The Chalukyas (Calukyas) are the most significant of the myriad ruling families of the Deccan (i.e., peninsular India) between the fourth and seventh centuries—including the Nalas, the Kalacuris, the Gangas, and the Kadambas.
The Western Chalukyas’ rule as emperors in the Deccan began in 543 with Pulakesin I, a petty chieftain of Pattadakal in the Bijapur district, who had taken and fortified the hill fort of Vatapi (modern Badami) and seizes control of the territory between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers and the Western Ghats.
After military successes farther north, his son Kirtivarman I (reigned 566–597) secures the valuable Konkan coast, the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore.
The initial phase of the South Indian style of Karnataka temple architecture, as in Tamil Nadu, opens with the rock-cut Brahmanical and Jaina cave temples, featuring elaborate interior decorations.
Of the elaborate and richly sculptured group at Badami (known as Vatapi in ancient times and the first capital of the Chalukya kings), one cave temple is dated 578.
