Someshvara IV restores the Chalukyas at Kalyani

01The return

After Bijjala’s fall the Kalachuri kingdom passed through several of his sons in quick succession and grew weak. Someshvara IV, living in the south, won over the general Brahma, or Barma, who had been a Kalachuri commander, and with his help took Kalyani around 1184. His inscriptions call him the restorer of the Chalukya empire. Brahma’s own records boast that he had taken the kingdom from the Kalachuris and given it back to the Chalukyas.

02Squeezed out

The restored kingdom stood between two rising powers. In 1187 the Yadava Bhillama V marched on Kalyani and took it, and the Hoysala Ballala II pressed from the south; by 1190 Someshvara IV had lost his capital and fades from the record around 1200. The Deccan was divided between the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Hoysalas and the Kakatiyas, the three kingdoms that would meet the Khalji invasions a century later.

Dynasty · 973–c. 1189 CEChalukyas of KalyaniTailapa II, a Rashtrakuta feudatory, overthrew his overlords in 973 and revived the old Chalukya name. His line fought the Cholas for a century and ruled the Deccan from Kalyani.Read →