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Jayasimha II (Western Chalukya)

Western Chalukya king of Kalyani, called Jagadekamalla, who reigned from about 1015 to 1042 and fought the Chola king Rajendra I. His records name Kollipake, now identified with Kolanupaka in the Nalgonda district, as one of his minor capitals. An inscription of his reign at Kolanupaka is dated January 1033.

Jayasimha II was a king of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani, and J. F. Fleet found records of his reign from 1018 to 1042.1 He fought the Chola king Rajendra Chola I.1 His records name a minor capital called Kollipake, which later scholars found at Kolanupaka in Telangana.23

Family and coming to the throne

Jayasimha II was the youngest son of Dasavarman, a younger son of Taila II, and succeeded his eldest brother Vikramaditya V.456 Another brother, Ayyana II, is named in the genealogies but did not reign.6 Akkadevi, an elder sister of Jayasimha II, governed the Kisukad seventy district under him and was still in authority under his son.6

His biruda (title of valour) was Jagadekamalla, “the sole wrestler in the world”.6 His wife was Suggaladevi.6 In the Lingayat Channabasava-Purana, where the king appears as Desinga, she is said to have converted him from Jainism to the Shaiva faith.6

J. F. Fleet found records of his reign from 1018 to 1042.1 Robert Sewell numbers him Jayasimha III, and he thought that Jayasimha came to the throne in 1015.7

Wars with the Cholas

Several of Jayasimha’s records claim that he defeated the Chola king. The Miraj grant of 1024 says that he fought and subdued “the mighty Chola, the lord of the five Dramilas”. After that, during a campaign against the northern countries, his camp was pitched near Kolhapur.1 Fleet identified his Chola enemy as Rajendra Chola I.1 Rajendra’s records in turn claim victory over Jayasimha and the conquest of the whole Rattapadi country from him.1

Rajendra’s inscription at Thanjavur (then Tanjore), of his sixth year (1017–18), lists Banavasi and Kollippakkai among his conquests.8 Sewell understood that they had been taken from the Western Chalukya king, but he doubted that the king was really driven out of them.8 An editor’s note identifies Kollippakkai with Kulpak, between Hyderabad and Warangal.8

Sewell noted Chola claims of a victory over Jayasimha about 1019.910 He also noted inscriptions of 1021 and 1023 in the Bellary district, which show that Jayasimha was not driven out of that area as the Cholas claimed.910

Kollipake and Pottalakere

Fleet noted that the records do not name Jayasimha’s main capital.11 They mention as minor capitals Balagamve, Pottalakere and a place named Kollipake, “which has not yet been identified”.11 He identified Pottalakere with Dannayakanakere in the Bellary district.11

Later editors placed both towns in Telangana.23 P. B. Desai introduced the Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh in 1961.23 He wrote that the inscriptions found at Kolanupaka show that it was Kollipake, which he counted among the early capitals of the Western Chalukyas.23 He also wrote that an inscription at Patancheru establishes that Patancheru was the early Chalukya capital Pottalakere.23

Fleet himself noted that the Chola inscriptions mention a Kollippakkai.12 See Kolanupaka and Patancheru.

An inscription at Kolanupaka of the time of Jagadekamalla I is dated Saka 955 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), on a solar eclipse, and Desai equated the eclipse with 4 January 1033.13 The inscription records the grant of the village of Gadicherumula, in the Kollipake seven-thousand district, to the deity Nanni Kamiyavve.13

Succession

Jayasimha II was succeeded by his son, Somesvara I.12 He had also a daughter, Hammi or Avvalladevi, who married the Yadava prince Bhillama III.6

Footnotes

  1. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 436 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Desai, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1961), p. 17, No. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased except for the short phrase quoted. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. P. B. Desai, introduction to P. Sreenivasachar, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series 3, 1961), p. 5, No. 9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased except for the short phrase quoted. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 433 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 434 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 435 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  8. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 62, editor’s note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 63 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 64 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  11. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 437 and note 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 438 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. Desai, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1961), p. 19, No. 52 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Western Chalukyas of Kalyani

c. 973–1189 CE

A dynasty of the western Deccan that overthrew the Rashtrakutas in 973 and ruled from Kalyana (Kalyani) until about 1189. Telangana was part of their kingdom. Kannada inscriptions of their reigns run from Korapolu in the Medak district (973) to Alampur, Gangapuram, Kolanupaka and Hanamkonda, where the early Kakatiya chiefs, the Polavasa chiefs and the Kandur Chodas served them as feudatories. They fought the Cholas for Vengi for a century, and Vikramaditya VI was recognised as king there from 1118 to about 1126. After the Kalachuris took over in the 1150s, the Kakatiyas declared their own sovereignty in 1163.

References

Sources (3)
  1. J. F. Fleet, R. G. Bhandarkar and others (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II: History of the Konkan, Dakhan and Southern Maratha Country (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay, 1896, pp. 434–438. J. F. Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, chapter IV. [Public domain]
  2. Dr. P. SREENIVASACHAR, M.A., Ph. D. (London) & Prof. P. B. DESAI, M.A., Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series No. 3. KANNADA INSCRIPTIONS OF ANDHRA PRADESH (opens in a new tab), 1961, pp. 17, 19. P. B. Desai's summaries, Nos. 45 and 52; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  3. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 61–62, 66. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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