An encyclopedia of Indian civilization.

Sindas of Yelburga

The Sindas were a feudatory family of northern Karnataka under the Western Chalukyas, ruling from Yelburga and other seats between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.


The record

Several Sinda branches are attested by Kannada inscriptions across northern Karnataka, the principal one at Yelburga in the Koppal district. They served the Chalukyas of Kalyāṇi as provincial governors and military commanders, married into the imperial family, and endowed Śaiva and Jain establishments.

The dynasty claimed nāga descent, and a serpent appears on their emblem.

After the Chalukya collapse the Sindas continued briefly under the Seunas and Hoysalas before disappearing in the thirteenth century. Their inscriptions are useful to historians less for the family than for what they record incidentally: land transactions, village assemblies, tolls, and the terms on which temples held property.

Further reading

  • Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
  • Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. The Colas. University of Madras, 1955
  • Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. A History of South India. Oxford University Press, 1955
  • Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
  • Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004

See also

This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.