Person · Chalukya emperor · India
Pulakeshin II
Also known as Pulakesin II, Pulakeshin
Pulakeśin II of the Chalukyas of Vatapi (reigned c. 610-642 CE) is the only south-Indian ruler to have defeated Harshavardhana of Kannauj in open battle (c. 618 CE on the Narmada), the campaign that fixed the Narmada as the long-running political boundary between northern and peninsular India. He also sent a formal embassy to the Sassanian emperor Khosrow II (Parvīz) around 625 CE and received a return Persian embassy; the reception of the Persian embassy is traditionally identified with the painted procession of foreign dignitaries in Cave 1 at Ajanta — one of the few first-hand India-Iran diplomatic contacts commemorated in surviving art. His own account of this embassy is referred to in the 7th-century Aihole inscription of his court-poet Ravikirti.
- Date
- 610–642
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Chalukya
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (2)
- Court associationCtesiphon
Pulakeśin II sent a formal embassy to the Sassanian emperor Khosrow II (Parvīz) at Ctesiphon around 625 CE and received a return Persian embassy at Vatapi; the reception of the Persian embassy is traditionally identified with the painted procession of foreign dignitaries in Cave 1 at Ajanta.
- OpposedHarshavardhana
Pulakeśin II defeated Harshavardhana’s army on the Narmada around 618 CE, the only time Harsha was defeated in open battle, and fixed the river as the long-running political boundary between northern and peninsular India. Harsha’s expansion south was halted; Pulakeśin took the title Dakshiṇāpatha-paṭika, Master of the Southern Road.
Sources
Standard biography.
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