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Badami (Vatapi)

Town in northern Karnataka, the ancient Vatapi. It was the capital of the Chalukyas of Badami from the 6th to the 8th century. Pulakesin I acquired it, and Kirtivarman I adorned it with temples and finished its great Vaishnava cave temple. The Pallava Narasimhavarman I captured and ruined it about 642.

A wide blue lake curving below red sandstone cliffs topped with old walls, with white houses of the town along its shore under a clear sky.
A wide blue lake curving below red sandstone cliffs topped with old walls, with white houses of the town along its shore under a clear sky. · Lodo from Moscow, Russia (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab)

Badami, the ancient Vatapi, was the capital of the Chalukyas of Badami. Under Pulakesin II this dynasty conquered the Telugu coast, and he gave Vengi to his brother. The Aihole inscription calls Pulakesin I “the bridegroom of Vatapipuri”.1 It ends Pulakesin II’s conquests with his entry into “the city of Vatapi”.2

The Chalukya city

J. F. Fleet wrote that Pulakesin I acquired Vatapi.3 A later grant calls Kirtivarman I its “first maker”.3 Fleet took this to mean that Kirtivarman began to adorn the city with temples.3 The large Vaishnava cave temple there was finished in his time and under his orders.3

A Kanarese inscription on the rock outside the Vaishnava cave dates from the time of Mangalesa.4 In Fleet’s view it was the earliest Kanarese record to which a definite date can be given.4

Hiuen Tsang and the Pallavas

Fleet noted that the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang’s description of the capital of Pulakesin II does not fit Badami, which is 435 miles from Broach.5 He argued that the pilgrim was describing a northern town of the kingdom.5

The Pallava king Narasimhavarman I captured and ruined Badami, probably in 642.67 Fleet thought that the “destruction” meant above all the desecration of its Vaishnava temples.67 Robert Sewell adds that Narasimhavarman took the title Vatapikonda, “capturer of Vatapi”.8

Footnotes

  1. F. Kielhorn, “Aihole Inscription of Pulikesin II”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1901), p. 8, verse 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. Kielhorn, “Aihole Inscription” (1901), p. 11, verse 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 345 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 348 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 354 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 358 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 359 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased, except for the short phrase quoted. ↩

Photos

Dynasties

Chalukyas of Badami

c. 550–757 CE

Dynasty of the western Deccan that ruled from Vatapi (Badami) from about 550 to 757. Pulakesin II took Pishtapura (Pithapuram) and the Kolleru lake country about 615. He left his brother Vishnuvardhana in Vengi, where the Eastern Chalukya line began. Their grants and inscriptions show them holding the Guntur country in 631, the Kurnool and Alampur country under Vikramaditya I and his successors, and land in Nellore in 660. The Rashtrakuta Dantidurga overthrew the last king, Kirtivarman II, in the 750s.

People

Pulakesin II

c. 609–642 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (609–642), the son of Kirtivarman I. His Aihole inscription of 634–35 says that he humbled the Kalingas and Kosalas, took the fortress of Pishtapura (Pithapuram), ravaged 'the water of Kunala' (taken to be the Kolleru lake) and drove the Pallava king behind the walls of Kanchi. He gave the conquered Vengi country to his younger brother Vishnuvardhana, the founder of the Eastern Chalukyas. His Kopparam plates of about 631 grant land in the Guntur country. He died when the Pallava Narasimhavarman I took Badami, probably in 642.

Vikramaditya I (Chalukya of Badami)

c. 655–680 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (about 655–680), a son of Pulakesin II. He restored the kingdom after the Pallavas took Badami, fought three Pallava kings and took Kanchi. His copper-plate grants come from the Telugu country: Amudalapadu and Gadwal in today's Telangana, the Kurnool district, Talamanchi near Nellore, and Hyderabad. His Amudalapadu plates of 660 record his initiation into the Shaiva faith. A queen of his installed a linga at Alampur.

Dantidurga

c. 753–756 CE

Rashtrakuta king (about 753–756) who overthrew the Chalukyas of Badami and founded the Rashtrakuta supremacy of the Deccan. His Samangad grant of January 754 says that he won the sovereignty by conquering the Chalukya 'Vallabha'. An inscription at Ellora lists among the rulers he subdued those of Kalinga, Kosala and the Srisaila country, which J. F. Fleet took to be the Kurnool country.

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. 345, 348, 354, 358–359. J. F. Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts. [Public domain]
  2. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VI (1900–01) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1901, pp. 8, 11. F. Kielhorn, Aihole Inscription of Pulikesin II. Page 8 read in scan in.ernet.dli.2015.56212. [Public domain]
  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. 24. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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