Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi

The Eastern Chalukyas ruled Vengi, the coastal country between the lower Godavari and the lower Krishna, for more than four centuries from the early 7th century.¹² They were a branch of the Chalukyas of Badami.¹² Their founder, Kubja Vishnuvardhana, was a younger brother of the Badami king Pulakesin II.¹²

Their capital was at first Vengi, the modern Pedavegi near Eluru, and later Rajahmundry.³¹⁴ J. F. Fleet noted that the kings of this branch were known as “the lords of Vengi”.³ The name came from the territory that formed “the principal and favourite portion of their dominions”.³

Almost all that is known of them comes from their own copper-plate grants.⁵⁶ From the 10th century these grants list every earlier king with the length of his reign.⁵⁶ After about 1000 the family was bound to the Cholas of Tanjore by marriages.⁷⁸ Its heir, Rajendra II, took the Chola throne as Kulottunga I, in 1063 by Fleet’s reckoning⁷ or in 1070 by Sewell’s.⁸

Origins

The Badami king Pulakesin II came to the throne in 609 or 610.⁹ His Aihole inscription records that he took the strong fortress of Pishtapura (Pithapuram) on the east coast.¹¹⁰ It also says that he drove the Pallava king back behind the walls of Kanchi.¹¹⁰

Fleet thought that, because the king was campaigning so far from home, his younger brother Vishnuvardhana was made crown prince (yuvaraja) in 615 to represent him at Badami.¹² In Fleet’s view, Vishnuvardhana was then sent to govern the newly conquered east coast in the same role.¹² The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 tells the same story.¹¹ It places the conquest of Pithapuram and Eluru (then Ellore) about 615.¹¹

Vishnuvardhana’s grant from Satara is dated in the eighth year of “the glorious Maharaja” Pulakesin.⁹¹² It still calls him only yuvaraja.⁹¹² His grant from Chipurupalle, in the Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district, was made in his own eighteenth year.¹² Fleet calculated the day as 7 July 632.¹² This grant calls him Maharaja (great king).¹²

Fleet concluded that “in no great length of time, — at any rate before A.D. 632”, Vishnuvardhana “became established on the eastern coast as an independent sovereign”.² Fleet left open whether this came about by agreement or by the younger brother’s rebellion.² His regnal years were counted from his installation as yuvaraja, not from his independence.¹³² The date of the founding is still argued over. See Evidence and disagreements.

Later grants of the dynasty gave the family a much grander origin. From the reign of Rajaraja I (1022–1063) they open with a descent from the god Brahma through the Moon.¹⁴¹⁵ The line then runs through fifty-nine emperors at Ayodhya to an ancestor Vijayaditya, who was killed fighting Trilochana-Pallava in the Deccan.¹⁴¹⁵ His pregnant queen took refuge at an agrahara (a village granted to Brahmins) called Mudivemu.¹⁴¹⁵ There she bore a son, Vishnuvardhana, who won back the family’s insignia.¹⁴¹⁵

Fleet thought the full genealogy “probably devised in rivalry of the Solar genealogy of the Cholas”.¹⁵¹⁶ Behind the legend he found only the facts that the Chalukyas “did come originally from the north, and found the Pallavas in possession of some of the territories afterwards acquired by themselves”.¹⁵¹⁶ The Cuddapah gazetteer of 1915 identified Mudivemu with Peddamudiyam in the Jammalamadugu taluk.¹⁷

The kingdom of Vengi

Fleet described the original Vengi country as the land between the Eastern Ghats on the west and the sea on the east.³ The Godavari bounded it on the north and the Krishna on the south.³ He put its area at “roughly about eight thousand miles”.³ He thought its proper name was the Andhra country.³ He also noted signs that it later took in much of the land north of the Godavari.³

Vengi’s neighbours were the Gangas of Kalinganagara to the north and the Pallavas of Kanchi to the south.³ To the west lay first the Chalukyas of Badami, then the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed, and then the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani.³

The grants name the country Vengi-mandala, Vengi-desa or simply the land of Vengi.³¹⁸¹⁹ They divide it into districts (vishaya) such as Gudrahara or Gudravara and Kanderuvadi.³¹⁸¹⁹ The early grants reach well beyond the delta.¹²²⁰ Vishnuvardhana I gave a village in the Dimila district near Chipurupalle, north-east of Vengi.¹²²⁰ His grandson Vishnuvardhana II gave one in the Karmarashtra district, in the Nellore country to the south.¹²²⁰

The capital, Vengipura, is generally placed at Pedda-Vegi, about seven miles north of Eluru.³²¹ Ruins and mounds there reach towards Denduluru.³²¹ Fleet thought the neighbouring Chinna-Vegi just as likely.³ Copper plates of Jayasimha I were dug up near Pedda-Vegi.²²

Rajahmundry, on the Godavari, became the later capital.¹⁴ Fleet suggested that it was first occupied under Amma I (918–925), who bore the title Raja-Mahendra.¹⁶ He thought the city was named after this king.¹⁶ The Godavari gazetteer says that Rajaraja I (1022–1062 in its dating) “fixed his capital at Rajahmundry”.⁴ See Vengi and Rajahmundry.

The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited the kingdom in the 7th century.²³ The Godavari gazetteer sums up his account.²³ It describes a country nearly 1,000 miles round and thinly peopled, perhaps because of the recent conquest.²³ Its many Buddhist monasteries lay in ruins.²³

The line of kings

The dynasty is unusually well documented, because its grants recite the reigns of the earlier kings.⁵ Fleet wrote that this was “a feature of special interest”.⁵ But he noted that the reigns are mostly given “in even years, without fractions”.⁵ The first king whose accession is dated in an era is Amma II, crowned in Saka 867 (945 CE; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).⁵ Before him, the reigns added up to between 329 and 340 years in different records.⁵

The Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) and Idara grants of Amma I are the first to give the whole line with the length of every reign.⁶ The fullest list used here comes from a pillar inscription of 1202 at Pithapuram, edited by E. Hultzsch.¹⁴²⁴ It gives each king’s reign. In order, with the reigns it assigns:¹⁴²⁴

Kings (as named in the 1202 list)	Reign
Kubja-Vishnuvardhana	18 years
Jayasimha	33 years
Indraraja, his brother	7 days
Vishnuvardhana; Mangi-yuvaraja; Jayasimha	9, 25, 13 years
Kokkuli; Vishnuvardhana, who expelled him	6 months; 37 years
Vijayaditya-Bhattaraka; Vishnuvardhana	18, 36 years
Narendra (Vijayaditya II)	48 years
Kali-Vishnuvardhana	1½ years
Gunaga-Vijayaditya (III), surnamed Tribhuvanankusa	44 years
Chalukya-Bhima, his nephew	30 years
Vijayaditya (Kollabhiganda)	6 months
Amma	7 years
Tadapa; Vikramaditya; Yuddhamalla	1 month; 11 months; 7 years
Rajabhima	12 years
Amma (II); Danarnava	25, 3 years
no ruler (“by the will of fate”)	27 years
Saktivarman; Vimaladitya	12, 7 years
Rajaraja	40 years
Rajendra-Choda (Kulottunga I)	50 years

The figures do not always agree with other records. The same inscription gives Rajaraja I 40 years and Kulottunga 50, where other inscriptions give 41 and 49.²⁵²⁶ Some grants give Jayasimha I thirty years instead of thirty-three.²⁷¹⁸²⁸ Some give Vijayaditya II forty or forty-four instead of forty-eight.²⁷¹⁸²⁸

Hultzsch, in his table of 1890, numbered only “those princes who really reigned”.²⁹ The reign chart on this page follows Robert Sewell’s dates of 1932, which rest on Fleet’s reckoning.³⁰³¹ Other schemes are compared under Evidence and disagreements.³⁰³¹

Wars with the Rashtrakutas

For two centuries the kings of Vengi fought the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed.³³² The Rashtrakutas had replaced the Badami Chalukyas in the western Deccan in the 8th century.³³²

The Alas plates of 770–71 were issued while the Rashtrakuta prince Govinda II was camped where the Krishna meets the Musi.³³ By their own account he had just humbled the king of Vengi.³³ Sewell took this as a real defeat of Vishnuvardhana IV, though not an annexation (a taking over of the land).³³

The Paithan plates (794 in Sewell’s dating, 796 in Fleet’s) are read in two ways.³³³⁴³⁵ Sewell understood them to name the ruler of Vengi among Govinda II’s enemies.³³³⁴ Fleet read them differently.³⁵ In his reading Govinda II, trying to keep his throne against his brother Dhruva, “called to his assistance even the hostile kings of Malava, Kanchi, and Vengi, and of the Ganga country”.³⁵

Vijayaditya II (799–843) claimed that “during twelve years, by day and by night”, he fought 108 battles with the armies of the Gangas and the Rattas (the Rashtrakutas).³⁶³⁷ He also claimed to have built as many temples of Shiva.³⁶³⁷

Govinda III, the Rashtrakuta king of his time, claimed to have summoned “the lord of Vengi” into his presence.³⁶³⁸ He said that he made this king help to build or fortify a city.³⁶³⁸ Fleet identified the city with Malkhed.³⁶³⁸ Hultzsch concluded in 1890 that “each party claimed the victory over the other”.¹⁹

The war continued under Gunaga Vijayaditya III (844–888), whose campaigns are described below. After his death, according to a grant of Amma I, the Vengi country was “overrun by the army of the Ratta claimants”.³⁹⁴⁰ His nephew Chalukya-Bhima I (888–918) had to win it back.³⁹⁴⁰ Hultzsch later corrected the translation to “overrun by the army of (Krishna II) the heir (or son) of the Ratta (viz. Amoghavarsha I)”.²⁵

A Masulipatam grant of Chalukya-Bhima I records battles against Krishna II and his allies.⁴¹ In them a sixteen-year-old son of the king was killed fighting from his elephant.⁴¹

Amma I (918–925) had to put down “feudatory relatives, who had joined the party of his natural adversaries”.³⁹¹⁹⁴² Hultzsch and Fleet took these adversaries to be the Rashtrakutas.³⁹¹⁹⁴² Chalukya-Bhima II (934–945) claimed to have destroyed a great army sent against him by the Rashtrakuta king Govinda.⁴³⁴² Fleet counted this king as Govinda V in 1891 and as Govinda IV in 1896.⁴³⁴²

Under Amma II (945–970) the Rashtrakutas stepped in again. See below. Their own power ended in 973.⁴⁴ That year Taila II overthrew the last Rashtrakuta king and restored the Western Chalukya monarchy, the Chalukyas of Kalyani.⁴⁴

Gunaga Vijayaditya III

The reign of Gunaga Vijayaditya III is the best remembered of the early period. The Pithapuram inscription praises him as the hero:¹⁴²⁴

• “who played the game of ball on the battle-field with the head of Mangiraja”
• “who burnt Chakrakuta”
• “who frightened Sankila, residing in Kiranapura (and) joined by Krishna”
• “who restored his dignity to Vallabhendra”
• “who received elephants as tribute from the Kalinga (king)”¹⁴²⁴

An earlier grant says that, “prompted by the lord of the Rattas”, he conquered the Gangas and cut off the head of Mangi.⁴⁵ His general Pandaranga is praised in a stone inscription at Addanki for taking twelve districts of the Boyas.⁴⁶ Its opening verse is one of the earliest Telugu poems in an inscription.⁴⁶ See the Addanki inscription.

Historians have read these claims in opposite ways. Fleet, in 1891, identified “Krishna” with the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II and the burnt city with his capital, Malkhed.⁴⁷ Hultzsch, in 1897, rejected this.²⁵ He argued that the “lord of the Rattas” and “Vallabhendra” of the Eastern Chalukya records must be a Rashtrakuta king.²⁵

In Hultzsch’s view, Vijayaditya III had been a vassal (subject king) of Amoghavarsha I.²⁵ Amoghavarsha claimed to have been “worshipped by the lords of Malava and Vengi”.²⁵ The Krishna he frightened would then be a Paramara king of Malava.²⁵ In 1908, after the Maliyapundi grant was found, Hultzsch withdrew this identification as one that “must be wrong”.⁴⁸ He agreed with Fleet that the Krishna was Krishna II.⁴⁸

Sewell, in 1932, followed a later identification of Sankila with the Kalachuri Sankaragana, Krishna II’s brother-in-law.⁴⁹⁵⁰ He concluded that Vijayaditya sacked and burnt Malkhed some time between 877 and 888 and then withdrew.⁴⁹⁵⁰ He found this confirmed by a Rashtrakuta grant of 930, which says that in Krishna II’s reign his enemies abandoned Manyakheta.⁵¹ See Gunaga Vijayaditya III.

The succession wars, 925–945

After Amma I died in 925 the throne changed hands five times in about two years. Amma I’s young son, Beta-Vijayaditya V, was expelled after a fortnight by his cousin Tadapa, son of Yuddhamalla I.^5253545551 After a month Tadapa was killed or expelled by Vikramaditya II, a son of Chalukya-Bhima I.^5253545551 Vikramaditya in turn was overthrown by Bhima, Amma I’s younger son.^5253545551 Eight months later Yuddhamalla II, son of Tadapa, killed Bhima and held the throne for seven years.^5253545551

Hultzsch called Tadapa and Yuddhamalla “usurpers” (men who seized the throne).²⁹ About 934 Amma I’s half-brother, Chalukya-Bhima II, also called Rajabhima, drove Yuddhamalla out.⁵⁴⁴³ His grants say that he also overcame a series of other claimants and opponents.⁵⁴⁴³ Among them was an army sent by the Rashtrakuta king.⁵⁴⁴³ Fleet thought that under Amma II, Chalukya-Bhima II’s son, the family quarrels that had begun with Beta-Vijayaditya “were now at an end”.⁴³⁵⁶

Beta-Vijayaditya survived. Two later records make him the ancestor of a separate line of princes.⁵²⁵³²⁶ One of them, a pillar inscription at Pithapuram, records the coronation of a later member of that line in 1202.⁵²⁵³²⁶ The line is described on the Pithapuram branch below.

A grant of Amma II’s time, found in 1917, adds to the story.⁵⁷ It says that after Vikramaditya II’s reign “the feudatory Sabara chiefs, the commanders of the Vallabha (i.e., the Rashtrakuta) forces and others apportioned among themselves the (Chalukyan) territory for seven years”.⁵⁷ This lasted until Chalukya-Bhima II drove out these usurpers.⁵⁷

The junior line did not give up.⁵⁸⁵⁹ Yuddhamalla II’s sons Badapa and Tala II issued grants of their own.⁵⁸⁵⁹ An epigraphist (a scholar of inscriptions) examined Badapa’s grant in 1921.⁵⁸⁵⁹ He concluded that Badapa had driven Amma II out for a time with the help of the Rashtrakuta Krishna III.⁵⁸⁵⁹

Amma II, Danarnava and the interval

Amma II was crowned on 5 December 945, in the twelfth year from his birth.⁵⁶ He issued six grants over a reign of twenty-five years.⁵⁶⁶⁰ They include a gift by a Jain laywoman to a Jain temple, and a grant made at the request of his parents-in-law.⁵⁶⁶⁰ His elder half-brother Danarnava followed him and reigned for three years, from about 970 to 973.⁶⁰ Sewell noted that it is uncertain which of the two brothers was the elder.³¹

The Mangallu grant was issued in Amma II’s name and noticed in 1917.⁵⁷⁶¹ It says that after ruling for eleven years he went to the Kalinga country Krishna-kopat.⁵⁷⁶¹ Then Danarnava, “the son of Bhima … and Ankidevi”, ruled the kingdom “with the consent of his step-brother”.⁵⁷⁶¹ The 1917 report took the words to mean “in wrath against Krishna”, that is the Rashtrakuta Krishna III.⁵⁷

V. Rangacharya edited the grant in 1960.⁶²⁶³ He understood the words to mean that Amma went because Krishna was angry with him.⁶²⁶³ He thought Amma more the victim than the avenger of that anger, with Danarnava acting as his regent (ruling on his behalf).⁶²⁶³ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry argued in 1978 that Krishna III had made Danarnava king after Amma fled.⁶⁴

The same grant was made at the request of a chief called Kakatya Gundyana.⁶¹ Parabrahma Sastry took it to be the earliest reference to the family that later ruled as the Kakatiyas.⁶⁵ He dated it to about 956.⁶⁵ The later grants still give Amma II a full reign of twenty-five years.⁶⁰⁶³ See Amma II and Danarnava.

What followed Danarnava is not clear. The grants of Rajaraja I and his successors say that “for twenty-seven years … the land of Vengi was without a leader”.⁶⁰²⁴ They also say that the Andhra country was without a ruler “by the will of fate”.⁶⁰²⁴

Hultzsch pointed out in 1890 that the reigns on either side leave room for about thirty years, not twenty-seven.⁶⁰⁶⁶ Those reigns are fixed by the coronation dates of Amma II and Rajaraja I.⁶⁰⁶⁶ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry wrote in 1978 that Jata-Choda Bhima killed Danarnava and seized the Vengi kingdom.⁶⁷ Vengi, he wrote, was then thrown into anarchy (disorder with no ruler).⁶⁷

A. C. Burnell took the gap for a time of anarchy, perhaps caused by Chola invasions. Fleet suspected that the Cholas had actually conquered and held Vengi for a time.⁶⁰ It was later established that the Chola king Rajaraja I came to the throne in 985.²⁵ Hultzsch then dated his conquest of Vengi, made in his thirteenth or fourteenth year, to 997–98, inside the gap.²⁵

Sewell summarised an inscription of the same Chola king.⁶⁸ As he read it, the inscription does not say that the king conquered Vengi.⁶⁸ In his summary, it says that the king restored order there after it had been twenty-seven years without a ruler.⁶⁸ Sewell took this to mean that he helped the Eastern Chalukya prince Saktivarman to win back his throne, about 999.⁶⁸

B. V. Krishna Rao suggested in 1930 that the “interregnum” (the gap between reigns) was really the rule of Badapa and the junior line.⁶⁹ In his view the senior branch, restored with Saktivarman, did not recognise that rule.⁶⁹

The Chola alliance

The kings who ruled after the interval were the sons of Danarnava. Saktivarman I, the elder, reigned for twelve years. The Godavari gazetteer says that the Chola Rajaraja I set him up “as king (or perhaps feudatory) in Vengi”, about 999.²³²⁴ Gold coins with his title Chalukya-Chandra have been found on the islands of Ramree and Cheduba, off the coast of Arakan.⁷⁰⁷¹

His younger brother Vimaladitya was crowned in 1011.⁷²⁷³ He married Kundavadevi, a daughter of Rajaraja Chola.⁷²⁷³ Sewell called the marriage the first union of the two royal houses.⁷⁴ Hultzsch had thought in 1890 that it was “probably a forced one and the result of his conquest of Vimaladitya”.⁷⁵

The Godavari gazetteer adds that Vimaladitya apparently tried to break away from the Cholas.²³⁷⁴ As a result, it says, Rajendra Chola invaded Vengi again and set up a pillar of victory on the Mahendragiri hill in Ganjam.²³⁷⁴

Vimaladitya’s son Rajaraja Narendra was crowned on 16 August 1022.⁷³ Fleet numbered him Rajaraja I, and his grants also call him Vishnuvardhana.⁷³ He married Ammangadevi, daughter of Rajendra Chola, his mother’s brother.⁷³ Fleet wrote that “as the result of these intermarriages, the members of this family were, from this time, plainly Cholas at heart, far more than Chalukyas”.⁷

His Korumelli grant is the first to set out the full mythical genealogy of the family.¹⁵ Fleet thought this genealogy was devised in rivalry with the Cholas’ descent from the Sun.¹⁵ The Godavari gazetteer says that he fixed his capital at Rajahmundry.⁴ It says too that the Mahabharata was translated into Telugu in his reign.⁴

The Western Chalukyas of Kalyani had replaced the Rashtrakutas in 973.⁴⁴⁷⁶ They now pressed on Vengi from the west.⁴⁴⁷⁶ Vengi became a prize fought over between them and the Cholas.⁴⁴⁷⁶

Rajaraja’s long reign was not peaceful. N. Venkataramanayya argued in 1952 that he had begun to rule in 1019 or 1020, some years before his coronation.⁷⁷⁷⁸ He based this on inscriptions that give both his regnal year and the Saka year.⁷⁷⁷⁸

Rajaraja’s half-brother Vijayaditya VII issued a grant from Pamulavaka.⁷⁹ B. V. Krishna Rao summarised it in 1930.⁷⁹ In his summary, it says that after Rajaraja had ruled for twelve years Vijayaditya expelled him by force and crowned himself king of Vengi.⁷⁹ Krishna Rao dated the coronation to 1030,⁷⁹ and Venkataramanayya to 1031.⁷⁸

Krishna Rao thought that Vijayaditya was soon driven out and became a vassal of the Western Chalukya king Somesvara I.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸² Krishna Rao also edited a grant of Vijayaditya’s son.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸² It says that Vijayaditya conquered Vengi while his half-brother was away, and placed this son, Saktivarman II, on the throne.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸²

Krishna Rao placed these events after Rajaraja had reigned for forty-one years.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸² He calculated the coronation as 18 October 1061.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸² Another grant mourns the young king’s death in battle.⁸⁰⁸¹⁸² The later grants of the dynasty say nothing of these events.⁷³²⁵ They give Rajaraja an unbroken reign of forty or forty-one years.⁷³²⁵

Kulottunga I and the union of the crowns

Rajaraja Narendra’s son, Rajendra II, was mostly Chola by blood.⁸³ Sewell pointed out that both his father and his grandfather had married Chola princesses.⁸³

How he came to rule both Vengi and the Chola kingdom is disputed.⁷⁸⁴⁸⁵⁴ Fleet, in 1891, drew his view from Rajendra’s own records.⁷ He concluded that Rajendra was first anointed king of Vengi in 1063.⁷ In Fleet’s account, in the same year, “wishing for … the Chola sovereignty”, Rajendra handed Vengi to his uncle Vijayaditya VII.⁷ Fleet says that he then won the Chola crown “by hostile invasion and conquest”.⁷

Hultzsch, in 1890, thought he had inherited the Chola kingdom from his father-in-law.⁸⁴ The Godavari gazetteer says that Vijayaditya VII had first pushed him out of the succession at Vengi.⁴ It says that Kulottunga claimed the Chola throne “as both grandson and adopted son of a former Chola ruler”.⁴

Sewell set out both readings of the years after 1063:⁸⁶

• In Fleet’s reading, Rajendra held Vengi and later forgave his uncle and made him viceroy (governor for the king).⁸⁶
• In Hultzsch’s later reading, Vijayaditya VII ruled Vengi from 1063 to 1070 with the backing of the Chola king Virarajendra.⁸⁶

Sewell dated Rajendra’s seizure of the Chola throne, as Kulottunga I, to 9 June 1070.⁸⁵⁸

The Tamil poem Kalingattupparani, written for Kulottunga, treats him purely as a Chola king.⁸⁷ Fleet noted that it never mentions Vengi, the Chalukya family or its boar crest.⁸⁷ It gives him the Chola tiger banner.⁸⁷

Bilhana wrote a Sanskrit poem, the Vikramankadevacharita, on the life of Kulottunga’s rival Vikramaditya VI of Kalyani.⁸⁸⁸⁹ It calls Kulottunga Rajiga, “the lord of Vengi”, who seized the throne of Kanchi.⁸⁸⁸⁹ See Kulottunga I.

The end of the line

After 1070 Vengi was governed for the Chola emperor by viceroys.^7909192 Vijayaditya VII held it for fifteen years, until his death in 1077.^7909192 Kulottunga then appointed his second son, Rajaraja II, who gave it up after a year.^7909192 Next he appointed his third son, Vira-Choda, crowned in 1078.^7909192

The Godavari gazetteer adds that another son, Rajaraja Choda Ganga, replaced Vira-Choda in 1084.⁹² Vira-Choda was put back in 1088–89.⁹² He was followed by Vikrama Chola, who ruled Vengi until about 1118.⁹²

Vikrama Chola then left for the south to become co-regent and then Chola king.⁹² The Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI occupied Vengi, and from 1120 to 1124 he was “undisputed king” there.⁹² Inscriptions of Vikrama Chola dated 1127 and 1135 were later found in the Krishna (then Kistna) district.⁹²

The gazetteer says that Kulottunga had appointed as viceroy a chief named Choda, son of Gonka.⁹² Choda’s descendants long played a leading part in the district.⁹² These were the Velanandu (Velanati) family, of the Chandavolu country in the western Krishna delta.⁹³

The end date of 1077 used on this page marks the death of Vijayaditya VII, the last of the old line to rule Vengi in his own right.⁹²⁹⁴ The descendants of Beta-Vijayaditya V lived on as princes at Pithapuram.²⁶ Their pillar inscription of 1202 records the coronation of Mallapa III, also called Vishnuvardhana.²⁶ It took place in the temple of Kunti-Madhava there on 16 June 1202.²⁶ M. Rama Rao wrote in 1964 that the Kakatiyas of Warangal conquered the coastal country in the first decade of the 13th century.⁷⁶

Government

The kings’ titles grew with their power. The early kings called themselves Maharaja. Fleet found that Vijayaditya II was the first of the line to use the full imperial titles Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Bhattaraka.²⁸⁵⁴ The later kings kept them.²⁸⁵⁴

From his time the royal seals carry the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusa, “the glorious elephant-goad of the three worlds”.²⁸ Fleet took it to be a family motto rather than a personal title.²⁸ The seals also show the family’s boar crest.¹⁶⁹⁵ The later genealogies list these royal insignia (signs of royalty):¹⁶⁹⁵

• a white parasol
• a conch
• a double drum
• the boar crest
• a peacock-feather fan
• a spear
• a throne
• an ornamental arch
• a golden sceptre
• the emblems of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna¹⁶⁹⁵

An heir to the throne could be marked by a necklace (kanthika).⁴⁰²⁵ Beta-Vijayaditya V was called Kanthika-Beta for this reason.⁴⁰²⁵

A grant was a royal order to the people of a district (vishaya). Kielhorn translated the address of the Nandamapundi grant of 1053 as “the cultivators, headed by the Rashtrakutas”.⁹⁶ Hultzsch rendered the same formula in an older grant as “all householders, (viz.) heads of provinces, &c.”.⁹⁷

The Nandamapundi order was issued “in the presence of the Mantrin, Purohita, Senapati, Yuvaraja, Dauvarika and Pradhana”.⁹⁶ These were the councillor, family priest, commander of the army, heir apparent, doorkeeper and chief minister.⁹⁶ Kielhorn noted that the Chellur plates of Vira-Choda name “the five Pradhanas” as the officers who carried out the king’s order.⁹⁶

Each grant names an executor, called ajnapti or dutaka.¹² Fleet explained the dutaka as the officer “who conveyed the king’s commands to the local officials by whom the charter was then drawn up and delivered”.¹²

A Kataka-raja is executor of many grants from Amma I to Rajaraja I.^52569899100 Fleet could not tell whether this was a name or a title.⁵²⁵⁶ Kielhorn thought it the title of an official.⁹⁸ Hultzsch rendered it “superintendent of the royal camp”.^9899100 He found it held by three generations of descendants of Gunaga Vijayaditya III’s general Pandaranga.^9899100 Grants also name their composers and writers, such as Madhava-bhatta, Potana-bhatta and Nanniya-bhatta.⁵⁶⁹⁸

Some families served the kings for generations. The Pattavardhini family claimed that its founder, Kalakampa, had killed a king named Daddara in battle with Kubja Vishnuvardhana’s permission.^2101102 One of his descendants, Bhandanaditya, served Vijayaditya IV.^2101102 He received the village of Gonturu with twelve hamlets from Amma I.^2101102 A grant of Amma II calls the Pattavardhika lineage one whose members “were servants of the Chalukya kings”.⁵⁶⁶⁰

Taxes and revenue

The grants do not describe the revenue system. They show what a village owed only through the dues they let off. Korraparru was given to twenty-four Brahmins “exempt from all taxes”.⁹⁷ Gonturu, with its hamlets, was given to Bhandanaditya on the same terms.¹⁰² Nandamapundi was given to the poet Narayana “free from all taxes”, having been “constituted … an agrahara”.⁹⁸

Burnell explained that when a village was made an agrahara the donees “had then a right to the dues formerly paid to the king”.¹⁰³ The grants end with the usual curses on anyone who blocks the gift.¹⁰²⁹⁸

Army

The kings’ records are full of war. Vijayaditya II claimed 108 battles in twelve years, and Chalukya-Bhima I claimed 360.³⁷²⁵ Hultzsch took the second figure to mean a whole year of continuous war.³⁷²⁵ A grant praises Kali-Vishnuvardhana V as “skilled in fighting with elephants and horses”.³⁷

Elephants recur. Gunaga Vijayaditya III received elephants as tribute from Kalinga.²⁴ A son of Chalukya-Bhima I died fighting from his elephant.⁴¹ The Pattavardhini warrior Bhandanaditya is praised for his elephant Anjana.¹⁰² The first king’s surname, Vishamasiddhi, is explained in his Chipurupalle grant as “success against fortresses, difficult of access, on the plains, in the water, in the woods, and on hills”.¹⁰⁴

The commanders were rewarded with land. Amma I’s Masulipatam grant gave the village of Drujjuru to Mahakala.⁴⁰⁵² Mahakala had been a general of Chalukya-Bhima I and was the son of that king’s foster-sister.⁴⁰⁵² Gunaga Vijayaditya III made his general Pandaranga commander of the army in the first year of his reign.⁴⁶ The grant of Gonturu to Bhandanaditya, “one of his military officers” in Hultzsch’s words, is another such reward.¹⁹

Economy

The economy that the grants show is agricultural. They give villages, fields and hamlets to Brahmins, temples and officers.⁹⁸¹⁰² They describe boundaries by tanks, rivers, palmyra and tamarind trees, and the field-margins of neighbouring villages.⁹⁸¹⁰²

A grant of Amma II praises his reign in the usual terms.¹⁰⁵ It says the country “produced an abundance of well-ripened grain of various kinds”.¹⁰⁵ It “possessed cows that were continually yielding milk, and was free from fears, calamities, diseases, and thieves”.¹⁰⁵ The library’s sources say little about trade under the Eastern Chalukyas. The one sign of contact across the Bay of Bengal is a group of gold coins of Saktivarman I and Rajaraja I.⁷⁰⁷¹ They were found on islands off the coast of Arakan and brought from Siam.⁷⁰⁷¹

Coins

The only coins attributed to the dynasty in the sources used here are thin gold pieces weighing between 65 and 67 grains.¹⁰⁶⁷¹ They are stamped on one side only, with separate punches.¹⁰⁶⁷¹ In the centre is the Chalukya boar, with a parasol and two fly-whisks above it and a lamp-stand in front and behind.¹⁰⁶⁷¹

Round the boar runs a legend in what Fleet called the Old-Kanarese alphabet.¹⁰⁶⁷¹ It reads sri-Chalukya-Chandrasya, “of the glorious Chalukya-Chandra”, that is Saktivarman I.¹⁰⁶⁷¹ Or it reads sri-Rajarajasya, “of the glorious Rajaraja”.¹⁰⁶⁷¹

Walter Elliot published two of them in 1886.^1067071 He had taken them for early punch-marked coins of the 5th or 6th century and linked them with the Badami king Mangalesa.^1067071 Fleet showed in 1890, from their letters and legends, that they belonged to the two Eastern Chalukya kings.^1067071 He warned that “it is useless to build up history on numismatic bases, until the latter have been very carefully tested by and arranged in accordance with epigraphical evidence”.^1067071

They were found in the sand of the islands of Ramree and Cheduba off the Arakan coast.⁷⁰¹⁰⁷ Others were brought from Siam.⁷⁰¹⁰⁷ A local tradition reported to the British Museum held that they had been sent from India as offerings for an image of the Buddha.⁷⁰¹⁰⁷

Society

The donees of the grants were mostly Brahmins, named with their gotras (clans) and Vedic schools. Korraparru, for instance, went to twenty-four Brahmins of ten gotras, followers of the Hiranyakesi and Apastamba schools.²⁹ Royal servants appear too.⁴⁰ Mahakala was the son of a foster-sister of Chalukya-Bhima I.⁴⁰ She was the daughter of the king’s wet-nurse.⁴⁰

Women gave in their own right.⁶⁰¹⁰⁸ The Jain laywoman Chamekamba, of the Pattavardhika lineage, had a village given to her teacher Arhanandin for a temple dining-hall.⁶⁰¹⁰⁸ The Nandamapundi grant describes its donee Narayana, son of a minister, as a poet in Sanskrit, Kannada, Prakrit, Paisachi and Telugu.⁹⁶

Religion

The grants open with a formula that presents the Chalukyas as of the Manavya gotra and sons of Hariti.⁵²⁹⁷ It says they won their kingdom through the favour of Kausiki (Durga) and were protected by the Mothers.⁵²⁹⁷ It says they meditated on Mahasena (Skanda) and received their boar crest from Narayana (Vishnu).⁵²⁹⁷

Many kings call themselves paramamaheshvara, “devout worshippers of Maheshvara” (Shiva), among them Vishnuvardhana II,²⁰ Vijayaditya II,²⁸ Kali-Vishnuvardhana V,⁴⁷ Chalukya-Bhima II,⁵⁴ Rajaraja I⁹⁶ and Vira-Choda.⁹⁰

Vijayaditya II is said to have built 108 temples of Shiva.¹⁹ They were called Narendreshvara after his title Narendra.¹⁹ Chalukya-Bhima I founded the Shiva temple of Chalukya-Bhimeshvara.²⁵ The town of Bhimavaram near Kakinada (then Cocanada) took its name from this temple.²⁵ An inscription of 958 says that Vijayaditya II built the Umamaheshvara temple at Vijayawada (then Bezwada).¹⁰⁹

Robert Sewell wrote in his list of 1882 that the Chalukyas “seem to have been principally worshippers of Vishnu”.¹¹⁰ The Godavari gazetteer of 1907 called them “Vaishnavites by creed”.²³ P. Chenchiah wrote in 1928 that “the early Chalukyas were Jains, but the later Chalukyas were champions of Hinduism”.¹¹¹ The inscriptions support neither view as a general rule.

They show Shaiva kings who also supported Jains. A grant of Vishnuvardhana III gave the village of Musinikunda to the Jain temple called Nadumbi-vasati at Vijayawada.¹¹² Its executor is named as Ayyana-mahadevi, queen of Kubja Vishnuvardhana.¹¹² The epigraphist who examined it in 1917 called it “so far, the earliest mention of Jainas and Jaina temples in Eastern Chalukya records”.¹¹²

The Kaluchumbarru grant of Amma II provided for repairs to the charitable dining-hall of a Jain temple.¹⁰⁸ Hiuen Tsang had found the Buddhist monasteries of the country already deserted in the 7th century.²³

Art and architecture

The temples of the dynasty are described on their own pages. This section is an outline. M. Rama Rao surveyed the temples in 1956–58.^113114115 He attributed the Shiva temples at Draksharama, Chalukya-Bhimavaram and Chebrolu to Chalukya-Bhima I.^113114115 He gave the same king the temples of the other Pancharamas (Palakollu, Somarama and Amaravati).^113114115

Rama Rao dated six temples at Bikkavolu to the time of Gunaga Vijayaditya III, the king before Chalukya-Bhima I.^113114115 He did so from an inscription naming the shrine of “Bijayeshvara”.^113114115 His editor added that the Jain basadi (temple) of Ayyana-mahadevi near Vijayawada and the 108 temples of Vijayaditya II had not been found.¹¹⁶

Earlier, Robert Sewell’s list of 1882 had credited the Eastern Chalukyas with cutting rock temples such as those at Undavalli, an attribution that later writers disputed.¹¹⁰ See Temples and architecture.

Language and literature

The grants are in Sanskrit, but Telugu enters them. The grant of Kali-Vishnuvardhana V found at “Ahadanakaram” has its operative part, the order itself, “in a difficult style of Telugu”, in Fleet’s words.⁴⁷ The boundaries in the Nandamapundi grant of 1053 are in Telugu.⁹⁵ The Kaluchumbarru grant of Amma II ends with a Telugu passage.¹¹⁷

The stone inscription of Pandaranga, Gunaga Vijayaditya III’s general, at Addanki opens with a Telugu poem.⁴⁶ Its editor, K. V. Lakshmana Rao, called it “positive evidence of the existence of Telugu poetry in the middle of the 9th century”.⁴⁶ Chenchiah, writing in the same year, still held that “there is no available literature before the eleventh century”.¹¹⁸ He also held that all earlier inscriptions were in Prakrit or Sanskrit.¹¹⁸

Burnell found the dynasty’s own script “remarkably square and upright”, quite unlike the sloping letters of the Western Chalukyas.¹¹⁹

Telugu literature proper begins under the Eastern Chalukyas. The Godavari gazetteer says that the Mahabharata was translated into Telugu in the reign of Rajaraja I.⁴ Local tradition remembers this king as Rajaraja Narendra.⁴ The translator was Nannaya. Chenchiah dated the beginning of the translation to the reign of Rajaraja Narendra.¹¹¹

The Nandamapundi grant names the author of its Sanskrit verses as Nanniyabhatta.⁹⁸ Hultzsch thought him “perhaps identical with Nannayabhatta, the first Telugu translator of the Mahabharata”.⁹⁸ Burnell dated the Telugu Mahabharata in two different ways.¹²⁰¹²¹ In one note he put it in the 12th century.¹²⁰¹²¹ In another he put Nannaya in the middle of the 11th, believing his patron to be a Vishnuvardhana converted by Ramanuja.¹²⁰¹²¹ See Language and literature.

Evidence and disagreements

The sources

Most of what is known comes from copper-plate grants, which are royal orders with a long preamble on the king’s ancestors. Stone inscriptions of the dynasty are rare.¹¹² The epigraphist reporting in 1917 wrote that “very few stone records of the Eastern Chalukyas are known”.¹¹²

The grants from Amma I’s time onwards give the whole line with the length of every reign.⁶ The Pithapuram pillar inscription of 1202 repeats it.¹⁴ Records of their neighbours often tell a different story of the same events.¹⁹⁸⁷⁸⁹ These neighbours were the Rashtrakutas, the Western Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Gangas of Kalinga.¹⁹

The court poems written for Kulottunga I and for Vikramaditya VI are partisan (they take one side).⁸⁷⁸⁹ Fleet doubted at least one early grant, Jayasimha I’s from Pedda-Maddali, because of its many errors.¹⁸

When did the kingdom begin?

No grant dates the founding in an era. All dates are reckoned back from Amma II’s coronation in 945, using the reign lengths in the later grants, or from the eclipses mentioned in the early ones.⁵⁹

Source	Beginning of Kubja Vishnuvardhana’s rule in the east
Burnell (1878)122123103	About 620 from the total of the reigns; about 606–7 from Fleet’s first reading of the Chipurupalle date
Mackenzie, Kistna manual (1883)124	Vengi given to him about 605
Hultzsch (1890)665	About Saka 526–27 (604–05); Fleet thought this eleven or twelve years too early
Fleet (1891)132	Made yuvaraja in 615, from which his years are counted; independent before 632
Godavari gazetteer (1907)11	Conquest about 615; independent by 632
Hultzsch, Kopparam plates (1926)125126	Still a dependent of Pulakesin II in the latter’s 21st year, which Sewell calculated as 631
Sewell and Aiyangar (1932)10	615
Rama Rao (1964)76116	Independent, with his brother’s consent, in 624–25

Fleet’s date rests on the lunar eclipse in Vishnuvardhana’s Chipurupalle grant, of his eighteenth year.^12713128 He chose the eclipse of 7 July 632.^12713128 He rejected the eclipses of 622 and 623 preferred by Burnell and James Burgess.^12713128 Those dates would make Vishnuvardhana’s reign begin before that of his elder brother Pulakesin II.^12713128

He confirmed his date with two dated grants of Vishnuvardhana II, of 664 and 668.¹²⁸ But he could do so only by accepting the thirty years that a minority of grants give to Jayasimha I instead of thirty-three.¹²⁸ The Kopparam plates are a grant made in the east by Pulakesin II himself.¹²⁵ Hultzsch took them as evidence that his brother was not yet independent in 631.¹²⁵ See Kubja Vishnuvardhana.

The reign lengths in the grants

The lengths of reign that the grants give are rounded and do not always agree:

• Jayasimha I has 33 years in most grants and 30 in some. Fleet accepted 30.¹⁸¹²⁸
• Vijayaditya II has 48 years in most, 44 in Amma I’s grant and 40 in two.^2728129 Fleet thought 44 correct and the others mistakes in adding or subtracting four years as heir apparent.^2728129
• Vikramaditya II has nine months, eleven months or a year.⁵⁴⁵⁷
• Danarnava has three years in most grants, and thirty in one grant that leaves out the interval.⁶⁰
• Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I have 41 and 49 years in some records, and 40 and 50 in others.⁷³²⁵ Fleet thought the variation “looks somewhat as if there was a break”.⁷³

Because the reigns are mostly given in whole years, Fleet also worked out a second list.¹³⁰¹³¹ It assumes that each regnal year began on the first day of the lunar month Chaitra.¹³⁰¹³¹ In that list some years are counted twice, as the last year of one king and the first of the next.¹³⁰¹³¹

Comparing the chronologies

Later writers moved most of the reigns. The table compares some of them:

King	Hultzsch (1890)66	Fleet (1891)132	Sewell (1932)3031	Rama Rao (1964)76
Kubja Vishnuvardhana	about 605–623	615–633	615–633	from 624–25
Vijayaditya II	about 794–842 (48 years)	799–843	799–843	806–846
Gunaga Vijayaditya III	about 843–887	844–888	844–888	848–891
Chalukya-Bhima I	about 887–917	888–918	888–918	892–922
Vimaladitya	Saka 937 (?) to 944 (about 1015–1022)75	1015–1022	1011–1022	not given
Rajaraja I	Saka 944–985 (1022–1063)	1022–1063	1022–1063	1021–1063

Hultzsch gave his dates in the Saka era. The years in the first column add 78 to his figures. Only the coronation dates of Amma II (945) and Rajaraja I (1022), and the coronation of Vimaladitya recorded in 1011, are fixed.¹³²⁷²

Sewell kept Fleet’s 888 for Chalukya-Bhima I, although a newly found grant gave a coronation date that seemed to point to 892.¹³³ P. Chenchiah’s literary history of 1928 gives yet other dates, such as 1005–1022 for Vimaladitya.¹³⁴

The interval after Danarnava

The grants give the gap after Danarnava as twenty-seven years.⁶⁰²⁴ But the coronation dates of Amma II and Rajaraja I leave about thirty.⁶⁰²⁴ Scholars have explained the gap in different ways:^60256869

• Burnell called it a time of anarchy.⁶⁰
• Fleet suspected Chola rule.⁶⁰
• Hultzsch placed the Chola conquest of Vengi in 997–98, inside it.²⁵
• Sewell read a Chola record as saying that Rajaraja I restored order and helped Saktivarman to the throne.⁶⁸
• Krishna Rao suggested that the junior line of Badapa had ruled in the gap.⁶⁹

See Saktivarman I.

Other open questions

• Who was “Krishna”? Gunaga Vijayaditya III’s opponent has been identified with the Rashtrakuta Krishna II (Fleet 1891, Sewell 1932, Hultzsch 1908).⁴⁷⁴⁸⁴⁹ He has also been identified with a Paramara king of Malava (Hultzsch 1897).²⁵
• How did Kulottunga I win the Chola crown? Fleet says by conquest in 1063.⁷ Hultzsch (1890) says by inheritance from his father-in-law.⁸⁴ Sewell and the Godavari gazetteer say that he seized it in 1070 after a disputed succession.⁸⁵⁴
• Did Vijayaditya VII rule Vengi or govern it for his nephew? Fleet read the Chellur plates as making him viceroy from 1063.⁹⁴ Hultzsch later thought he ruled in his own right from 1063 to 1070 with Chola support.⁸⁶
• When did Rajahmundry become the capital? Fleet suggested the reign of Amma I, whose title was Raja-Mahendra.¹ The Godavari gazetteer says Rajaraja I fixed his capital there.⁴
• Was Kundavadevi’s marriage forced? Hultzsch thought the marriage followed a Chola conquest of Vimaladitya.⁷⁵ Sewell thought Vimaladitya and his father-in-law were on friendly terms.⁷⁴ But Sewell also reported V. Venkayya’s view that Vimaladitya spent four years as a prisoner of the Chola king.⁷⁴

Footnotes

1. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 95 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 93 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

4. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

5. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

6. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 266 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 277 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

8. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 83 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 19 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 96 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

13. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

14. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription” (1897), p. 239, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

15. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 274 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

16. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 275 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

17. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah (1915), pp. 26–27 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

18. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

19. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

20. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 98 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

21. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 193 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

22. V. Rangacharya, “The Pedda-Vegi Plates of the Eastern Chalukya King Jayasimha I”, Epigraphia Indica XIX (1928), p. 258 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

23. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

24. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription” (1897), p. 240, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

25. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription” (1897), p. 227 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

26. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription” (1897), pp. 228–229 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

27. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 11 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

28. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

29. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 31 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

30. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 336, pedigree of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

31. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 337, pedigree and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

32. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 29 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

33. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 30 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

34. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 32 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

35. J. F. Fleet, “The Rashtrakutas of Malkhed”, in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II (1896), p. 393 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

36. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 101 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

37. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 36, translation, p. 41 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

38. Fleet, “The Rashtrakutas of Malkhed”, Bombay Gazetteer I, pt. II (1896), p. 396 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

39. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 36, translation, p. 42 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

40. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 103 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

41. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 39 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

42. Fleet, “The Rashtrakutas of Malkhed”, Bombay Gazetteer I, pt. II (1896), p. 417 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

43. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 270 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

44. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 52 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

45. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 226 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

46. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “The Addanki Stone Inscription of Pandaranga”, Epigraphia Indica XIX (1928), p. 273 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

47. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 102 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

48. E. Hultzsch, “Maliyapundi Grant of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 48 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

49. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 35 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

50. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

51. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 44 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

52. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 267 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

53. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 268 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

54. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 269 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

55. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 43 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

56. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

57. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (1917), Part II, para. 24, p. 117 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

58. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, paras. 13–14, p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

59. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, para. 14, p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

60. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 272 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

61. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (1917), Part II, para. 24, p. 118 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

62. V. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 39 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

63. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II” (1960), p. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

64. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 15. ↩

65. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 14. ↩ ↩²

66. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 32, pedigree of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

67. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 41. ↩ ↩²

68. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 56 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

69. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), p. 36 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

70. Fleet, “Some Gold Coins of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1890), p. 80 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

71. Fleet, “Some Gold Coins of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1890), p. 81 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

72. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 63 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

73. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 273 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

74. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 61 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

75. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 63 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

76. Rama Rao, Eastern Chalukyan Temples (1964), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

77. N. Venkataramanayya, “Kalidindi Grant of Eastern Chalukya Rajaraja I”, Epigraphia Indica XXIX (1951–52), p. 60 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

78. Venkataramanayya, “Kalidindi Grant” (1952), p. 61 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

79. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II” (1930), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

80. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II” (1930), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

81. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II” (1930), p. 39 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

82. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II” (1930), p. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

83. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 77 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

84. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 52 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

85. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 82 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

86. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 78 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

87. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 279 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

88. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 281 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

89. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 282 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

90. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 284 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

91. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 51 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

92. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

93. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

94. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 276 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

95. F. Kielhorn, “Nandamapundi Grant of Rajaraja I”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 301 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

96. Kielhorn, “Nandamapundi Grant” (1897), p. 302 and note 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

97. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 35, translation, p. 35 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

98. Kielhorn, “Nandamapundi Grant” (1897), p. 303, with E. Hultzsch’s note 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

99. Hultzsch, “Maliyapundi Grant of Ammaraja II” (1908), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

100. Hultzsch, “Maliyapundi Grant of Ammaraja II” (1908), p. 50 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

101. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 104 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

102. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 36, translation, p. 43 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

103. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (1878), p. 138, notes 2 and 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

104. J. F. Fleet, “Chipurupalle Copper-plate Grant of Vishnuvardhana I”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 17, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

105. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 38, translation, p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

106. J. F. Fleet, “Some Gold Coins of the Eastern Chalukya Kings Saktivarman and Rajaraja II”, Indian Antiquary XIX (1890), p. 79 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

107. Fleet, “Some Gold Coins of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1890), p. 82 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

108. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant” (1903), p. 179 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

109. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

110. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), p. 42 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

111. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

112. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, paras. 20–22, p. 116 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

113. M. Rama Rao, Eastern Chalukyan Temples of Andhra Desa (1964), preface (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

114. Rama Rao, Eastern Chalukyan Temples (1964), p. 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

115. Rama Rao, Eastern Chalukyan Temples (1964), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

116. Mohd. Abdul Waheed Khan, foreword to M. Rama Rao, Eastern Chalukyan Temples of Andhra Desa (1964), p. i (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

117. J. F. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant of Vijayaditya-Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 178 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

118. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 16 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

119. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (1878), p. 20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

120. A. C. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (2nd ed., 1878), p. 16, note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

121. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (1878), p. 129, note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

122. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (1878), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

123. Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography (1878), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

124. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 6 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

125. E. Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates of Pulakesin II”, Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1925–26), p. 258 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

126. Robert Sewell, postscript to Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates of Pulakesin II”, Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1925–26), p. 261 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

127. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 4 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

128. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

129. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

130. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 13, alternative list (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

131. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 14 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

132. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 12, “List of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

133. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

134. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩