The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s1.12

c6.s1.12

Pulikeśin I. was succeeded by his son Kīrtivarman I. in A.D. 566 or 567.¹ He subdued the Naḷas, the Mauryas and the Kadambas of Banavāsi in north Kanara. There is one record of his time, namely, an inscription on a pilaster in the verandah of the Vaiṣṇava cave at Bādāmi of A.D. 578, which records that, having, under his orders, finished the construction of the cave-temple, his younger brother, Maṅgalēśa, on the occasion of the installation of the image of Viṣṇu, made certain gifts to the temple and to some Brāhmaṇs.² Leaving two, if not three, young sons, he was succeeded in the government by his brother Maṅgalēśa, who is described as a *paramabhāgavata*, or most devout worshipper of the Divine One (Viṣṇu). These early Chālukyas were mostly, if not all, followers of the Vaiṣṇava cult. Maṅgalēśa's warlike expeditions extended across India from coast to coast. His death is placed in A.D. 608. Of his time there are three records—an undated inscription on the rock outside the Vaiṣṇava cave at Bādāmi; an undated copper-plate grant from Nerūr, and the important inscription upon a great sandstone pillar which was found lying near the old temple of Mahākūṭēśvara.³ The last inscription calls the column a *dharmā-jaya-stambha* or 'pillar of the victory of religion' and tells of an additional grant, made in continuation of a previous one, to the god Mahākūṭēśvaranātha.