Chalukya - the name without which no part of India's ancient history is complete.
There are many beliefs regarding the origin of the name "
CHALUKYA".
One says, it is the name of the warrior who was born from the Agnikund of Abu,
and thus his descendent's were called Chalukyas. This beliefs is based on the concept
of Agnikula Rajputs.
Second theory, which is also based on fiction as the first one, says that, Lord Brahma has created a warrior by taking Gangajal in his "
chuluk" (palm) and ordered him to protect
mankind from the "
Asurs". Being created from Brahma's
chuluk, he was called
Chalukya. Most south Indian Kings belonging to Chalukyan family had followed this belief.
Another theory which is not much famous, but is believed to be near true says that, in the lineage of Arjun,the famous warrior from Mahabharat, there was a King named Chalukya, and after his name, his descedents were called Chalukyas. This theory gets some support from history of Solankis of Gujarat, which also mentions lunar race of Solankis, descendents of Arjun.
Gaurishankar Ojha, most famous historian of Rajputana after
Col. James Tod, had written a book "
Early history of Solankis". In this book, he had given many accounts of ancient Chalukyan inscriptions which says that Chalukyas are of Lunar race ("
Chandra Vanshis").
In history of both Chalukya families(South and Gujarat) mentions that their ancestors were ruling in the northern part of India, near Ayodhya and from there they had migrated to South and Central India. Chalukyan
King Rajraj's inscription says that "After Udayan, there were 59 Chakravarti Kings in Ayodhya, then
King Vijayaditya,of this lineage attacked Southern king Trilochan Pallav. Vijayaditya was killed in the battle, his queen, was given sheltered by a Brahmin, where Vijayaditya's son
Vishnuvardhan was born. From Visnhuvardhan, all southern Chalukya kings were descended.
History of Gujarat mentions that
Raj and Beej, both came from
Kalyani. Most historians have mistakenly took this Kalyani as the famous Kalyani, capital of a strong Chalukyan Kingdom in Southern India. Researchers have shown that there exist a place
Kalyankataka, mentioned in
Prabandchintamani, Ratnamala and many other books, is believed to be in Vindya ranges in Central India. The bard of
Roopnagar, the Jagir Solanki Rajputs in Mewar, traces lineage of his masters to the kings, who ruled near banks of
Soram river, which is in central India.Inscriptions of
Kaluchari Kings of Central India describes that this place was under the supremacy of Chalukyan Kings. Thus, the belief that Chalukya of Gujarat and Southern India, shares a common lineage and both were migrated from North-central India. Though they have got separated many years before, but shares their title.
The Chalukya brothers from Kalyankataka, migrated to Gujarat and established a dynasty, which was one of the most powerful and famous dynasty of Indian history. This dynasty had changed the future of Gujarat and its surrounding areas.
In the western India, people pronounces "Cha" as "Sa". When the Chalukya Kings migrated to Gujarat, the name Chalukya was pronounced in local language "
Salukya, Saluki", and later got changed to
Solanki. There are many maratha families in Maharasthra which still have their title as "
Saluki or
Salunke". In the inscription, which were written in Sanskrit, it was spelled correct "
Chalukya", but in local language it got variations and now got a common pronounciation "Solanki". From the period, when the history was started to be written in local languages and the name was written as it was spelled "Solanki".
There are some difference in the Southern and Northern Chalukyas, as the
gotra of Southern Chalukyas is "
Manavya" and of Northern Chalukya is "
Bhardwaj". The family insignia is also different. The clan deity is also different, Southern family worhips
Lord Vishnu as their clan deity and the Northern family worhsipped
Lord Somnath as their clan deity. But these difference occured due to their different ruling areas. Their is a large difference in both the cultures, thus these differences can occur. Besides these differences, both the families share a common thing, a "
Shwet Chattra" which is believed to be their ancient insignia. Though, now a days, the trace of southern family is hard to find, but the northern family is still holding much of its patrimony, mostly in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan, especially in Mewar.
