A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c13.26

c13.26

Kirtivarman II was the last ruler of the Chālukya line of Bādāmi. His power was steadily undermined by the activity of the Rāshṭrakūṭa prince Dantidurga who was in occupation of Ellora in 742. But the main scene of Dantidurga's early activities lay on the banks of the Mahi, Narmada and Mahanadi. He subdued the Gurjaras of Malwa, the rulers of Kosala and Kalinga and the Telugu-Chodas of the Śrīśailam country. Above all, he went down to Kāñchi and, after a demonstration of force, struck up an alliance with Nandivarman Pallavamalla to whom he gave his daughter Rēvā in marriage. Having thus deprived Kirtivarman of his outlying provinces and strengthened his political position, Dantidurga delivered the final assault on Kirtivarman sometime in 752 or 753 and proclaimed himself the sovereign power in Deccan. Kirtivarman continued to rule in an obscure way for two or three years more but, as the later inscriptions say, 'In his reign the rājyaśrī of the Chālukyas disappeared from the face of the earth'.