Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/401

KISE OF THE CHALUKYAS 351 Chalukya dynasty. The Chalukyas appear to have been a race of Rajputs from the north, who imposed their rule upon the Dravidian inhabitants of the Deccan table- land. The dynasty was founded by a chieftain named Pulikesin I, who made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Badami in the Bijapur District, about 550 A. D., and established a principality of modest dimensions. He aimed, however, at more extended power, and is said to have asserted his claim to a para- mount position by celebrating an asvamedha, or horse- sacrifice. His sons, Kirttivarman and Mangalesa, extended the possessions of the family both eastward and westward. The clans more or less completely subjugated by the former include the Mauryas of the Konkan, the strip of coast between the Western Ghats and the sea, who claimed descent 1 from the ancient imperial Maurya dy- nasty. The succession to Mangalesa was disputed between his son and one of the sons of Kirttivarman. The lat- ter, having overcome his rival, ascended the throne of Vatapi as Pulikesin II in 608 A. D., and was formally crowned in the following year. For the space of twenty years or more this able prince devoted himself to a career of aggression directed against all the neighbour- ing states. On the west and north, the Kings of Lata (Southern Gujarat), Gurjara (Northern Gujarat and Rajputana), Malwa, and the Mauryas of the Konkan felt the weight of Pulikesin 's arm. In the east he drove the Pallavas from Vengi, be-