Fall of Kalyani

Kalyani now is a small town in Karnataka near Bidar.In medieval times, it was the capital of Chalukya dynasty which had a large sway over Telangana, Karnataka and many other areas.They were contemporaries of Vengi chalukyas ruling at coastal Andhra and fought with them In the later years of their rule,they were thrown out briefly and commander Bijjala Kalachoorya userped the throne and became the king.He was the contemporary of Brahamanaidu, the prime Minister of Nalagamaraja of palanadu in 1180.Bijjala was a jain by faith and his prime minister Basaveswar was a shivite.Bijjala married sister of Basaveswara.,Basaveswara was the founder of militant veerasaiva sect and they were known as Lingayats .He used Govt funds to spread his faith and also used his official position to spread the new found faith mercilessly among masses.The king did not approve this and differences developed.The followers of Basaveswara murdered the king in his palace.This triggered a severe civil war betwen Lingayats and jains in which thousands were killed .Entire population including women and children took part in this mayhem and Kalyani became a burial groundBasaveswara earlier escaped from Kalyani before the murder and finally believed to have died at Srisailam or at a near by place .Basaveswara played great role in the spreading of Veera saiva sect which had no caste basis.However ,the militancy advocated by him created great religious disturbances in Andhra Pradesh in medieval times.There were many clashes between Vaishnavites and shivites.Kakateeya kings who ruled at Warangal till 13 century adapted shivism and Battle of Palandu fought during 11183-87 was the outcome of these religious rivalries. King Rudradeva of Warangal sent sizeable cavalry in support of Nalagmaraja.
Jainism which was a major religion in Telangana disappered almost completely and this is the reason forcomin up of scores of siva temples in Telangana and other Andhra areas.Even fall of Kakateeya rule was partly due to the outcome of conspiracies of jains who suffered during the later years of their rule.Unfortunately Telugu peole wasted their vauable time in these conspiracies of religion and brought doom to their state which was soon over run by mussalmans from North. When Prataparudra II of Kakateeya dynasty was attacked by forces of Tughlaq,he had no friends to support to fight aginst a common enemy ,The Yadavs from Devagiri were jubiliant and conspired with enemies from North and this resulted in the fall of Warangal.Even the Kapu ,Kamma and Velama and Reddy commanders of Prataparudra played great politics even on the battle fields and resulted in the capture of their kingPrataparudra to Tughlaq's forces. Even today politics in Andhra Pradesh is a shit pot wirh Kamma, kapu, Reddy , velama and all other lower castes undermining each other to drown others and capture political power.
Kalyani town which is religious town in Karnataka now near Bidar has lost all its glory during the religious battles and it is believed that Aurangzeb during his capaign in South destroyed the town fully. It is a center for Ligayats taht has major following in Karnataka.

Dr.Prabhakar Rao