A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Vishnuvardhana IV (Eastern Chalukya)

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (764–799), son of Vijayaditya I and father of Vijayaditya II. His reign saw the first recorded clashes with the Rashtrakutas of the western Deccan: a Rashtrakuta grant of 770–71 claims that Govinda II humbled the lord of Vengi, while a later record has Govinda II calling the king of Vengi to his aid. Historians read these records in different ways.

Vishnuvardhana IV was the tenth king of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty of Vengi. All the later grants that give reign lengths agree that he reigned for 36 years.12 J. F. Fleet and Robert Sewell date the reign 764–799.13

Family and names

Vishnuvardhana IV was the son of Vijayaditya I.1 His grandfather was Vishnuvardhana III. His son and successor was Vijayaditya II, called Narendra-mrigaraja.1 One later grant calls him Vishnuraja, and three give him the title Maharaja.1 Sewell’s table gives him the surname Makaradhvaja, which he shared with the founder of the dynasty.3 The Tandivada grant of his son confirms that surname.4 A grant of Chalukya-Bhima I, examined in 1914, calls him Kali-Vishnuraja.5 A stone inscription at Selapadu in the Guntur taluk, dated in the 33rd year of a Vishnuvardhana, may belong to him or to his grandfather.6

The Rashtrakuta wars

In the middle of the eighth century the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed replaced the Chalukyas of Badami as the rulers of the western Deccan.7 Two of their records mention the king of Vengi in Vishnuvardhana’s reign, and they have been read in different ways.

  • The Alas plates (770–71). They say that the Rashtrakuta prince Govinda II was camped at the confluence of the Krishna and the Musi, on the edge of the Palnad, after humbling the lord of Vengi and taking from him his treasury, his forces and his country. Sewell took this as a real defeat of Vishnuvardhana IV, though not an annexation of his kingdom. He also noted that Fleet doubted whether the Alas plates were genuine, without denying that their information might be correct.8
  • The Paithan plates (794). These are a grant of Govinda III, nephew of Govinda II. In Sewell’s summary, they say that Govinda II had fought against the ruler of Malwa, the Pallava lord of Kanchi, the Ganga king and the ruler of Vengi, whom Sewell identified as Vishnuvardhana IV.9 Fleet read the same grant the other way round. In his account, Govinda II, trying to keep the throne against his younger brother Dhruva, called to his aid “the hostile kings of Malava, Kanchi, and Vengi, and of the Ganga country”.10

On Fleet’s reading the king of Vengi was an ally of a losing claimant to the Rashtrakuta throne. On Sewell’s, he was an enemy whom the Rashtrakutas had already defeated. Either way, Sewell concluded, the two powers were hostile to each other, and the hostility continued into the reign of Vishnuvardhana’s son.8

Footnotes

  1. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 239 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 336, table of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Annual Report on Epigraphy, for 1916–17 (1917), p. 117, paragraph 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1913–14 (G.O. No. 920, Public, 4 August 1914), p. 84, paragraph 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Annual Report on Epigraphy, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), p. 116, paragraph 21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II (1896), p. 393 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi

c. 615–1077 CE

A branch of the Chalukyas of Badami that ruled Vengi, the coastal country between the lower Godavari and Krishna, from the early 7th century. Its founder, Kubja Vishnuvardhana, was a younger brother of Pulakesin II. The kings fought the Rashtrakutas for two centuries. After about 1000 they were bound to the Cholas by marriage, and in 1070 their heir became the Chola emperor Kulottunga I. Their copper-plate grants record the length of every reign. The first Telugu literary work, Nannaya's Mahabharata, was written at their court in Rajahmundry.

References

Sources (6)
  1. R. C. Temple (ed.); article by J. F. Fleet, Indian Antiquary, Vol. XX (1891), incl. J. F. Fleet, 'The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings' (opens in a new tab), Education Society's Press, Bombay, 1891, pp. 100. J. F. Fleet, 'The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings' (1891). [Public domain]
  2. 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. 393. J. F. Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts (revised). [Public domain]
  3. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1910-11 to 1914-15 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 84 (report for 1914). [Public domain]
  4. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1915-16 to 1919-20 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1920, pp. 115–117 (report for 1916–17). [Public domain]
  5. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 239. E. Hultzsch, Pithapuram pillar inscription of Mallapadeva. [Public domain]
  6. 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. 30, 32, 336. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: