The Western Chalukyas have kept the Pallavas out of the Deccan since recapturing the temple-fort of Vatapi in 655.

The Eastern Chalukyas have meanwhile advanced south of Vengi into the Nellore district, thus confining the Pallavas to the narrow strip of formerly Andhra coast from which they had launched their assaults three decades earlier.

In 670, the Chalukyas capture and partly destroy the Pallavan capital at Kanchipuram, sacred to Hindus as “the Benares of the south.”

The Pallavas, their dynasty intact, eventually reoccupy the capital, but refrain from major actions against their northern neighbors.