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Battle of Vijayawada

VictorCholasVirarajendra
1068vs
Western Chalukya army in VengiGenerals of Someshvara I and Vikramaditya (VI)

The Western Chalukyas had pushed into Vengi. The Chola Virarajendra marched north and beat their army by the Krishna at Bezwada, keeping the Andhra coast in the Chola sphere.

Date: c. 1067–1068 CEWhere: Bezwada (Vijayawada) on the KrishnaType: Battle
Photo: EnrichIndegi · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Vijayawada.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-vijayawada-1068/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Vijayawada. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-vijayawada-1068/

Result

Virarajendra defeated the Chalukya army near Bezwada, pressed on across the Godavari, and gave Vengi to his nominee Vijayaditya VII.

01The campaign

Virarajendra’s meykirti, the long historical preamble to his inscriptions, describes how after his victory at Kudal-Sangamam he heard that the Chalukyas had sent an army into Vengi. He marched against it, fought it near Bezwada, drove it across the Krishna, and went on through Kalinga as far as the Mahendra mountain. He then handed Vengi to Vijayaditya VII, an Eastern Chalukya prince of his choice, as a Chola subordinate.

02Vengi between two empires

Since Rajaraja I’s intervention in 999, Vengi had been the hinge of the Chola–Chalukya wars. Virarajendra’s victory held it for the moment, but he died in 1070, and within months his nephew of the Vengi line, Rajendra Chalukya, took the Chola throne as Kulottunga I. From then on Vengi and the Chola country were joined, and the Western Chalukyas under Vikramaditya VI kept trying to pry them apart.

Kulottunga Chola I
Person · Reigned 1070–1122 CEKulottunga Chola IBorn Rajendra Chalukya, prince of Vengi and grandson of Rajendra Chola through his mother, Kulottunga took the Chola throne in 1070 and joined the two houses. In a reign of over fifty years he gave up Lanka, held the mainland, abolished transit tolls and sent an embassy to China.Read →
Why it matters

It kept Vengi in Chola hands on the eve of the union of the Chola and Eastern Chalukya crowns.

People 2

Kulottunga Chola IRuler
Reigned 1070–1122 CE

Kulottunga Chola I

Chalukya-Chola emperor who abolished tolls

Vikramaditya VIRuler
Reigned 1076–1126 CE

Vikramaditya VI

Western Chalukya emperor at Kalyani

Places 2

Kanaka Durga Temple, VijayawadaStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Kanaka Durga Temple, Vijayawada

The golden Durga of Indrakeeladri hill above the Krishna at Vijayawada, the city that takes its name from Arjuna’s victory. Her Navaratri is the largest festival in Andhra.

Vengi (Pedavegi)Excavated
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Vengi (Pedavegi)

The royal city between the Krishna and Godavari, seat of the Salankayanas and then of the Eastern Chalukyas, whose marriages with the Cholas joined the two houses into one.

Places near the battlefield 5

Undavalli CavesStanding
The Gupta Age

Undavalli Caves

Across the Krishna from Vijayawada a whole hillside has been cut into a four-storeyed temple, and on its upper floor Bhagwan Vishnu lies on Shesha in a single carved figure about five metres long.

Panakala Narasimha Temple, MangalagiriStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Panakala Narasimha Temple, Mangalagiri

One of the eight great Narasimha kshetras of Andhra, where the open mouth of Narasimha on the hill drinks exactly half of whatever jaggery water is poured in, and gives back the rest as prasad.

Amaravati (Dhanyakataka) and the MahachaityaExcavated
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Amaravati (Dhanyakataka) and the Mahachaitya

Dhanyakataka on the Krishna, a Satavahana royal city whose great stupa produced some of the finest stone carving of ancient India. Beside it stands the Amareswara temple, one of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva.

Amararama, Amareswara Temple, AmaravatiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Amararama, Amareswara Temple, Amaravati

The first of the five Pancharamas, on the south bank of the Krishna at Amaravati. The linga here is held to have been installed by Indra, which gives the place its name, the arama of the Amaras.

Kondavidu FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Kondavidu Fort

The hill capital of the Reddi kings, who rose after the fall of Warangal and kept coastal Andhra Hindu for a century. Krishnadevaraya took it from the Gajapatis in 1515.