History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.14

Language: English

c5.14.1

The origin of the Chāḷukyas and their accession to power in the period with which their name is associated is somewhat obscure. Their habitual hostility to the Pallavas and the constant warfare between the two that this hostility brought about are facts recognized all round, although the reason for this constant hostility has been far from clear. The one is perhaps to some extent associated with the other, and an explanation of the hostility does not seem altogether beyond recovery. In the traditional stories connected with their origin, the historians of the dynasty or the heraldic custodians of their traditional origin gave them credit for association with the Ikshvākus of Ayodhya. Whatever the reason the association with Ikshvākus seems to have been fashionable even in this distant south at this particular time. The Chālukyas connect themselves with the Ikshvākus and some well-known Ikshvāku rulers figure in Chola genealogies when they began to appear. Even before the days of genealogies, the Toṇḍaman ruler of Kanchi is associated with some of the Ikshvākus in one of the Śangam classics. So the Chālukya’s claim to an association with the Ikshvākus, while historically possible because of the existence of Ikshvāku rulers in their neighbourhood in the Andhra country, still remains unproved in the face of the fact that they have to invent a kind of explanation, at the very best unsatisfactory, for the name Chālukya.

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This defect seems to make them an indigenous dynasty of feudatory rulers, who raised themselves to power gradually, and set themselves up independently. The fact of their obscure origin coupled with the boar ensign on the one hand, and the impossible derivation of the word from Sanskrit on the other, seem alike to indicate a southern origin for them on a reasonable basis. Feudatory dynasties placed in rule over the less hospitable regions of the Tamil country went by the name generally Velpula Araśar or Śalukku Vēndar. They were given the flag of the boar indicative of the nature of the territory over which they ruled and of the character of that rule. It is a family of chieftains like this probably that ultimately raised themselves to a position of higher dignity that became the Chālukyas of a later period. That this is so is reflected in the term sometimes being used in the form Salki, used as a term of contempt with reference to Salki Bhima, who is spoken of as a disloyal person. These petty chieftains seem to have risen first to power in the northern region of the Vākāṭaka territory, perhaps in succession to the Naḷas, or, at any rate, as one of the tributaries along with them.

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They then gradually spread southwards, extending their territory, and under the sons of Pulikesan I, they conquered the Kadambas and the Gaṅgas and so extended their operations gradually as to come into contact with the territory of the Pallavas with the set object of recovering the southern block of the territory under the Andhras included in the viceroyalty of Banavasi. It was stated already that the Pallavas probably laid claim to this very territory on the basis of a marriage, and naturally, therefore, the two powers had a reason for perpetual hostility on an important, and at the same time, a vulnerable frontier for both of them. Therefore it is that since the Chāḷukyas established their power by the conquest of the Naḷas, the Mauryas and the Kadambas, they are seen in the full tide of their hostility to the Pallavas and this hostility continued, now the one, now the other getting the better, till one of the dynasties, the Chāḷukyas vanished from Dakhan politics. That accounts for the Chāḷukya invasion in the reign of Mahēndravarman, who from his headquarters beat them back, and left it to his son to carry the war into the enemy’s country, destroy their capital and bring about an interregnum, which lasted for thirteen years.

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This happened at the end of the reign of Pulikesan II, and his son Vikramāditya was able to turn the tables upon the Pallavas and carry the war into their territory by a flank movement, so as to fight on the banks of the Kaveri near Trichinopoly against the Pallavas supported by all the Tamil powers this time. One of his successors was able to carry the war into Kanchi itself, occupied the town in his turn, and, instead of destroying it, as the Pallava Narasimhavarman had done at Vātāpi, their capital, not merely restored, but even made a fresh donation to the temple, showing thus distinctly that he was more humane in warfare than perhaps the Southern power. It is in revenge for this insult that Nandivarman Pallavamalla took the tide on the turn when, on the occasion of a marriage alliance brought about diplomatically between the Ganga princess, the daughter of Śrī Purusha Muttarasa, and the Pandyan prince, Neḍum-Śaḍaiyan Parāntaka, the donor of the Veḷvikuḍi plates, the Pallavas led the combination of the southern powers, in which the Pandyan minister got distinction, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Chāḷukyas at the battle of Veṇbai. Kīrtivarman II was so thoroughly defeated that the Chāḷukya power found it impossible to recover from the defeat. It is this again that was taken advantage of by the feudatory Rāshṭrakūṭa Dantidurga, himself, the son of a Chāḷukya princess to subvert the Chāḷukya power.

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He was able to do this by fortifying himself by an alliance with the great Pallava ruler Nandi to whom perhaps he gave his daughter in marriage and thus brought about his own elevation and the subversion of the dynasty of the early Chāḷukyas. The battle of Veṇbai is graphically described in detailing the achievements of the agnapati, Māran-Kāri of Karavandapuram at whose instance the grant was made. Tirumangai Āḷvār's reference to Rāshṭrakūṭa Dantidurga, under his title Vairamēgha, and the deferential treatment which Nandivarman Pallavamalla is said to have accorded to him finds justification in this and the question how the early Chāḷukyas were ultimately overthrown and the Rāshṭrakūṭas established themselves in their stead is now put on a clear footing.