CHALUKYA  , the name of an

Indian dynasty which ruled in the Deccan from A.D . 55o to 750, and again from 973 to 1190 . The Chalukyas themselves claimed to be Rajputs from the north who imposed their rule on the Dravidian inhabitants of the Deccan tableland, and there is some evidence for connecting them with the Chapas, a branch of the foreign Gurjaras . The dynasty 'was founded by a chief named Pulakesin I., who mastered the town of Vatapi (now Badami, in the Bijapur district) about 55o . His sons extended their principality east and west; but the founder of the Chalukya greatness was his grandson Pulakesin II., who succeeded in 6o8 and proceeded to extend his rule at the expense of his neighbours . In 6og he established as his viceroy in Vengi his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana, who in 615 declared his independence and established the dynasty of Eastern Chalukyas, which lasted till 1070 . In 62o Pulakesin defeated Harsha (q.v.), the powerful overlord of northern India, and established the Nerbudda as the boundary between the South and North . He also defeated in turn the Chola, Pandya and Kerala kings, and by 63o was beyond dispute the most powerful sovereign in the Deccan . In 642, however, his capital was taken and he himself killed by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman . In 655 the Chalukya power was restored by Pulakesin's son Vikramaditya I.; but the struggle with the Pallavas continued until, in 740, Vikramaditya II. destroyed the Pallava capital . In 750 Vikramaditya's son, Kirtivarman Chalukya, was overthrown by the Rashtrakutas . CHALYBITE In 973, Taila or Tailapa IL (d .

995), a

scion of the royal Chalukya race, succeeded in overthrowing the Rashtrakuta king KakkaII., and in recovering all the ancient territory of the Chalukyas with the exception of Gujarat . He was the founder of the dynasty known as the Chalukyas of Kalyani . About A.U. r000 a formidable invasion by the Chola king Rajaraja the Great was defeated, and in 1052 Somesvara I., or Ahamavalla (d. ro68), the founder of Kalyani, defeated and slew the Chola Rajadhiraja . The reign of Vikramaditya VI., or Vikramanka, which lasted from 1076 to 1126, formed another period of Chalukya greatness . Vikramanka's exploits against the Hoysala kings and others, celebrated by the poet Bilhana, were held to justify him in establishing a new era dating from his accession . With his death, however, the Chalukya power began to decline . In 1156 the commander-in-thief Bijjala (or Vijjana) Kalachurya revolted, and he and his sons held the kingdom till 1183 . In this year Somesvara IV . Chalukya recovered part of his patrimony, only to succumb, about 1190, to the Yadavas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas of Dorasamudra . Henceforth the Chalukya rajas ranked only as petty chiefs . See J . F .

Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts; Prof . R . G . Bhandarker, " Early History of the Deccan," in the Bombay Gazetteer (1896), vol. i. part ii.; Vincent A . Smith, Early His-t. of India (Oxford, 1908), pp . 382 if .