The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.154

v3.c29.154

Another enterprising ruler about this time was rising on the horizon of history on the eastern frontier. After the accession of Vikrama Chola the Eastern Chālukya dominions fell into disorder, and an enterprising chief between the two Chālukya kingdoms found his opportunity. Just within the frontier of the Eastern Chālukyas is the hamlet of Anamakonda, the ancestral capital of the Kākatīyas, known generally as the Kākatīyas of Warangal, which his son Prola founded and whither he had shifted the capital. This Prola lays claim to having defeated Tailapa some time in his reign, and it was very likely that this took place in 1155. This external shock combined with the loss of hold on the *Mahāmandalēsvaras* must have thrown Tailapa into the arms of Bijjala, who for the time proved the saviour of the empire. Bijjala having thus acquired power gradually assumed royal state. His usurpation was opposed alike by the loyal Sindas, in spite of their family alliance with him, and by the Pāndyas of Nolambavādi, but Bijjala succeeded, and he and his three sons continued to rule the kingdom for twenty years, from 1163 to 1183 when Bomma or Brāhma, son of Bijjala's general Kāmadeva or Kāvana, restored the son of Taila III under the title Sōmēsvara IV. Sōmēsvara IV ruled till 1189, and his rule was confined to the southern and south-western parts of his dominions. A combination of some of his chiefs against him and his loyal feudatories the Sindas compelled him to retire to the northern frontier of his dominions, and nothing more was heard of him. In the scramble for territory that followed two leading powers divided the kingdom, the Yādavas of Deogīr and the Hoysalas of Dvārasamudra, the Kākātīyas of Warangal taking a humbler share of the spoil.