Someshvara III
Someshvara III was a Western Chalukya king, the son and successor of Vikramaditya VI. He ascended the throne of the Western Chalukya Kingdom in 1126, or 1127.
Someshvara III, the third king in this dynasty named after the Hindu god Shiva made numerous land grants to cause of Shaivism and its monastic scholarship. These monasteries in the Indian peninsula became centers of the study of the Vedas and Hindu philosophies such as the Nyaya school. Someshvara III died in 1138, and succeeded by his son Jagadekamalla.
Someshvara was a noted historian, scholar, and poet. He authored the Sanskrit encyclopedic text Manasollasa touching upon such topics as polity, governance, astronomy, astrology, rhetoric, medicine, food, architecture, painting, poetry, dance and music – making his work a valuable modern source of socio-cultural information of the 11th- and 12th-century India. He also authored, in Sanskrit, an incomplete biography of his father Vikramaditya VI, called the Vikramankabhyudaya. His scholarly pursuits was the reason he held such titles as Sarvadnya-bhupa and Bhulokamala.
Military Campaigns
Someshvara inherited the empire from his father, Vikramaditya VI when it was at its territorial peak, and during his reign, he was able to maintain the empire to most of its extent, though with a few setbacks.Rebellions
Prince Tailapa was one of Someshvara's younger brothers. The former had been governing the Kanduru-nadu province since the reign of their father Vikramaditya VI. The Panugallu-rajya territory in this region was contested among members of the Choda chiefs of Kanduru, who were Chalukya vassals. After the death of the Choda chief Udaya I, Gokarna probably succeeded him on the throne of Panugallu. It appears that differences developed between Gokarna and other members of the Choda family—Gokarna's elder brother Bhima III and Bhima's nephew Shridevi-Tondaya—who rebelled against the suzerainty of the Chalukyas. In 1128 CE, Bhima III killed Gokarna, with the support of the Chalukya general Govinda. Meanwhile, Tailapa seems to have indirectly encouraged the rebellion against his brother Someshvara III, and possibly divided Panugallu-rajya between Shridevi-Tondaya and Govinda.Historian P. V. P. Sastry identifies Govinda with the governor of Komdapalli-sima, who was a nephew of Anantapala danda-nayaka. M. Somasekhara Sharma identified him with Govinda, the son of Bagi Madimayya nayaka, but Sastry notes that no historical records attest this person’s presence in the Telangana region at the time.
Someshvara seems to have dispatched his Kakatiya feudatory, Prola II, against the rebels. Sometime during 1130–1136 CE, Prola reinstated Udaya II, the son of Gokarna I, as the ruler of Panugallu-rajya. After the death of Prola II, his son Rudra defeated Bhima.
Wars with the Cholas
Someshvara continued his father's wars against the Cholas, but was always on the defensive. This could probably be attributed to the nature of their reigns- Vikramaditya VI was an expansionist ruler who wanted to grow his domain's size, while Someshvara could not do the same for the realm he had inherited was too large to grow.Someshvara suffered setbacks against the son of his father's rival Kulottunga I, Vikrama Chola, who momentarily reconquered Vengi.
However, according to the Jainad inscription of his feudatory, Jagaddeva, the latter:
- Defeated the king of Andhra Pradesh|Andhra]. Historian H. V. Trivedi believes that this refers to the Chola king Rajaraja [Chola II|Rajaraja II], and Someshvara with Jagaddeva may have led a Chalukya invasion against the Chola occupation of Andhra territory.
Battles with the Hoysalas
During the reign of his father, Vikramaditya VI, the Hoysalas whom were feudatories of the Western Chalukyas, under Vishnuvardhana continuously rebelled against Western Chalukya rule, but was defeated by Vikramaditya's feudatory commander, Achiugi, and forced back into submission.During Someshvara III's reign, the Hoysalas under Vishnuvardhana staged another rebellion, which Someshvara defeated and successfully suppressed.