Vikramaditya V (Chalukya of Kalyani)

Vikramaditya V was a king of the Chalukyas of Kalyani, who reigned for a few years from about 1008.¹² J. F. Fleet found no history in the records of his reign that he knew.³ But a pillar inscription later found at Chilkur, near Hyderabad, shows his commander governing that country and the king at war with Malava.⁴⁵

Who he was

Vikramaditya V was the eldest son of Dasavarman, a younger brother of Satyasraya.¹ Dasavarman himself did not reign, so the throne passed from the uncle to the nephew.¹ Fleet thought that Vikramaditya probably came to the throne in 1009, while Robert Sewell put it in 1008.¹² His title was Tribhuvanamalla, “the wrestler of the three worlds”.¹ His youngest brother, Jayasimha II, followed him.³

The Chilkur pillar

A square pillar with a long inscription was found at Chilkur, about twenty miles from Hyderabad on the road to Vikarabad.⁴ It was later kept in the Khazana Buildings at Golconda.⁴ C. T. M. Kotraiah edited it in Epigraphia Andhrica, as reprinted in Epigraphia Telanganica.⁴ It is a Jaina record of a gift to the Tirthankara Parsvanatha, in Kannada prose and Sanskrit verse.⁵

The record names the king only as Tribhuvanamalla, a title borne by both Vikramaditya V and Vikramaditya VI.⁴ Kotraiah assigned it to Vikramaditya V, because it makes the king a rival of Bhoja of Malava.⁴ He restored the damaged year as Saka 934, which fell on 25 September 1012.⁴

The inscription says that Tribhuvanamalla was then camped on the bank of a stream called Payani.⁵ He meant to conquer the north and to uproot Bhojadeva of Malava.⁵ The donor was the great commander Padmanabhayya, who governed the Lombulike Seventy division.⁵ Kotraiah thought that Chilkur was the headquarters of that division.⁵

Pampa Permadi

At Nandikandi, in the Medak district, a record of 23 December 1014 belongs to Vikramaditya’s reign.⁶ In it Pampa Permadi gave a village to the god Namesvara.⁶ The epigraphy report for 1961–62 noted that a Pampa-permanadi also appears under Somesvara I in 1050–51.⁷ If they were one man, the report said, he held office for fifty-five years.⁷

Where the sources disagree

• His accession. About 1009 (Fleet), or 1008 (Sewell).¹²
• Which Tribhuvanamalla? Kotraiah gave three reasons for Vikramaditya V: the rivalry with Bhoja, an inscription of Saka 934 at Kotavumachgi, and the name of the same commander in a record of Saka 933.⁴ A record of 1096, of Vikramaditya VI’s time, has another man, Kumara Jayasimhadeva, in charge of the Lombulike Seventy.⁴

Footnotes

1. 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)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 58 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

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

4. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 107, No. 37, reprinting C. T. M. Kotraiah, “Chilkur Pillar-Inscription of Chalukya Vikramaditya V”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974), pp. 50–55. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

5. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 108, reprinting Kotraiah, Epigraphia Andhrica II. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 105, Chalukyas of Kalyana No. 34, summarising Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Medak District (2001), pp. 30–32. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 106, No. 36, summarising the Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy for 1961–62, pp. 19 and 49. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²