Chalukyas of Kalyani

01The Chalukya name returns

Tailapa claimed descent from the Chalukyas of Badami and in 973 took Manyakheta from the last Rashtrakuta. Around 994 he defeated and executed the Paramara king Vakpati Munja, who had crossed the Godavari to attack him. Someshvara I moved the court to Kalyani. The long war with the Cholas over the Raichur doab and Vengi filled the eleventh century; at Koppam in 1054 the Chola king Rajadhiraja fell in battle, and at Kudalasangamam Someshvara was beaten in turn.

02Vikramaditya VI

Vikramaditya VI ruled fifty years from 1076 and began his own era, the Chalukya-Vikrama era, from his accession. His court poet Bilhana, a Kashmiri, wrote the Vikramankadevacharita about him. At Kalyani the jurist Vijnaneshwara wrote the Mitakshara, the commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti that governed Hindu inheritance law in most of India into modern times. His son Someshvara III compiled the Manasollasa, an encyclopaedia of kingship, food, music and sport.

Person · Reigned 1076–1126 CEVikramaditya VIVikramaditya VI, Tribhuvanamalla, ruled the Western Chalukya empire from Kalyani for fifty years and started an era of his own, the Chalukya-Vikrama era, from his accession in 1076. His court gave India Bilhana’s Vikramankadevacharita and Vijnaneshvara’s Mitakshara, the commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti that still shapes Hindu family law.Read →

03Temples in soft stone

Chalukya builders worked in a fine-grained chloritic schist that could be turned on a lathe and carved like wood. The Mahadeva temple at Itagi, raised in 1112 by the general Mahadeva, was praised in its own inscription as the emperor among temples. Lakkundi alone has dozens of shrines. After 1150 the empire broke apart: the Kalachuri Bijjala held Kalyani for a time, and the Hoysalas, Seunas and Kakatiyas divided what remained.

The rulers

1. 1Tailapa IIOverthrew the Rashtrakutas; killed Munja973–997
2. 2Satyashraya997–1008
3. 3Vikramaditya V1008–1015
4. 4Jayasimha II1015–1042
5. 5Someshvara IMade Kalyani the capital1042–1068
6. 6Someshvara II1068–1076
7. 7Vikramaditya VIStarted the Chalukya-Vikrama era1076–1126
8. 8Someshvara IIIAuthor of the Manasollasa1126–1138
9. 9Jagadekamalla II1138–1151
10. 10Tailapa IIILost Kalyani to the Kalachuri Bijjala1151–1164
11. 11Someshvara IVBriefly regained Kalyani; the last kingc. 1184–1189

What they left

• The Mitakshara of Vijnaneshwara, written at Kalyani
• Mahadeva temple at Itagi (1112) and the temples of Lakkundi and Dambal
• Bilhana’s Vikramankadevacharita
• The Manasollasa of Someshvara III