A revived name
This branch established itself at Hangal in the tenth century and governed the Banavāsi province — the same country the original Kadambas had ruled six centuries earlier — under Chalukya overlordship. Whether the descent they claimed was genuine cannot be determined; the reuse of a prestigious local name by an incoming or rising family was routine.
They were substantial builders, and the Tarakeshwara temple at Hangal is their principal surviving work, in the Western Chalukya idiom of lathe-turned pillars and stepped plans.
End
As Chalukya power collapsed at the end of the twelfth century the Hangal Kadambas were caught between the Seunas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas, and were extinguished in the thirteenth. Their history is a compact illustration of the feudatory's position in early medieval India: dependent for legitimacy on an overlord, and destroyed along with him.
Further reading
- Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
- Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple. Motilal Banarsidass, 1976
- Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
- Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. The Colas. University of Madras, 1955
- Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. A History of South India. Oxford University Press, 1955
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.