History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c16.2

v1.c16.2

The Chālukyas of Bādāmi under Pulakeśin II were the overlords of the whole of the south. They had conquered the Āndhras in the east, the Pallavas in the south, the Gurjaras in the west and the Kosalas and others in the north. Two separate branches of these Chālukyas were also founded in the east and the west at this time and Pulakeśin placed two brothers of his in these subordinate kingdoms. The first Eastern Chālukya king is styled Kubja Vishnu Vardhana and he began to rule in the Vengi kingdom wrested from the Pallavas from 605 A. D. according to one view or at the latest from 615 A. D. S. Krishnasvami Aiyangar in his history of Ancient India says (p. 27) "The Pallava generals marched up to the capital of the Chālukyas and so completely destroyed it that there was an interregnum for 13 years. It was to maintain peace in the Pallava position that Pulakeshin organised a separate viceroyalty at Vengi under his brother who became the founder of a dynasty". This is incorrect. For Vātāpi was plundered about 643 A. D. and the Vengi kingdom had already been founded in 605 or 615 A. D. Pulakeśin gave it to his brother in the natural fulfilment of brotherly affection or for policy in order to make a separate kingly provision for a royal brother. For his second brother, he similarly provided a kingdom in Gujarat or Lāta (capital Navasari). But Kubja Vishnuvardhana was fortunate enough to found a dynasty which was longer lived than its parent stem and which ruled in Vengi from the beginning of the 7th to the end of the 11th century when it was merged into the Chola kingdom the founder of which was a daughter's son of the last king of this line.