Vemulawada Chalukyas

753 AD - 973 AD : This dynasty was a branch of the Chalukyas of Badami ruled Telanagan region as Rashtrakuta Vassals came to power defeating Badami Chalukyas
Founder : Vinayaditya Yudhamalla I
Capitals : Bodhan (Nizamabad / Podananadu region)
Gangadhara, Vemulawada (Karimnagar / Sabbinadu region).

One peculiarity with this family is that it traced its descent from the Sun, while many other Chaiukya families considered themselvet as of lunar descent.

Tradition associates Vemulawada with poet Bhima Kavi but the famous kannada poet Pampa lived here as the court poet of Arikesari II and dedicated his famous work Bharata or Vikramarjuna Vijaya to him.

Vemulawada Chalukyas history is defined by 3 inscriptions, Kollpara copper plates of Arikesari I, Vemulavada rock inscription of Arikesari II and the Parbhan copper plates of Arikesari III.

According to the kollipara inscription of Arikesari-I Satyasraya Ranavikrama was the founder of vemulawada chalukya dynasty

c.641 - c.660 AD : Satyasraya Ranavikrama
Ruled from Bodhan (Nizamabad) as Capital was in service of Pulikesi II.

c.660 - c.695 AD : Prithvipati

c.700 - c.725 AD : Maharaja

c.725 - c.750 AD : Rajaditya

c.750 - c.775 : Vinayaditya Yudhamalla I (Rajasraya)
Ruled from Bodhan (Nizamabad) as Capital.
Sub-ordinate ruler of Rashtrakutas.
Vinayaditya Yuddhamalla was the real founder and first celebrated king of Vemulawada Chalukya dynasty.

Yudhamalla and Rashtrakuta Dantudurga planned and carried out the overthrow of Kirtivarman II, the last Chalukya ruler of Badami in 753 AD.

Of Yudhamala I we get vert exaggerated eulogy from Kollipara plates issues by his son; he is compared to Rama in valour and described as visvarat (universal emperor); he is said to have subjugated the whole world with the aid of the boar-crest obtained by the royal family as a boon from Lord Narayan, and among the kings who bowed at his feet are counted those of Turushka, Yavana, Barbara, Kasmira, Kambhoja, Magada, Malava, Kalinga, Ganaga, Pallava, Panda, Kerala and others.

In refreshing contrast to it from later inscriptions and pampa that he ruled Sapadalaska country and his suzerainty was acknowleged by many feudatories. He made artificial tanks of brick and mortar in Podana, filled with oil for the daily bathing of 500 elephants. He captured the natutal fortress of Chitrakuta.

c.775 - c.800 AD : Arikesari I
Ruled from Vemulawada.
Arikesari-I changed the capital from Bodhan to Vemulawada
Captured and ruled Vengi together with Trikalinga by the strength of his arm. Pampa says that this happened in the reign of Nirupama / Dhruva.

During a civil war of Rashtrakutas, Dhruva(AD 780-93) attacked Vishnuvardhana IV (772 - 808) of Vengi to punish him for his part in aiding Govinda II (774 - 780). Arikesari aided Dhruva greatly and was duly rewarded. We may assume that parts of Telangana definitely changed hands as a result of Arikesari's campaign. It is quite probable that after this Vemulawada became seat of their power.

Kuruvagatta Inscription, Nagar-Kurnool
Language : Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada.
This short epigraph, consisting of a Sanskrit verse and a Kannada prose passage is inscribed in the archaic Telugu-Kannada characters about the beginning of the ninth century A.D. ; it is engraved on a stone in front of the image of Chaudamba, sculptured on a stone between two boulders on a hillock on the bank of the stream Minamba, opposite to the village of Kuruvagatta in the Nagar-Kurnool taluk of the Mahboobnagar district of the Hyderabad State. There is a ruined Siva shrine near the image of Chaudamba. The image as well as the inscription in front of it is probably connected with it. The inscription does not, however, mention either the Shiva temple or the image of Chaudamba. It simply records the exploits of prince V(B)iragriha, son of Vinayaditya of the Chalukya family and states that V(B)iragriha was a good friend of K(G)ovinda-Vallabha, son of Kalivallabha of the Rashtrakuta family. Kalivallabha is a well-known title of the Rashtrakuta king Dhruva (A.D. 780-793); and K(G)ovinda-Vallabha is obviously his son, Govinda III (A.D. 793-814).

c.800 - c.825 AD: Narasimha I

c.825 - c.850 AD: Yudhamalla II

c.850 - c.895 AD: Baddega I

Pampa says that Baddega was victorious in 42 battles and earned title solada-ganda (the soldier who knew no defeat).

He constructed a temple of Baddagesvara which is identified with the Bhimeswara temple at Vemulawada.
Baddega suffered defeat at least once at the hands of Gunuga Vijayadiya (849 - 892).
Both Pamapa and the Parbhani plates say that he captured Chalukya Bhima I (892 -921)in the war that took place near the water fort of Kunala(Kolleru) in the Vengi area, who ascended the throne of Vengi after the death of his uncle Gunaga Vijayaditya III in 892. Bhima effected his escape from captivity with the aid of Kusumayudha of Mudigonda Chalukyas.

Baddega's political influences was felt as Bastar where the ancient Chatrakuta mandala was situated.

Vemulawada, Karimnagar District.
This Telugu inscription is on a pedestal of a Jaina image kept in the Rajeshwara temple. The inscription records the construction of Subhadhama Jinalaya by the king Baddega of the Chalukya lineage and the lord of Sapadalaksha ‘one and a quarter lakh’ region for the favour of the scholar Somadeva, the head of Gauda-sangha. Yuddhamalla’s name is also indistinctlyseen. The donee is identical with the author of Yasastilaka champu, a Sanskrit work of the mediaeval period.

895 - 915 AD : Yudhamalla III

915 - 930 AD : Narasimha II
Wife : Lokambika/Jakavve (sister of Rashtrakuta Indra III)
The Vemulawada inscription attributes to him the single handed conquest of the Seven Malavas, a victory over the army of Gurjjara raja and says that he put the final seal on his frame by a victory over a group of kings on the hill of Kalapriya. Pamper furnishes the name of Gurjara king was Mahipala on whom Narasimha descended like a thunderbolt, compelling him to escape from his capital. Pampa also mentions a victory over the Latas as the first of his achievements, and adds that he had caused his horses to drink the water of the Ganges before he established his fame with his sword at Kalapriya
for his overlord Rashtrakuta Indra III (914 - 929).

930 - 958 AD : Arikesari II son of Narasimha II and Jakavve
Wife : Revakanirmadi (daughter of Rashtrakuta Indra III 914 - 929)
He was the son of Narasimha II by queen Jakavve, probably a sister of Rashtrakuta emperor Indra III. He married Revakanimmadi, a daughter of Indra III and another Rashtrakuta princess named Lokambika.

His reign considered as golden period for Nizamabad and Karimnagar.
Arikesari is famous as the patron of Pamapa, and for the apparently decisive he played in the political revolution in which samanthas of Govinda IV (930 - 933) dethroned him and transferred the Rashtrakuta empire to Amogavarsha III (933 - 939).

According to his Vemulawada inscription and the Vikramarjunavijayam he gave asylum in his court to Chalukya Bijja or Vijayaditya, who incurred the displeasure of Govinda IV, and defeated an army sent against him by that monarch. He also gave asylum to Baddegadeva (Amoghavarsha III - 933 AD - 939 AD), and when Govinda, who was enraged by this act, came against him, he overthrew him in battle and gave the throne to Baddegadeval (Amoghavarsha III).

Arikesari has 2 sons namely, Vagaraja and Bhadradeva / Baddega II from Revakanirmadi and Lokambika. 

c. 945 AD : Kurkyala inscription, Bommalammagutta, Gangadharam Mandal, Karimnagar
The inscription is undated. The palaeography, as stated already, points to the middle of the 10th century A.D., as the probable period to which it may be assigned. The mention of Arikesari. Pampa and of the poem Vikramarjunavijayam may help in fixing the date more precisely. Arikesari ruled as noticed above, from A.D. 930 to 958; Pampa was born in A.D. 902 and composed his Adipurana in S.863 (A.D. 941), As the Adipuranam is mentioned in the Vikramärjunavijayam, the latter must have been written subsequent to A.D. 941. The inscription is obviously later than the Vikramarjunavijayam. 945 A.D. may be a very good date for it.

Epigraphists think this the oldest evidence of the use of Telugu for literature, pushing back the history of poetic use of the language by a century. In Karimnagar district, near Kurikyala village, on a hillock known as Bommalagutta, is the 11-line rock inscription spread across 25 feet. The Telugu ‘Kanda padyas’ found in this inscription are the first documented Kandas, Hence this inscription is important for more than one reason.

The sing-song Telugu rhyme is the work of Jinavallabha, the younger brother of Pampa who was the court poet of Chalukya Arikesari III.

946 AD : Karimnagar
This inscription is on a stone laying in the local museum. The record begins with the mention of Juddhamalla, his son Narasimha, his son Arikesari and his son Baddega. His son was Arikesari, who bore the titles, Pambarankusa, Ammanagandhavarana, Arudhasarvajtia, Gunarnava and Tribhuvanamalla. He is said to have made a gift of fifty mattars of wetland in the village Aripanapalli to a brahmin named Dharapayya son of Appapayya and grandson of Vishnu bhatta of Kausika gotra and a resident of Nuthalapadu. The five introductory verses are noticeable in Pampa's Vikramarjuna Vijaya (I-15, 31, 41, 42 and 50).

c.958 - c.960 AD : Vagaraja
Ruled from Gangadhara as Capital
Patronized Somadevasuri, the author of Yasastilaka Champu who described the king as Pada-padmopajivi a worshipper of the feet of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III. indicating the declining power of Vemulawada Chalukyas.

c.960 - c.965 AD : Bhadradeva / Baddega II
Ruled from Vemulawada as Capital
The bommalagutta region flourished as a center of Jainism during his rule.

c.965 - c.973 AD : Arikesari III son of Baddega II
Ruled from Vemulawada as a Vassal of Krishna III (939 - 967) 

966 AD : The Parbhani plates Vemulawada Chalukya ruler Arikesari III, dated S. 888 (A.D. 996) registers the gift of Kuttum-vritti Vanikatupalu in the Repaka-12 in the Sabbi-Sayira (1000) district to the Jain leader Somadeva-suri for the maintenance of Shubha-dharma Jinalaya shrine, which had been built by his father Bhadradeva. 


14th February, A.D. 968 : Repaka, Karimnagar District.
This Telugu inscription is on a pillar lying in the field near the Middle School. Damaged. Introduces a [chief] named Srimat Vijaya who bears a string of titles and records his gift of lands to a Jinalaya built by him. The latter half refers to the genealogy of a family of disciples of the Jaina faith who were holding a fief comprising Atukuru-70 and Pammi-12. Some of the members of the family are Kama, Rama, Tukkaya, Revana, Punyarama, Kommayya and others. Similarly a certain line of Jaina ascetics is also given. In the end it is said that the temple was built by the king Arikesari.

The rule of this family is ended in 973 AD by Chalukyas of Kalyani Taila II.











Chalukyas of L(v)emulavada by N Venkataramanayya
The early history of the Deccan -- Ghulam Yazdani

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