CALUKYA DYNASTY

also spelled Chalukya, either of two ancient Indian dynasties. The Western Calukyas ruled as emperors in the Deccan (i.e., peninsular India) from AD 543 to 757 and again from about 975 to about 1189. The Eastern Calukyas ruled in Vengi (in eastern Andhra Pradesh) from about 624 to about 1070. Pulakesin I, a petty chieftain of Pattadakal in the Bijapur district, whose reign began in 543, took and fortified the hill fort of Vatapi (modern Badami) and seized control of the territory between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers and the Western Ghats. After military successes farther north, his son Kirtivarman I (reigned 566597) secured the valuable Konkan coast. The family then turned its attention to the fertile coastal regions to the northwest and east of the peninsula. Pulakesin II (reigned c. 610642) acquired parts of Gujarat and Malwa and defied the North Indian ruler Harsa of Kannauj; the boundary between them was fixed on the Narmada (Narbada) River. About 624, Pulakesin II took the kingdom of Vengi from the Visnukundins and gave it to his brother Kubja Visnuvardhana, the first Eastern Calukya ruler. In 641647 the Pallavas ravaged the Deccan and captured Vatapi, but the Calukya family recovered by 655 and extended its power in Gujarat. By 660 they had acquired land in Nellore district. Vikramaditya I (reigned 655680) took Kanchipuram (ancient Kaci), then the Pallava capital, in about 670. Another Calukya ruler, Vikramaditya II (reigned 733746), again captured, but spared, the city in 742. His successor, Kirtivarman II, was replaced by the Rastrakuta dynasty in 757. When the last Rastrakuta fell, about 975, Taila founded the second Western Calukya dynasty, named for the more central capital, Kalyani. His great achievement was to subdue the Paramara dynasty of Malwa. The Cola (Chola) king, Rajaraja I, invaded the south Deccan about 993, and repeated Cola invasions of the plateau occurred until about 1021. After many vicissitudes the Calukya dynasty was supplanted by the Kalacuri family under Bijjala, who usurped the throne in about 1156 and reigned until 1167. The Calukya dynasty was restored in the person of Somesvara IV, who, however, lost the empire in 1189 to the Yadavas (or Sevunas) of Devagiri, the Hoysalas of Dorasamudra, and the Kakatiyas of Warangalthe rulers of the Telugu-speaking parts of the Deccan. The descendants of Kubja Visnuvardhana constantly had to fight for the riches of Vengi and were pawns in the struggle between the Deccan emperors and the Cola kings. The Colas eventually adopted the family, and the two countries were united under Kulottunga I (Rajendra II), whose reign began in 1070.