The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c11.s8.3

v1.c11.s8.3

The name of the dynasty is written in many ways in inscriptions spread over a vast area and covering several centuries. While Kalachuri is the most usual style, and that most familiar to modern historians, Kaṭachuri, Kalatsuri, Kalachuṭi, Kālachchuri, Kalachurya, Kalichuri, and other forms are known as variants. In later times the family claimed descent from the Purāṇic King Kārtavirya Arjuna, the Haihaya King of Māhiṣmatī, and called themselves Haihayas as well as Kalachuris. The name Kalachuri does not appear to be Sanskritic, and has indeed been connected with the Turkish word Kuluchur, indicating an office of high rank.¹ This, if correct, would point to a foreign origin for the dynasty, and they may well have entered India with the Hūṇas and Gurjaras. We first hear of them in Gujarāt in the latter half of the sixth century A.D. Three kings, Kṛṣṇarāja, his son Saṅkaṭagaṇa, and the latter's son Buddharāja, are named in copper-plate grants; the last came into conflict with the early Chālukya ruler Maṅgaleśa of Bādāmi. Another Bādāmi Chālukya ruler, Vinayāditya (A.D. 681-96), asserts that he defeated the Haihayas; we know that his grandson Vikramāditya II married two Haihaya princesses. These Haihayas, however, seem to have ruled in the well-known Chedi kingdom of Ḍāhala in Central India, a state which included the district of Jubbulpore in the upper Narmadā valley and the now extinct states of Maihar and Nagode, with parts of Rewa and Panna, and had for its capital Tripurī (the modern Tewar in the Jubbulpore District). They ruled there for several centuries and their alternate alliances and conflicts with the Rāṣṭrakūṭas and the Eastern Chālukyas have been mentioned elsewhere in this book.