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KING BIJALA, THE GREAT.
King Bijjala belonged to the Kalachuri clan of Ksatriyas, who hailed from the Bundelkhand province of Northern India. In the 12th century A.D. a branch of the Kalachuri Ksatriyas came to rule over a portion of the District of Bijapur in Deccan. The Kalachuris, which literally means "the destroyer of the fleshy body," were great warriors and conquerors. King Bijjal's father Dermmadi was in 1128 A.D. appointed a Viceroy of the province of modem Bijapur and its vicinity, under the Vestern Chalukya King Someshyra III. Bijjal succeeded him. He was appointed also the Commander-in-chief of the Chalukyan army and was known as Mahas mandaleshuara. It also happened that the Chalukyan King Tailap III did not prove an efficient ruler. The feudatory and provincial rulers under him began to proclaim themselves independent and it was in the fitness of things that Bijjal formed and headed a confedracy of most of these provincial samantas and seized the imperial power in his able hands. Next he set himself to the work of getting himself acknowledged as the paramount monarch. Consequently he led his armies against the arrogant rulers and came out victorious. Now he was an independent monarch. In an inscription of 1156 A.D.,
