Note 2 — Chapter I · THE CHÁVAḌÁS (a.d. 720–956.)

The Name Chaulukya.According to the Vicháraśreṇi after the Chávaḍás, in a.d. 961 (Vaishakh Suddha 1017), began the reign of Múlarája the son of a daughter of the last Chávaḍá ruler. The name Chaulukya is a Sanskritised form, through an earlier form Chálukya, of the old names Chalkya, Chalikya, Chirîkya, Chálukya of the great Dakhan dynasty (a.d. 552–973), made to harmonise with the Puráṇic-looking story that the founder of the dynasty sprang from the palm or chuluka of Brahma. The form Chaulukya seems to have been confined to authors and writers. It was used by the great Dakhan poet Bilhaṇa (c. 1050 a.d.) and by the Aṇahilaváḍa chroniclers. In Gujarát the popular form of the word seems to have been Solaki or Solaṅki (a dialectic variant of Chalukya), a name till lately used by Gujarát bards. The sameness of name seems to show the Dakhan and Gujarát dynasties to be branches of one stock. No materials are available to trace the original seat of the family or to show when and whence they came to Gujarát. The balance of probability is, as Dr. Bühler holds, that Múlarája’s ancestors came from the north.2