History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.14.1

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.