The Badami Chalukya architecture was a temple building idiom that evolved in the 5th – 8th centuries AD in the Malaprabha river basin, in present-day Bagalkot district of Karnataka state of India, under the Chalukya dynasty. This style is sometimes called the Vesara style and Chalukya style, a term that also includes the much later Western Chalukya architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries. Early Chalukya architecture, used by George Michell and others, equates to Badami Chalukya. The earliest Badami Chalukya temples date back to around 450 A.D. in Aihole when the Badami Chalukyas were vassals of the Kadambas of Banavasi. According to historian K.V. Sounder Rajan, the Badami Chalukyas contribution to temple building matched their valor and their achievements in battle.