The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s4: The Western Chālukyas
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s4
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The Western Chālukyas
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Taila II. very soon recovered all the territory originally held by the family within the Kanarese districts, and even carried his arms beyond its borders into central India where he slew Muñja the king of Mālwa. He is also said to have taken in war the leader of the Panchalas, and to have invaded the Chōḷa and Chēdi dominions. He reigned " over the whole earth " for twenty-four years.
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From the time of the restoration under Taila up to the reign of Sōmēśvara I. there is no definite mention of a Chālukya capital, except that certain Baḷagāṃve inscriptions speak of that place as a minor capital of Jayasiṃha II. If this were so, it must have been a very inconvenient spot so far away in the southern corner of his dominions. It is definitely stated, however, in the records of his son, Sōmēśvara I., that he founded the city of Kaḷyāṇa,³ made it his capital and " beautified it so that it surpassed all the other cities of the earth." This place remained the headquarters of the Chālukyas down to the time of Taila III., who changed his capital to Aṇṇigeri. During the reign of Sōmēśvara I., the Chōḷa king penetrated into the Beḷvola district and burnt the Jaina temples which Gaṅga-Permāḍi had built in the Aṇṇigeri nāḍ. But his successes did not last for long, for Sōmēśvara immediately proceeded against him, and defeated and slew him at a spot near Harihar. The end of Sōmēśvara was tragic. He was seized with a strong fever, and feeling his end approaching, " he caused himself to be taken to the banks of the Tuṅgabhadrā.
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³ Lat. 17° 51', Long 77°.
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He bathed in the waters of the river and gave away a great deal of charity. Then entering the river again, he proceeded until the waters reached his neck, and, in the din caused by the waves and a number of musical instruments, drowned himself¹. This was about A.D. 1068.
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¹ Bombay Gazetteer, Vol I, part II, p. 215.
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The reigns of these kings seem to have been pretty well filled up with wars with their neighbours, and, if we believe the records left us, their expeditions took them as far afield as Nepāl, Assam and Ceylon, where they are said to have performed great deeds, but it is likely that most of this is extravagant myth, born in the brain of the sycophantic composers of these panegyrics. The excessive exaggeration in these accounts is apparent on the face of them, for, in the case of nearly every ruler, we read of wars of extermination of his enemies, only to read again of the same thing being necessary at the hands of his successor. Their enemies must have possessed amazing vitality to have recovered so rapidly.
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It is somewhat of a relief, therefore, to read of the long and more peaceful reign of Vikramāditya VI. (A.D. 1073—1126). One of the first things he did, on his accession, was to abolish the use of the original Śaka era and to establish a new era in his own name in its stead. An inscription tells us that "By his amplitude, and unaided, Tribhuvanamalla, the king Cālukya-Vikramāditya, caused all the hostile kings to bow down, and became the lord of the world. Having rubbed out the brilliant Śaka-varsha, he, the impetuous one, the most liberal man in the world, who delighted in religion, published his own name throughout the world, under the form of the Vikrama-varsha"². Nearly all the inscriptions, therefore, of his own time, and of some of his successors, are dated in this new era, which starts from the date of his coronation. Of his reign some two hundred inscriptions have been gathered, forming the greatest bulk of records left by any one of these kings, which, from their distribution, being found over the northern parts of Maisur, the eastern parts of North Kanara, the whole of the Dhārwār, Beḷgāum and Bijāpūr districts, and the western and north-western parts of the Nizām's dominions, show the great extent of country he was ruling over. One of his inscriptions has been found as far away as Nāgpūr in the Central Provinces. Among these inscriptions is an interesting one found at Ḍambaḷ which records grants made to a vihāra of Buddha and a vihāra of Ārya-Tārādevī at that town in A.D. 1095, which shows that the Buddhist religion, such as it was, was still a living force in those parts at that period.
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² Bombay Gazetteer, Vol I, part II, p. 447.
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Retaining Kalyāṇa as his principal capital, he established other local headquarters at a place called Eṭagiri,³ and built or improved Arasibīḍi, in the Bijāpūr district, thirteen miles east of Bādāmi, which he called Vikramāpūra. At another place he constructed a large temple of Viṣṇu, and had a tank built in front of it. During his reign the Hoysaḷas of the south, who were growing more formidable under Viṣṇuvardhana, made an incursion into his districts but were repulsed by his Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Āchugi II. of the Sinda family of Erambarage. The country became so settled, and his subjects were so secure, that "they did not care to close the doors of their houses at night, and instead of thieves the rays of the moon entered through the window openings"⁴. His people were happy under his rule, and he was always mindful of the poor whom he treated with a generous hand. “That he was a great patron of learning is shown by the fact of a Kāśmirian Paṇḍit, like Bilhaṇa, who travelled over the whole of India in quest of support, having been raised by him to the dignity of Vidyāpati or chief Paṇḍit. Vijñāneśvara, the author of the *Mitāksharā*, which is at present acknowledged over a large part of India, and especially in the Marāṭha country, as the chief authority on matters of civil and religious law, flourished in the reign of Vikramāditya and lived at Kalyāṇa. At the end of most manuscripts of that work there occur three stanzas, which may be translated as follows :
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³ Identified with Yātagiri, 30 miles south of Mālkheḍ in the Nizām's dominions.
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⁴ Bombay Gazetteer, Vol I, part II, p. 219.
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“On the surface of the earth there was not, there is not, and there will be not, a town like Kalyāṇa; never was a monarch like the prosperous Vikramārka seen or heard of; and—what more?—Vijñāneśvara, the Paṇḍit, does not bear comparison with any other (person). May this triad which is like a celestial creeper exist to the end of the Kalpa !
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“May the Lord of wisdom live as long as the sun and moon endure,—he who produces words which distill honey, and than which nothing is more wonderful to be learned, gives wealth exceeding their wishes to a multitude of supplicants, contemplates the form of the subjugator of Mura, and has conquered the enemies that are born with the body.
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“May the Lord Vikramāditya protect this whole earth as long as the moon and the stars endure,—he whose feet are refulgent with the lustre of the crest jewels of prostrate kings from the bridge, which is the heap of the glory of the best scion of the Raghu race, to the lord of mountains, and from the Western Ocean, the waves of which surge heavily with the nimble shoals of fishes, to the Eastern Ocean.” ¹
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¹ *Bombay Gazetteer*, Vol. I, part II, p. 219.
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Vikramāditya ceased to reign in A.D. 1126.
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The reign of his second son and successor, Someśvara III., which lasted from A.D. 1126 to 1138, was also a peaceful one. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Jagadekamalla II., during whose reign the Hoysalas again invaded Chālukyan territory, but they were defeated and pursued to their capital, Dvārasamudra (Halebid). Taila III., the younger brother of Jagadekamalla, followed him on the throne in A.D. 1150. his commander-in-chief was the *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* Bijjala, of the Kalachurya family, who abused his trust by using his troops against his own master, and usurped the throne of the Chālukyas. This happened between A.D. 1156 and 1162, when Bijjala established himself at Aṇṇigeri as his capital. He probably took advantage of a disaster which seems to have overtaken Taila who was defeated and made prisoner for a time by Prolarāja, king of Waraṅgal.