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(Study Material) Indian History: CHALUKYAS OF BADAMI OR EARLY/WESTERN

Indian History: CHALUKYAS OF BADAMI OR EARLY/WESTERN

CHALUKYAS OF BADAMI OR EARLY/WESTERN

"Telephone Director" is the epithet used by a Chinese scholar to summarise the nature of the history of India. To any syperficial observer this striking epithet betrays weaknesses of India historical material, and in particular the meager date relating to dynasties like the western Chalykyas. But truly speaking the variegated nature of Indian history is more occasioned by the vastness of the country than anyting else. Besides, the essential harmony and the subtlecontinuity of Indian history are overlooked because of non-appreciation of its underlying currents.

The origin of Chalukyas (early/western/Badami/Vatapi) is controversial. Bilhana, the author of Vikramanka-deyagharita, the court poet of Vikramaditya VI, and the later Chalukya inscriptions, lay claim to Ayodhya as their ancestral home. Some regard them as related to the Gurjaras. What ever might be their origin, by the mid 6th century A.D., pulakesin I carved out a small area around Vatapi or Badami. He performed an asvamedha ceremony. His successor was kirtivarman who conquered both konkan and north Kerala. Many other conquests are attributed to him but the claim cannot be substantiated. His successor was Mangalesa who conquered the Kadambas and the Gangas. He was killed and succeeded by his nephew, Pulakesin. The Aihole inscription of Pulakesin Ii deals with the history of this dynasty.

The Chalukya power reached its zenith under Pulakesin II (609 to 642 A.D.). To begin with, he subjugated his rebellious feudatories and neighbours. He Captured the capital of the Kadambas; overawed the Ganges of Mysore; and subdued the Mauravas of North Konkan. The latas of Gujarat, the Malavas, and the Gurjars also submitted to him. King harsha ws defeated by him. Another victim was the Pallava king, Mahendra varman. The Cholas, the Keralas and the Pandyas submitted to him. He occupied Pistapura and installed his Brother, Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, as his representative. But in 642 A.D. the Pallava king, Narasimha Varman, stormed Vatapi and probably killed pulakesin II, this ws followed by a periof of confusion from 642 to 655 A.D.

Pulkesin II maintained friendly relations with Khusru II, the king of Persia. The reception given to the Persian Mission is depicted in one of the Ajanta cave paintings. Hieun-Tsand visited his kingdom. He describe it as rich and fertile. "The inhabitants were proud-spirited and war-like, grateful for favour and revengeful for wrongs, self-sacrificing towards suppliants in distress and sanguinary to death with any who trated them insultingly." About Pulkesin II, the traveler observes, "His plans and undertakings are widespread and his munificient actions are felf over a great distance.

After his death, the Chalukya dynasty was in an eclipse, His son Vikramadiya I (655 to 680 A.D.) plundered the Pallava capital, Kanchi. Vikramaditya's successors, Vinayaditya and Vijayditya, were powerful rulers. During the reign of Vikramaditya II the Pallavas were once more defeated. Probably, he drove back the Arab intrusion into southern Gujarat. His son, Kirti, Varman II, was defeated by the Rashtrakuta ruller, Dantidurga, in 753 A.D. and with him the history of the dynasty to an end.

Regarding their achievements, the first was their maritime power. It is said that Pulkasin, with a hundred ships, attacked and captured the capital ofa bostile state. The central government of Chalukyas exercised a paternalistic control over village administration. This is unlike the administrative practices of south India. The Chalukyas recieveda limited income from land. Added to this, the earnings from tradewere not considerable. Muc of what the State earned was spent on army. The standing army was supplemented and cavalry. Often, army officers were sued in civil administration. Whenver an emergency arose.

Regarding religion, the Chalukya kings were Hindu brahmins but they respected other faiths too. The Chinese traveler noticed more than one hunred Buddhist monasteries. Buddhism was on the decline although Hieun-Tsang opined that it was popular. Jainsim enjoyed royal patronage. Buddism gradually gave way to Jainism and Brahminis. Sacrifices were given great importance and many treaties were written on them. The king himself performed a number of sacrifices including Asvamedha and Vajpeya. Despite this stress on the orthodox form of Hindu religion, the Puranic version grew popular. It was this popularity that gave momentum to the bulding of temples in honour of Vishnu. Shiva and other gods.

Regarding architechture, the Chalukyas perfected the art of stone-building stone finally joined without maortar. Under the auspices of the Chalukyas, the Buddhists and the brahmins built cave temples. The cave frescoes began earlier but thefinest speciments of them belonged to the Chalukyaa are of the 5th and 6th centuries. The murals depict both religious and secular themes. In the first monastic hall of the Ajanta one mural depict the reception given toa Persian embassy by Pulakesin II. The temples of Chalukyas belong to the Deccan style. His tradition began earlier in the rock-cut temples of Elephanta. The aihole and Badami temples of the Chalukyas represent the Deccani style. This style reached its culmination in the Kailash temple of Ellora a Rashtrakuta achievement.

The cave temples of the Chalukyas were the counter-parts of Buddhists save temples as borne out bytheVishnu temple at Badami. Apart from this feature, the Chalukyan temples were stone-built-stone finely joined without morat like the temple of Shiva at Meguti. This temple has a prasasti on Pulakesin composed by Ravikriti. Out of all their temples, the best reserved is the Vishnu temple at Aihole. It bears an inscription of Vikramaditya II and is built on the lines of the Buddhists Cahitya-hall. One more temple is the favous Virupakasha temple at Pattadakal. This temple has a pillared mandapam or meeting place for people. The roof is supported by sixteen monolithic pillars with sculptured bracket capitals.

The Chalukyas erected a large number of temples at Aihole. This particular style was follwed in the close by towns and Badami and Pattadakal. Aihole had 70 temples, whereas, Pattadakal had 10 temples. In the latter are found the famous temples of Papanatha and Virupakasha. The walls of the temples are adorned with beautiful sculptures representing scenes of Ramayana.

After the eight century land grantswere made to these temples, a common feature of temple maintenance in South India. The evidence relating to this aspect is recorded on the walls of the temples. Also the Jaina followers erected some temples in Karnataka during the dyas of the Chalukays.
The Chalukya temples were an evolution of the gupta shirne. However, at the apex of their glory, the Chalukyan temples bear evidence to both the northern and Dravidian styles of architechture. The examples of this development are the rock-cut temples in Elephanta. The Kalidashnatha temple built during the days of Rashtrakutas is an example of transition from rock-cut to the free-standing style.

Sanksrit was thelanguage of the day. Vernaculars also came to be developed. An inscription of the seventh century mentions Kannada as the local language, and Sanskrit the language of the elite.

Thus, even though the delineation of the political history of the Chalukays is quite dull, their importance consists in their having continued the traditions of India. Thus, even though the history of India appears to be a Jig-saw puzzle, there is a pattern underlying it.

THE ARAB CONQUEST

The establishment of Arab rule in Sind in 712 A.D. was preceded by a number of efforts to penetrate India. The first military expedition was sent to Tahan near Bombay in 637. More were sent in the coming years against Broach and Debal. The view that the Arbas indeed were not interested in territorial acquisition till the ruler of Sind in 700 A.D. provoked them, is not accepted by the book 'A Comprehensive History of India'. This book relies on the authority of baladhuri, who is regarded as the most reliable authority on the subject. Accroding to the book, the Arabs made systematic inroads on the three kingdoms of Kabul, Zabul and Sind. Very often the first two were united in resisting the aggression of the Arabs. Baladhuri says that after 650 A.D. the Arabs entered India. One more expedition was sent by the Caliphate of Ali to conquer Kabul but was frusterated. Another attempt was made in 698 A.D., which was still less successful. The weakness of the Arabs was undoubtedly due to internal troubles and weakness of the Caliphate during the last days of Umayyids, but after the establishment of powerful Abbasid Caliphate the earlier designs were repeated. Kabul was conqured but again escaped from the control of the Caliphate. Zebul was conquered only in 870 A.D.
Although both Kabul and Zabul succumbed to Islam the heroic resistance they offered checked the spread of Islam into the Subcontinent. Fe countries in the world, that too small principalities like these, have defied the arms of Islam so bravely and for so long 2000 years.

Good number of details are found regarding the history of Sind in the 7th Century A.D. in Chachnama, a Persian translation of an old Arabicc history of the conquest of Sind by the Arabs. An expedition of the Arabs was sent against Debal some time before 643 A.D. Baladhuri speaks of Muslim victory but Chachnama says that the Muslims were defeated. The conquest of Sind was abandoned for some time. When then new Calipha Uthman attempted to conquer, he too left it after a setback. During the daysof Caliphate of Ali, a well-equipped Muslim Army came along the land route, According to Baladhuri, the Muslims were put to rout. After this, a series of expeditions were sent to conquer an outpost of Sind, which all ended in failure.

The Arabs resumed their aggression against Sind only after 705 A.D. An Arab ship fell in thehands of pirates near Debal. A Muslim governor deamanded their release and also the arrest of the pirates. It appears, Dehar refused to oblige. As a matter of fact, the governor for Iraq was appointed for both the areas of Hindi and Sind. For long time the Arabs chafed at their failure to conquer Sind. Thus, the governor Hajja merely seized the plicy as a pretext to defeat and conquer Sind.
After making elaborate preparation, Mohammad-Bin-Kasim, the son-in-law of Hajjaj, was sent with a well equipped army. He advanced to Makran and laid siege to Debal in 711 A.D. The capital was captured then, Muhammad advanced along the Indus to conquer the whole area. It appears that very often trachery led to the Arab conquest of Sind Muhammad advanced against Multan and succeeded in capturing it. According to Chachanam, Muhammad himself advanced to the frontier of Kashmir.

The triumph and career of Muhammad wa suddenly cut short by political changes at home. Since the new Caliph was the sworn enemy of Hajjaj. Muhammad was taken prisoner, insulted and tortured to death.

This development made Jaisimha, the son of Daher, to re-occupy Bahmansbad. The Caliph sent an army to subdue the rebels. They even parleyed with Jaisimha. Junaid, the Governor of Sind, defeated Jaisimha and took him prionser. Thus ended the dynasty of Daher and the independence of Sind.
The comperatively easy conquest of Muhammad, son of Kasim, should not make us forget the long resistance offered by Sind to the Arabs.

Later, Junaid sent several expeditions to the interior of India. They were signally defeated by the Pratihara kng Nagabhatta - I Pulakesin, the Chalukya chief of Gujarata, and probably also by Yasovarman. These defeats forced the Arabs to confine themselves to Sind. The Arabs lost control of Sind during the last years of Umayyids. The Abbasid Caliphs once again started to re-establish their power in Sind. A claim was made. The Arabs once again conquered Multan and Kashmir bu the evidence shows that Lalitadiya thrice defeated the Arabs. It was some time between 800 and 830 A.D. that the Arabs fully re-conquered the lost areas. It was during this period that the Arabs forces probably advanced as far as Chittor but the resistance offered by Indian kings probably forced them to retreat.
After the collapse fo the Abbasid power, Sind became virually independent and was divided into two independent states. Niehter of them could become powerful.

SIGNIFICANCE:

It is no longer believed that the Arab conqeust of Sind was a mere episode in the history of India. What this event reveals is the Sea change that cave over Hindu Civilisation by 1000 A.D. A few Muslim traders earlier settled in the Malabar region. But the might of Islam was experienced in Sind. This challenge was met by rulers of the day. It is now well-known that the political ambitions of the successors of Muhammad-bin-Kasim were chaeckmated by Lalitaditya, Bhoja and a few other rulers. This particular resistance bears testimony to the political consciousness of the day. It is this consciousness that was totally absent in India when Mahumud of Ghazni raided the country and soon he was followed by Ghori who succeeded in establishing Islamic rule in India. It is surprising to note that when the Sahiyas checkmated the Arab penetration in the north-west and rulers within India contained the penetration of Arabs in Sind, no concerted efforts were made by Indian rulers after 1000 A.D. to defeat the invaders except for the first battle of Tarain to some extent. Instead, we hear that Hinduism retreated into its own shell, a fact sharply revealed by the observations of Alberuni.

Apart from this significance, the Arab rule in Sind led to interaction between two cultures. It is held by some historians that Sind was the birt-place of later-day Sufism which in turn occasioned the emergence of the famous bhakti cult in the middle ages.

Apart from this consequence, the Arab conquest of sind also led to the transmission of Indian culture-Panchtantra and scientific lore of ancient India like the digital system and knowledge of medicine. It is to ba kept in mind that after the collapse of the Roman empire intellectuals began to gather in Baghbad, meaning city of god in Sanskrit. The intellectual speculations that the city facilitated by the interaction of Greek and Roman heritage with that of the Indian lay at the base of the Renaissance movement in Europe in the 16th century. "We know definitely from Masudind Ibn Hauqal that Arab settlers lived side by side with their Hindu fellow-citizens for many years on terms of amity and peace, and Amir Khusrav mentions that the Arab astronomer Abu Mashar come to Benaras and studied astronomy there for ten years.

Finally, the significance of the Arab conquest of Sind lies in the tolerance that was shown to Hinduism by Islam. Although jaziya was collected, the Arab governors chose to leave Hindu religious practices untouched. What India witnessed after the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni was not Islamic influence as pioneered by the Arabs but central-Asian culture of the Turkish, nomade who carried the banner of Islam. In other words, what the history of Arabs in Sind conveys is the fact that persecution of other religious was not the avowed doctrine of Islam..