page_title: Western Chalukya Empire
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Western Chalukya Empire / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This photograph was taken by me at the Kalleshvara temple (also spelt Kalleshwara or Kallesvara, and also called Kattesvara) in Hire Hadagali, Bellary district, Karnataka state, India. The temple was built in 1057 A.D. by Western (Kalyani) Chalukya King Somesvara I. Source: South Indian Inscription, Volume IX, Kannada Inscriptions from Madras Presidency, Miscellaneous Inscriptions in Kannada, Part 1, Chalukyas of Kalyani, no. 118, editors:Shama Shastry and Lakshminarayana Rao, url=http://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/south_indian_inscriptions/volume_9/chalukyas_of_kalyani_117.html, publisher=Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi; Imagining architects: creativity in the religious monuments of India, pg. 163, Ajay J. Sinha, University of Delaware Press, 2000, Cranbury, New Jersey, ISBN 0-87413-864-9&#160;Invalid&#160;ISBN
context_page_description: The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in the modern Bidar District of Karnataka state, and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical relationship to the 6th-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami. The dynasty is called Western Chalukyas to differentiate from the contemporaneous Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi, a separate dynasty. Prior to the rise of these Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta empire of Manyakheta controlled most of Deccan and Central India for over two centuries. In 973, seeing confusion in the Rashtrakuta empire after a successful invasion of their capital by the ruler of the Paramara dynasty of Malwa, Tailapa II, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty ruling from Bijapur region defeated his overlords and made Manyakheta his capital. The dynasty quickly rose to power and grew into an empire under Someshvara I who moved the capital to Kalyani.
context_section_description: Knowledge of Western Chalukya history has come through examination of the numerous Kannada language inscriptions left by the kings (scholars Sheldon Pollock and Jan Houben have claimed 90 percent of the Chalukyan royal inscriptions are in Kannada), and from the study of important contemporary literary documents in Western Chalukya literature such as Gada Yuddha (982) in Kannada by Ranna and Vikramankadeva Charitam (1120) in Sanskrit by Bilhana. The earliest record is dated 957, during the rule of Tailapa II when the Western Chalukyas were still a feudatory of the Rashtrakutas and Tailapa II governed from Tardavadi in present-day Bijapur district, Karnataka. The genealogy of the kings of this empire is still debated. One theory, based on contemporary literary and inscriptional evidence plus the finding that the Western Chalukyas employed titles and names commonly used by the early Chalukyas, suggests that the Western Chalukya kings belonged to the same family line as the illustrious Badami Chalukya dynasty of 6th-century, while other Western Chalukya inscriptional evidence indicates they were a distinct line unrelated to the early Chalukyas.
  The records suggests a possible rebellion by a local Chalukya King, Chattigadeva of Banavasi-12000 province (c. 967), in alliance with local Kadamba chieftains. This rebellion however was unfruitful but paved the way for his successor Tailapa II. A few years later, Tailapa II re-established Chalukya rule and defeated the Rashtrakutas during the reign of Karka II by timing his rebellion to coincide with the confusion caused in the Rashtrakuta capital of Manyakheta by the invading Paramaras of Central India in 973. After overpowering the Rashtrakutas, Tailapa II moved his capital to Manyakheta and consolidated the Chalukya empire in the western Deccan by subjugating the Paramara and other aggressive rivals and extending his control over the land between the Narmada River and Tungabhadra River. However, some inscriptions indicate that Balagamve in Mysore territory may have been a power centre up to the rule of Someshvara I in 1042.
  The intense competition between the kingdom of the western Deccan and those of the Tamil country came to the fore in the 11th century over the acutely contested fertile river valleys in the doab region of the Krishna and Godavari River called Vengi (modern coastal Andhra Pradesh). The Western Chalukyas and the Chola Dynasty fought many bitter wars over control of this strategic resource. The imperial Cholas gained power during the time of the famous king Rajaraja Chola I and the crown prince Rajendra Chola I. The Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi were cousins of the Western Chalukyas but became increasingly influenced by the Cholas through their marital ties with the Tamil kingdom. As this was against the interests of the Western Chalukyas, they wasted no time in involving themselves politically and militarily in Vengi. When King Satyashraya succeeded Tailapa II to the throne, he was able to protect his kingdom from Chola aggression as well as his northern territories in Konkan and Gujarat although his control over Vengi was shaky. His successor, Jayasimha II, fought many battles with the Cholas in the south around c. 1020–21 when both these powerful kingdoms struggled to choose the Vengi king. Shortly thereafter in c. 1024, Jayasimha II subdued the Paramara of central India and the rebellious Yadava King Bhillama.
  It is known from records that Jayasimha's son Someshvara I, whose rule historian Sen considers a brilliant period in the Western Chalukya rule, moved the Chalukya capital to Kalyani in c. 1042. Hostilities with the Cholas continued while both sides won and lost battles, though neither lost significant territory during the ongoing struggle to install a puppet on the Vengi throne. In 1068 Someshvara I, suffering from an incurable illness, drowned himself in the Tungabhadra River (Paramayoga). Despite many conflicts with the Cholas in the south, Someshvara I had managed to maintain control over the northern territories in Konkan, Gujarat, Malwa and Kalinga du
caption: Old Kannada inscription dated 1057 AD of King Someshvara I at Kalleshwara Temple, Hire Hadagali in Bellary district
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