During the reign of Bhima I, the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud invaded the kingdom and raided the Somnath temple during 1024-1025 CE.

After Kumarapala's death, the kingdom was gradually weakened by internal rebellions; uprisings by feudatories; and invasions by the Paramaras, the Ghurids, the Yadavas and others.

Taking advantage of this, the Vaghelas, who had earlier served as Chaulukya generals, usurped the power and established a new dynasty in the 1240s.

[6] The version of the legend mentioned in the Vadnagar prashasti inscription of Kumarapala is as follows: the deities once asked the creator god Brahma to protect them from the danavas (demons).

Brahma then created a hero from his chuluka (pot or folded palm in Sanskrit), which was filled with Ganges water.

[11] This account may be partly historical: Madhupadma has been identified variously as a location outside Gujarat, including present-day Mathura.

[8] According to Asoke Majumdar, while these similar-sounding names suggest a common origin for all these dynasties, there is no concrete evidence to draw any definitive conclusion.

[13] According to the Agnikula myth mentioned in a 16th-century recension of the legendary epic poem Prithviraj Raso, four Rajput clans including the Chaulukyas were born from a fire-pit on Mount Abu.

A section of colonial-era historians interpreted this mythical account to suggest that these clans were foreigners who came to India after the decline of the Gupta Empire around the 5th century CE, and were admitted in the Hindu caste system after performing a fire ritual.

[16] Based on this legend, D. R. Bhandarkar and others theorized that the Chaulukyas were a branch of Gurjaras, whom they believed to be a tribe of foreign origin.

[17] Bhandarkar and Augustus Hoernle also believed that the name of the "Lata" region changed to "Gurjaratra" (later Gujarat) during the Chaulukya reign, presumably because they were Gurjaras.

[20] The inscriptions from the reign of Bhima II prove that the Chaulukyas knew about the Agnikula legend, but associated it with the Paramaras, not themselves.

[16][24] Several other kings who held similar epithets had earlier ruled this territory: these include the Gurjara-Pratiharas and the Gurjaras of Nandipuri.