Vatapi fell, Pulakeshin II died, and the Pallavas held the Chalukya capital for about thirteen years.
01From Kanchi to Badami
Pulakeshin had pressed to the walls of Kanchi in the reign of Mahendravarman I. His son Narasimhavarman beat the Chalukyas at Manimangalam near Kanchi, and at Pariyala and Suramara, as the Kuram copper plates list, and then carried the war north. In 642 Vatapi was taken. Pulakeshin II is not heard of again and is taken to have died in the fall of his city. On a rock behind the Mallikarjuna temple at Badami, Narasimhavarman had an inscription cut recording his victory in his thirteenth regnal year.
02Paranjoti, the general
Tamil Shaiva tradition, kept in Sekkizhar’s Periya Puranam, names the general who took Vatapi as Paranjoti. After the war he gave up arms and became the Nayanar Siruthondar, remembered for his devotion to Shiva’s devotees at Tiruchengattangudi. Pulakeshin’s son Vikramaditya I drove the Pallavas out of Vatapi around 655 and the long Pallava–Chalukya war went on. His great-grandson Vikramaditya II would take Kanchi in turn, and spare its temples.
It was the high point of Pallava power and the start of a century-long rivalry that shaped temple building in both kingdoms.
