News Excerpt:

Two Badami Chalukya temples at least 1,300-1500 years old and a 1200-year-old label inscription were recently discovered in Mudimanikyam village along the banks of Krishna in Nalgonda district in Telangana.

About the Temples:

• Temples are located at the end of the village, they date back to between 543 AD and 750 AD, corresponding to the rule of the Badami Chalukyas.
• These temples are constructed in Kadamba Nagar Style in the Rekha Nagar format. 
• These temples are the only example of such architecture in Telangana.

About the Label inscription:

• The Label inscription, dating back to the 8th or 9th century AD, also from the Badami Chalukya period, reads as “Gandaloranru” and is inscribed on a pillar of a group of five temples in the village.
• The precise meaning was not clear but ”Ganda” in Kannada also means ‘Hero’. So it could be a heroic title.

About Chalukya Dynasty:

• The rise of the Chalukyas marks an important milestone in the history of South India and a golden age in the history of Karnataka. 
• The political atmosphere in South India shifted from smaller kingdoms to large empires with the rise of Badami Chalukyas. 
• For the first time in history, a South Indian kingdom took control and consolidated the entire region between the Kaveri and the Narmada rivers. 
• The rise also saw the birth of efficient administration, a rise in overseas trade and commerce, and the development of a new style of architecture called Vesara. 
• Around the ninth century, it also saw the growth of Kannada as a language of literature in the Jaina Puranas, Veerashaiva Vachanas, and Brahminical traditions. 
• The eleventh century saw the birth of Telugu literature under the patronage of the Eastern Chalukyas.
• The Chalukya dynasty ruled large parts of southern and central India between the sixth and twelfth centuries. 
• During that period, they ruled as three closely related, but individual dynasties. 
• The Chalukyas of Badami, who ruled between the sixth and the eighth century, and the two sibling dynasties of Chalukyas of Kalyani or the Western Chalukyas and the Chalukyas of Vengi or the Eastern Chalukyas.

• The earliest dynasty, known as the Badami Chalukyas, ruled from their capital Badami from the middle of the sixth century. 
• The Badami Chalukyas began to assert their independence at the decline of the Kadamba kingdom of Banavasi and rapidly rose to prominence during the reign of Pulakesi II. 
• After the death of Pulakesi II, the Eastern Chalukyas became an independent kingdom in the eastern Deccan. They ruled from the capital Vengi until about the eleventh century.
• In the western Deccan, the rise of the Rashtrakutas in the middle of the eighth century eclipsed the Chalukyas of Badami before being revived by their descendants, the Western Chalukyas in the late tenth century and then they ruled till the end of the twelfth century.