Jagadekamalla II (Chalukya of Kalyani)

Jagadekamalla II was a king of the Chalukyas of Kalyani from about 1138 to 1150.¹² In his reign the Chalukyas still held Telangana, where many records name him.³⁴⁵ Historians link him with the rise of the Kakatiya chief Prola II, who served him in Telangana.⁶⁷

Who he was

Jagadekamalla II was the eldest son of Somesvara III.¹ His other name was Perma, and his records almost always call him Pratapachakravartin, “the valorous emperor”.¹ J. F. Fleet dated his accession to the end of 1138 or early 1139.² Fleet’s latest record of the reign falls in the winter of 1149–50, in his twelfth year.² A record of 1147 names Kalyana as his capital.² His younger brother Taila III followed him early in 1150.¹⁸

The campaign in Telangana

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry (1978) told the story of these years from the Telangana inscriptions.⁹⁶ In his account Kumara Tailapa, a prince of the royal family, held the Kandur country as his estate.⁹ In the last years of Somesvara III, he tried to make himself independent.⁹ A record of 1137 at Rachuru treats him as a sovereign king, ruling from Gangapura.⁹

By the time Jagadekamalla came to the throne, Parabrahma Sastry wrote, Telangana was in revolt.⁶ Soon after his accession the king marched there himself with an army.⁶ The Kakatiya Prola II, “the only loyal subordinate in the region”, led his armies against Tailapa.⁶ Prola captured the prince and let him go “out of loyalty and affection”.⁶ Tailapa then lost the Kandur country, which he had held for more than twenty-five years.⁶

Parabrahma Sastry dated Tailapa’s defeat between 1137, the year of the Rachuru record, and 1141.⁷ He found no evidence that Prola ever revolted against the Chalukyas.⁷ Instead, he wrote, Prola worked hard to uphold Jagadekamalla’s authority in Telangana.⁷

Records of his reign

Records of Jagadekamalla’s reign are found across Telangana.³⁴⁵

• At Gangapuram, in the Mahbubnagar district, merchants and their guilds made gifts to temples in 1141, 1143 and 1148.¹⁰⁴¹¹
• At Velupugonda and Siripuram, in the Medak district, local chiefs gave land in 1139 and 1140.³
• At Bodhan, a Kannada and Sanskrit record is dated 1140.³
• At Bollepalli, near Bhuvanagiri, a temple of Mailaradeva was built in 1147, “while the king ruled from Kalyanapura”.⁵
• At Kolanupaka, an undated record names the king’s officer Nannapayya at the temple of Chandikamba.¹²

Parabrahma Sastry took the Gangapuram records of 1141 and 1143 to show that the king had won back Tailapa’s capital.⁶ See the Gangapuram inscription of 1091.

Where the sources disagree

• Who was the captive? The Anumakonda inscription says that Prola captured “the glorious Tailapadeva, the ornament of the Chalukyas”.¹³ Fleet took him to be the king Taila III, Jagadekamalla’s brother.¹³ Parabrahma Sastry argued that he was Kumara Tailapa, captured in Jagadekamalla’s campaign.⁶⁷ See Taila III.
• The Gangapuram dates. The Catalogue of Inscriptions gives one record as 12 September 1148, in the nineteenth year; the Mahbubnagar volume of 2003 dates a similar record to 2 September 1148.¹¹

Footnotes

1. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 456 and note 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 457 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 333, Chalukyas of Kalyana Nos. 453–455. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 335, No. 457. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 337, No. 461, summarising Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda District I (1992), pp. 136–139. Cite-only; paraphrased except for the short phrase quoted. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 84. Cite-only; paraphrased except for the short phrases quoted. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 87. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 459 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

9. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 83. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 334, No. 456. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

11. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 338, No. 464. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

12. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 340, No. 469, summarising Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda District II (1994), pp. 83–84. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

13. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 462 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²