A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c14.65

c14.65

The Yādava feudatory of Someśvara IV, Bhillama (1187-91) was the first to realize the utter weakness of Someśvara’s position and take advantage of it. He invaded the Chālukya kingdom and seized its northern districts before 1189. But the Yādavas, like the Kalacuris, experienced difficulty in gaining recognition as an imperial power from those who had stood to the Chālukyas in the same relation as themselves. The Rattas, Śilāhāras, and Kadambas never gave them their allegiance, and the Hoysalas were stimulated to a fresh effort by the example of the Yādavas. Bhillama spent some years in the south organizing his new conquests. His pressure compelled Someśvara and his general Brahma to shift their headquarters to Banavāsi. Kalyāni passed into the hands of the Yādavas. Meanwhile Ballāla II struck a blow on his own account and defeated Someśvara and Brahma in a series of battles, the last of which occurred in 1190. That was the end of the Chālukya power. Someśvara continued to live in obscurity for less than a decade. There naturally ensued a contest between Ballāla II and Bhillama for possession of the empire. Several battles were fought and in the final engagement near Soratūr and Lakkundi near Gadag, Bhillama was killed (1191), and Ballāla advanced the northern frontier of his empire to the Malaprabha and the Krishna rivers, while the Yādavas retained most of the territory that lay further north. Bhillama founded the city of Devagiri and made it his capital. The Kākatīyas also gained some territory as a result of the final dissolution of Chālukyan hegemony.