Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi

01A brother sent east

Around 624, after his campaigns on the east coast, Pulakeshin II gave the conquered Vengi country to his younger brother Vishnuvardhana, called Kubja, the hunchback. Within a generation the viceroy’s house was a kingdom of its own. For the next four centuries the delta was fought over: by the Rashtrakutas from the west, by the Eastern Gangas from the north, and later by the Cholas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani. Gunaga Vijayaditya III in the ninth century carried his arms far beyond the delta, and Chalukya Bhima I is credited with the Bhimeswara temples at Draksharamam and Samalkot, two of the five Pancharama shrines of Shiva.

02Nannaya and the Telugu Mahabharata

Rajaraja Narendra ruled from Rajamahendravaram on the Godavari in the eleventh century. At his request the court poet Nannaya Bhattaraka began rendering the Mahabharata into Telugu, and finished the Adi and Sabha parvas and part of the Aranya parva. Tikkana and Errana completed it in later centuries, and the three are honoured together as the Kavitraya. Nannaya also composed Rajaraja Narendra’s Nandampudi copper-plate grant. Telugu as a literary language is counted from this court.

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 →

03Into the Chola house

Vimaladitya married Kundavai, daughter of Rajaraja Chola I, and their son Rajaraja Narendra married Ammangadevi, daughter of Rajendra Chola. Their son Rajendra, born in Vengi, took the Chola throne in 1070 as Kulottunga I and ruled the Tamil country for half a century. From then Vengi was governed by princes sent from the Chola court, and the separate line of Vengi faded.

The rulers

1. 1Kubja VishnuvardhanaBrother of Pulakeshin II; founderc. 624–641
2. 2Jayasimha Ic. 641–673
3. 3Vijayaditya IILong wars with the Rashtrakutasc. 808–847
4. 4Gunaga Vijayaditya IIIc. 848–892
5. 5Chalukya Bhima ICredited with the Draksharamam templec. 892–921
6. 6Amma Ic. 921–927
7. 7Danarnavac. 970–973
8. 8Shaktivarman IRestored with Chola helpc. 999–1011
9. 9VimaladityaMarried Kundavai, daughter of Rajaraja Cholac. 1011–1018
10. 10Rajaraja NarendraPatron of Nannayac. 1019–1061
11. 11Rajendra (Kulottunga I)Became Chola emperor in 1070c. 1061–1070 at Vengi

What they left

• Andhra Mahabharatam, begun by Nannaya
• Bhimeswara temples at Draksharamam and Samalkot
• Golingeswara temple, Biccavolu
• The city of Rajamahendravaram on the Godavari