Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s9.1

c8.s9.1

The Chalukyas next claim our attention. They were in the ascendant throughout the north-west of Mysore, and the Bombay and Haidarabad Districts beyond, from the fifth to the eighth century, and from the latter part of the tenth to that of the twelfth. Their first appearance south of the Narmadā (Nerbudda) was in the fourth century, previous to which they profess to have had fifty-nine predecessors on the throne of Ayōdhyā, but of these nothing is known, not even their names. On their entering the Dekhan they overcame the Rāshṭrakūṭas, but the Pallavas effectually opposed them, and the invader, Jayasimha or Vijayāditya, was slain. His queen, being at the time pregnant, took refuge with a Brāhman, and gave birth to a son named Rājasimha, who eventually defeated the Pallavas, and then formed an alliance with them, confirmed by his marriage with a Pallava princess. In the sixth century, Pulikēśi, whose chief city was apparently Indukānta (supposed to be Ajantā or some neighbouring place), wrested Vātāpi (Bādāmi in the Bijāpur District) from the Pallavas and made it his capital. His son Kīrttivarmma subdued the Mauryas (descendants of the ancient Mauryas of Pāṭaliputra) ruling in the Konkan, and the Kadambas of Banavāsi. Another son, Mangalēśa, conquered the Kalachuryas. The Ālupas or Āluvas, ruling in Tuluva or South Kanara, were also at the same time overcome, and the next king, Pulikēśi II, came into contact with the Gangas. In about 617 the Chalukyas separated into two branches, of which the Eastern Chālukyas¹ made Vengi (near Ellore in the Gōdāvari District), taken from the Pallavas, and subsequently Rājamahēndri (Rājamundry), their capital, while the Western Chālukyas, with whom Mysore is chiefly concerned, continued to rule from Vātāpi, and eventually from Kalyāna (in the Nizām's Dominions, about 100 miles west by north of Haidarabad).