Vijayaditya II | |
Succession: | Crown Prince of the Badami Chalukya dynasty |
Moretext: | 738—753 |
Father: | Kirtivarman II |
Birth Date: | c. 738 CE |
Birth Place: | Vātāpi |
Death Date: | Unknown (after 774 CE) |
Death Place: | Unknown |
Vijayaditya II[1] (born CE), son of Kirtivarman II, was crown prince of the Badami Chalukya dynasty until its destruction in 753 by the Rashtrakutas. The young prince narrowly escaped a grim fate at Vātāpi (Badami) by fleeing south.[2]
At a young age, Vijayaditya II married a princess from the neighboring Ganga kingdom, a subordinate kingdom to the southwest. Meanwhile, his father Kirtivarman II was plagued by intense outside pressure: by the Pandays under Rajasimha in the south, and Rashtrakutas under Dantidurga in the north. In 750 CE, the Chalukyas conceded their southern provinces to Rajasimha in a huge defeat at Veṇbai.[3] When Dantidurga's army reached Vātāpi in 753, Vijayaditya II and his wife escaped the bloodshed by fleeing to Ganga territory, where he lived for many years by the grace of the Ganga king Sripurusha. He departed on a journey north in 774 CE, after which his whereabouts are unknown.
Vijayaditya II's descendant, Tailapa II, would go on some 220 years later to found the Western Chalukya Empire, reviving the lost dynasty.[4]