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Arikesari I (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

Arikesari I was a Vemulavada Chalukya chief, the elder son of Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla I. Later records of his family say that he conquered Vengi and Trikalinga, and Pampa links his campaign with Nirupama, the Rashtrakuta king Dhruva (780–793). N. Venkataramanayya dated him about 775–800. The Kollipara copper plates record his gift of a village to a Saiva teacher of Eleswaram, but Venkataramanayya doubted that they are genuine.

Arikesari I was the second known chief of the Chalukyas of Vemulavada, a family that ruled the country round Vemulavada in today’s Karimnagar district.1 He lived at the end of the 8th century, when his overlords, the Rashtrakutas, were at war with the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi.1 His family remembered him for one deed: the conquest of Vengi.23

Family

Arikesari was the elder of the two sons of Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla I, and he succeeded his father.1 His younger brother Biragriha was a friend of the Rashtrakuta king Govinda III.2 N. Venkataramanayya noted that both brothers and all their descendants accepted the Rashtrakuta kings as their overlords.4

Pampa’s poem Vikramarjunavijaya names Arikesari’s sons as Narasimha and Bhadra-Deva.5 Narasimha I succeeded him.6 In Venkataramanayya’s count, Arikesari III, the last king of the line, was seventh in descent from him.78

The conquest of Vengi

The Vemulavada inscription of Arikesari II says that Arikesari I conquered Vengi.2 The Parbhani plates of Arikesari III add Trikalinga, the country to the north-east.2 Pampa praised him too. In B. Lewis Rice’s translation of 1898, Pampa says: “Into Nirupama-Deva’s kingdom did Arikesari, joined by the ministers of the country, penetrate and inscribed his name on the walls at the points of the compass.”5

Venkataramanayya took Nirupama-Deva to be the Rashtrakuta king Dhruva, who ruled from 780 to 793.21 He read Pampa as saying that the conquest of Vengi took place in Dhruva’s reign.2 This link is the main reason for his dates for Arikesari, about 775–800.21

In Venkataramanayya’s account, the war had a cause. The Eastern Chalukya king Vishnuvardhana IV had helped Dhruva’s brother Govinda II in a civil war.3 When Dhruva won the throne, he sent Arikesari, whose lands bordered Vengi, to punish Vishnuvardhana.3 The Eastern Chalukya records say nothing of this war.3 Venkataramanayya took their silence as support for the Vemulavada claim.3 Vishnuvardhana IV made peace by giving his daughter Silamahadevi to Dhruva in marriage.3 Nothing more is known of Arikesari’s deeds.3

The Kollipara plates

The Kollipara plates are five copper plates with a seal showing a boar, the moon and perhaps the sun, and the name “Arikesari”.9 M. Somasekhara Sarma edited them in the Telugu journal Bharati, and Venkataramanayya printed them again in 1953.9

They record that King Arikesari, son of Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla, gave the village of Belmoga in the Ramadu district to Mugdhasivacharya.10 This teacher belonged to a branch of the Kalamukha sect of Saivas. He lived at Eleswaram, “the northern gateway” of the Srisailam hill.1108 The plates praise Arikesari as a learned king, skilled in grammar, law, the care of elephants (gaja-tantra), medicine and archery.310 They give him the titles Samastalokasraya, Tribhuvanamalla, Raja-Trinetra and Sahasa-Rama.3

Venkataramanayya doubted that the plates are genuine.118 Their family tree starts four generations before Vinayaditya, with Satyasraya-Ranavikrama, whom he took for Pulakesin I of Badami.1211 He thought the three names in between were invented.11 He also read a verse about the donee as giving the date Kali 4121, that is 1019–20.8 By then, he pointed out, the family had been gone for about fifty years.8 If Eleswaram did lie in Arikesari’s lands, he added, his rule reached the Nalgonda district.3

Where the sources disagree

  • Pampa’s words. Rice’s translation has Arikesari entering “Nirupama-Deva’s kingdom”.5 Venkataramanayya read Pampa as dating the conquest of Vengi to the time of Nirupama, that is Dhruva.2
  • The date of the Kollipara plates. In his edition Venkataramanayya placed their letters in the middle of the 9th century.10 He also read the verse about the donee as a date of 1019–20, which he thought “does not militate against” the letters.8 Either way, he held, the record is later than Arikesari I.8

Footnotes

  1. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 10 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  4. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 17, note 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  5. B. Lewis Rice (ed.), The Pampa Bharata or Vikramarjuna Vijaya of Pampa (1898), introduction, p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  7. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 9, genealogical table (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  8. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  9. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 73, introduction to the Kollipara plates (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 74 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

Dynasties

Chalukyas of Vemulavada

c. 750–973 CE

The Chalukyas of Vemulavada ruled the Sabbi country of northern Telangana, today's Karimnagar district, from their capital Vemulavada (Lembulavataka). They served the Rashtrakutas as subordinate rulers from about 750 to about 970. Their records begin with Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla, who is said to have bathed his elephants in oil at Podana (Bodhan). Arikesari II (about 930–955) supported the Kannada poet Pampa, and Somadeva Suri wrote his Yasastilaka in 959 in the town of Arikesari's son. Their rule ended when the Chalukyas of Kalyani took control of Telangana before 973.

References

Sources (2)
  1. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (opens in a new tab), The Archaeological Department, Government of Hyderabad (printed at the G. S. Press, Madras), 1953, pp. 7–10, 17, 19–21, 73–75. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  2. B. Lewis Rice (ed.), The Pampa Bharata or Vikramarjuna Vijaya of Pampa: An Ancient Jaina Poem of 941 A.D. (Bibliotheca Carnatica) (opens in a new tab), Mysore Government Central Press, Bangalore, 1898, Introduction, p. 2. B. Lewis Rice's summary of Pampa's genealogy. [Public domain]

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