Somesvara II (Chalukya of Kalyani)

Somesvara II, called Bhuvanaikamalla, was a king of the Chalukyas of Kalyani from 1068 to 1076.¹² Telangana was then part of the Chalukya kingdom, and records of his short reign are found across it.³⁴⁵ His reign ended when his brother defeated him and his ally, the king of Vengi.²

Prince and king

Somesvara II was the eldest son of Somesvara I.⁶ In 1053, in his father’s lifetime, he governed the Belvola and Purigere districts in the Kannada country.⁶ An inscription at Mulgund gives him the title “lord of Vengi, the best of towns”.⁶ J. F. Fleet explained such titles by the provinces that each prince governed.⁶

His father drowned himself in the Tungabhadra.¹ Somesvara II succeeded at once, and his brother Vikramaditya did not oppose him at first.¹ Fleet knew about twenty records of the reign, which he called uneventful except for quarrels within the family.¹

Records in Telangana

At Kolanupaka, a record of 1070 says that the emperor Bhuvanaikamalla was ruling from his capital at Kampili.³ By order of his subordinate Asagamarasa, a pillar was set up at Butugapalli, in the Kollipaka district.³ It declared that the reddi-manya (land held by the village headman) was free of all taxes, as by old custom.³ A Telugu and Kannada record of 1075 calls Asagamarasa the governor of the Kollipaka Seven Thousand.⁷ Asagamarasa bore the old Rashtrakuta titles Rattaradheya and “lord of Lattalur”.⁷ He gave a merchant of Kollipaka, “the capital”, the tolls of the place and house sites in front of the palace.⁷

At Alampur, in 1073, the Choda chief Chiddana gave land to the god Brahmesvara.⁵ He governed four districts along the Tungabhadra, among them the Pedakal Eight Hundred, under Somesvara II “from Bankapura”.⁵ See the Alampur inscription of 1073.

Other records of his reign come from Palamuru, in Telugu (1071), and from Bodhan (1072).⁸⁴ The Bodhan record is an epitaph for a Jaina teacher named Chandraprabhadeva.⁴ A record of 1076 at Inavolu, in the Warangal district, was issued a few months before Vikramaditya VI overthrew him.⁹

The fall

Fleet tells the end from the Vikramankadevacharita of the poet Bilhana.² Rajiga, “the lord of Vengi”, seized the Chola throne at Kanchi.² Fleet identified Rajiga with the Eastern Chalukya king Kulottunga I.² Rajiga persuaded Somesvara II to join him against Vikramaditya.² Vikramaditya won the battle, Rajiga fled and Somesvara was taken prisoner.²

Vikramaditya at first meant to set his brother free and give him back the throne, Bilhana says.² But he then had himself crowned, and Fleet wrote that Somesvara’s later fate is not known.² See Vikramaditya VI and Kulottunga I.

Where the sources disagree

• The title “lord of Vengi”. Fleet at first took the Vengi title to mean that Somesvara’s mother was an Eastern Chalukya princess.⁶ Later he gave up this view, because the Gadag inscriptions say that Somesvara and his brothers had one mother.⁶
• His capital. The Kolanupaka record of 1070 has him ruling from Kampili.³ The records of 1073 and 1075 have him ruling from Bankapura.⁵⁷
• The Kolanupaka date of 1070. The record gives Saka 980, which falls in his father’s reign.³ The editors took the cyclic year as correct and dated it to 4 July 1070.³

Footnotes

1. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 442 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 445 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 176, No. 167, summarising Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda District II (1994), pp. 12–17. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

4. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 178, No. 171. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series 3, 1961), p. 35, No. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased except for the short phrase quoted. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 440 and note 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 186, No. 180, summarising Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda District II (1994), pp. 17–21. Cite-only; paraphrased except for the short phrases quoted. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 177, No. 168. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

9. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 188, No. 183, summarising Indian Archaeology 1980–81: A Review, p. 79. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩