovered in Mudimanikyam village along the banks of Krishna.

About Chalukya dynasty
• The Chalukyas ruled over the central Indian plateau of the Deccan between the sixth and twelfth centuries.
• During that period, they ruled as three closely related but individual dynasties.
• The Chalukyas of Badami, who ruled between the sixth and the eighth centuries, and the two sibling dynasties of the Chalukyas of Kalyani, or the Western Chalukyas, and the Chalukyas of Vengi, or the Eastern Chalukyas.

Key Facts about Badami Chalukyas

Origin:
• Pulakesi I established the Chalukya dynasty in 550.
• Pulakesi I took Vatapi (Badami in Bagalkot district, Karnataka) under his control and made it his capital.
• Historians refer to Pulakesi I and his descendants as the Chalukyas of Badami.
• They ruled over an empire that comprised the entire state of Karnataka and most of Andhra Pradesh in the Deccan.
• Pulakesi II had been perhaps the greatest emperor of the Badami Chalukyas.
• Pulakesi II extended the Chalukya Empire up to the northern extents of the Pallava kingdom and halted the southward march of Harsha by defeating him on the banks of the river Narmada.
• He then defeated the Vishnukundins in the southeastern Deccan.
• Pallava Narasimhavarman reversed that victory by attacking and occupying the Chalukya capital, Vatapi (Badami).
• Hiuen-Tsiang, a Chinese traveller, had visited the court of Pulakesi II.
• Later, Persian emperor Khosrau II exchanged ambassadors with Pulakesi II.
• The Badami Chalukya dynasty went into a brief decline following the death of Pulakesi II due to internal feuds.
• It recovered during the reign of Vikramaditya I, who succeeded in pushing the Pallavas out of Badami and restoring order to the empire.
• The empire reached its peak during the rule of the illustrious Vikramaditya II, who defeated Pallava Nandivarman II and captured Kanchipuram.
• The Rashtrakuta Dantidurga overthrew the last Badami Chalukya king, Kirtivarman I, in 753.
• At their peak, they ruled a vast empire stretching from the Kaveri to the Narmada.