The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c37.s1.2

c37.s1.2

Banavāsi was the chief capital of the early Kādambas, and its conquest by the Chālukya king Kīrtivarman I. is mentioned in the inscriptions, when it was known as Vaijayanti. Later on, it was under the Kādambas of Hāngal whose family god was Jayanti-Madhukēśvara. But before these times it was an important place, for it was to Vanavāsi that the Buddhist teacher was deputed, in the third century B.C., shortly after the great council which was held at Patliputra in the eighteenth year of Asoka. It is mentioned by Ptolemy under the name of Banauasi. The earliest mention of the place in the inscriptions is in the Aihoḷe inscription of A.D. 634-5. It was in the vicinity of Banavāsi that the five Pāṇḍavas are supposed to have resided during their exile, and this is mentioned in an inscription at Baḷagāmve. The Banavāsi province held twelve thousand towns and villages during the time of the Chālukyas.