Battles of Niravadyapura and Peruvanguru

01The captive king

After the death of the warlike Vijayaditya III, the Rashtrakuta Krishna II struck Vengi. Eastern Chalukya grants admit that their king Bhima I was taken prisoner, and that the land was overrun before he was released and crowned. Bhima then gathered his forces. The grants of his successors say he defeated the Rashtrakuta army at Niravadyapura and again at Peruvanguru, and that his young son Irimartiganda fought with great courage and died on the field.

02The endless war over Vengi

These battles were one round in the war that had begun with Krishna I’s invasion in the 770s. Neither side could hold the other down for long. Bhima I ruled until about 922 and is remembered as a builder of temples, among them the Bhimeshvara shrines that carry his name at Draksharama and Bhimavaram. His victory at Niravadyapura kept Vengi independent for another generation. The memory of Irimartiganda’s death on the field is preserved in the family’s grants.

Dynasty · c. 624–1070 CEEastern Chalukyas of VengiPulakeshin II set his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana over the Andhra delta, and that branch outlived Badami by three hundred years. Their court saw the first great work of Telugu, and their blood passed into the imperial Chola throne.Read →