Kalachuris of Māhiṣmatī

The Narmada kingdom

The early Kalachuris held a broad territory across Malwa, Gujarat, the Konkan and the northern Deccan, centred on Māhiṣmatī on the Narmada — a city named in the epics and one of the old crossings of the river. Their coins imitate Western Kṣatrapa types and their charters are dated in the era of 248 CE, which they inherited from the Traikūṭakas and which is now known by their name.

Kṛṣṇarāja, the first well-attested king, was a Śaiva, and the cave temples of Elephanta near Mumbai are attributed by many scholars to Kalachuri patronage in this period — including the great three-headed Sadāśiva that is among the most celebrated pieces of Indian sculpture. The attribution rests on style and on the find of Kṛṣṇarāja's coins at the site, and is not universally accepted.

Fall and afterlife

Buddharāja was defeated by Maṅgaleśa and then by Pulakeśin II of Bādāmi in the early seventh century, and the kingdom was broken up. The Kalachuri name reappears later in three separate houses — at Tripurī in the Chedi country, at Ratnapura, and at Kalyāṇi in the Deccan — all claiming Haihaya descent and all using the same era.

The Haihaya claim connects the family to the epic lineage of Kārtavīrya Arjuna of Māhiṣmatī, which is a genealogical assertion of the usual kind rather than a historical link.