CHALUKYA, the name of an Indian dynasty which ruled in the Deccan from A.D. 550 to 750, and again from 973 to 1190. The Chalukyas themselves claimed to be Rajputs from the north who imposed their rule on the Dravidian inhabitants of the Deccan tableland, and there is some evidence for connecting them with the Chapas, a branch of the foreign Gurjaras. The dynasty was founded by a chief named Pulakesin I., who mastered the town of Vatapi (now Badami, in the Bijapur district) about 550. His sons extended their principality east and west; but the founder of the Chalukya greatness was his grandson Pulakesin II., who succeeded in 608 and proceeded to extend his rule at the expense of his neighbours. In 609 he established as his viceroy in Vengi his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana, who in 615 declared his independence and established the dynasty of Eastern Chalukyas, which lasted till 1070. In 620 Pulakesin defeated Harsha (q.v.), the powerful overlord of northern India, and established the Nerbudda as the boundary between the South and North. He also defeated in turn the Chola, Pandya and Kerala kings, and by 630 was beyond dispute the most powerful sovereign in the Deccan. In 642, however, his capital was taken and he himself killed by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman. In 655 the Chalukya power was restored by Pulakesin’s son Vikramaditya I.; but the struggle with the Pallavas continued until, in 740, Vikramaditya II. destroyed the Pallava capital. In 750 Vikramaditya’s son, Kirtivarman Chalukya, was overthrown by the Rashtrakutas.
In 973, Taila or Tailapa II. (d. 995), a scion of the royal Chalukya race, succeeded in overthrowing the Rashtrakuta king Kakka II., and in recovering all the ancient territory of the Chalukyas with the exception of Gujarat. He was the founder of the dynasty known as the Chalukyas of Kalyani. About A.D. 1000 a formidable invasion by the Chola king Rajaraja the Great was defeated, and in 1052 Somesvara I., or Ahamavalla (d. 1068), the founder of Kalyani, defeated and slew the Chola Rajadhiraja. The reign of Vikramaditya VI., or Vikramanka, which lasted from 1076 to 1126, formed another period of Chalukya greatness. Vikramanka’s exploits against the Hoysala kings and others, celebrated by the poet Bilhana, were held to justify him in establishing a new era dating from his accession. With his death, however, the Chalukya power began to decline. In 1156 the commander-in-chief Bijjala (or Vijjana) Kalachurya revolted, and he and his sons held the kingdom till 1183. In this year Somesvara IV. Chalukya recovered part of his patrimony, only to succumb, about 1190, to the Yadavas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas of Dorasamudra. Henceforth the Chalukya rajas ranked only as petty chiefs.
See J.F. Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts; Prof. R.G. Bhandarker, “Early History of the Deccan,” in the Bombay Gazetteer (1896), vol. i. part ii.; Vincent A. Smith, Early Hist. of India (Oxford, 1908), pp. 382 ff.
CHALYBÄUS, HEINRICH MORITZ (1796-1862), German philosopher, was born at Pfaffroda in Saxony. For some years he taught at Dresden, and won a high reputation by his lectures on the history of philosophy in Germany. In 1839 he became professor in Kiel University, where, with the exception of one brief interval, when he was expelled with several colleagues because of his German sympathies, he remained till his death. His first published work, Historische Entwickelung der spekulativen Philosophic von Kant bis Hegel (1837, 5th ed. 1860), which still ranks among the best expositions of modern German thought, has been twice translated into English, by A. Tulk (London, 1854), and by A. Edersheim (Edinburgh, 1854). His chief works are Entwurf eines Systems der Wissenschaftslehre (Kiel, 1846) and System der spekulativen Ethik (2 vols., 1850). He opposed both the extreme realism of Herbart and what he regarded as the one-sided idealism of Hegel, and endeavoured to find a mean between them, to discover the ideal or formal principle which unfolds itself in the real or material world presented to it. His Wissenschaftslehre, accordingly, divides itself into (1) Principlehre, or theory of the one principle; (2) Vermittelungslehre, or theory of the means by which this principle realizes itself; and (3) Teleologie. The most noticeable point is the position assigned by Chalybäus to the “World Ether,” which is defined as the infinite in time and space, and which, he thinks, must be posited as necessarily coexisting with the Infinite Spirit or God. The fundamental principle of the System der Ethik is carried out with great strength of thought, and with an unusually complete command of ethical material.
See J.E. Erdmann, Grundriss der Gesch. d. Philos. ii. 781-786; K. Prantl, in Allgem. deutsch. Biog.
| Crystal of Chalybite. |
CHALYBITE, a mineral species consisting of iron carbonate (FeCO3) and forming an important ore of iron. It was early known as spathose iron, spathic iron or steel ore. F.S. Beudant in 1832 gave the name siderose (from σίδηρος, iron), which was modified by W. Haidinger in 1845 to siderite. Chalybite (from χάλυψ, χάλυβος, Lat. chalybs, steel) is of slightly later date, having been given by E.F. Glocker in 1847. The name siderite is in common use, but it is open to objection since it had earlier been applied to several other species, and is also now used as a group name for meteoric irons. Chalybite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system and is isomorphous with calcite; like this it possesses perfect cleavages parallel to the faces of the primitive rhombohedron, the angles between which are 73° 0′. Crystals are usually rhombohedral in habit, and the primitive rhombohedron r{100} is a common form, the faces being often curved as represented in the figure. Acute rhombohedra in combination with the basal pinacoid are also frequent, giving crystals of octahedral aspect. The mineral often occurs in cleavable masses with a coarse or fine granular texture; also in botryoidal or globular (sphaerosiderite) and oolitic forms. When compact and mixed with much clay and sand it constitutes the well-known clay ironstone. Chalybite is usually yellowish-grey or brown in colour; it is translucent and has a vitreous lustre. Hardness 3½; sp. gr. 3.8. The double refraction (ω − ε = 0.241) is stronger than that of calcite. When pure it contains 48.2% of iron, but this is often partly replaced isomorphously by manganese, magnesium or calcium: the varieties known as oligon-spar or oligonite, sideroplesite and siderodote contain these elements respectively in large amount. These varieties form a passage to ankerite (q.v.) and mesitite, and all are referred to loosely as brown-spar.
Chalybite is a common gangue mineral in metalliferous veins, and well-crystallized specimens are found with ores of copper, lead, tin, &c., in Cornwall, the Harz, Saxony and many other places. It also occurs alone as large masses in veins and beds in rocks of various kinds. The clay ironstone so extensively worked as an ore of iron occurs as nodules and beds in the Coal Measures of England and the United States, and the oolitic iron ore of the Cleveland district in Yorkshire forms beds in the Lias. The mineral is occasionally found as concretionary masses (sphaerosiderite) in cavities in basic igneous rocks such as dolerite.