The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s1.11

c6.s1.11

The earliest historical name that we have for this dynasty is that of Jayasimha I. The name is given in genealogical records of subsequent kings, no inscriptions of his own being known; and it is likely that he, or some predecessor not far removed from him, was the founder of the family in the early centuries of the Christian era. Aihoḷe may possibly have been their first domicile in the south when Pulikēśin I. moved down from the north, and it may have been in his time, or in that of his son Kirtivarman I., that the oldest temples at that place were erected. Pulikēśin I., under his full title of Satyāśraya Śrī Pulakēśin Vallabha Mahārāja, is said to have performed the great aśvamēdha or horse sacrifice. Whether Aihoḷe was the place of their first settlement or not, it is recorded that Pulikēśin eventually took up his headquarters at Vātāpi, the modern Bādāmi, which he appears to have wrested from the Kadambas of Banavāsi, and established himself as the first king of the dynasty somewhere about A.D. 550.