Territory

Kandalanu was king over Babylonia, with exception of the city Nippur. His reign began in 648 B.C. when he was appointed by his overlord King Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal |Ashur]] is creator of an heir"; 685 BC – c. 627 BC), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire...

 of Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

 after the latter had crushed the Babylonian rebellion by Kandalanu’s predecessor, Shamash-shum-ukin

Shamash-shum-ukin

Shamash-shum-ukin was the Assyrian king of Babylon from 668-648 BC.He was the second son of the Assyrian King Esarhaddon. His elder brother, crown prince Sin-iddina-apla had died in 672, and in his stead the third son Ashurbanipal was invested as crown prince and later king of Assyria, while...

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Identity

Because our records for this period are imperfect, all authentic records about Kandalanu consists of date formulae and one damaged chronological inscription. In later chronological inscription he is sometimes mentioned but also forgotten, most notably in the Harran inscription that seems to list Babylonian kings of the sixth century. The lack of sources and few information they do give makes it difficult to find out who Kandalanu was. He might have been another son of Esarhaddon

Esarhaddon

Esarhaddon , was a king of Assyria who reigned 681 – 669 BC. He was the youngest son of Sennacherib and the Aramean queen Naqi'a , Sennacherib's second wife....

 or someone of the local elite who stayed loyal to the Assyrians during the rebellion. His name appears to mean some sort of physical deforming, possibly a clubfoot. It’s therefore not unlikely that the king was appointed as some sort of offence to the Babylonians, he might even have been simple minded. It has been discussed that Kandalanu was the Babylonian name of Ashurbanipal.
This is not likely as there is no proven parallel in Assyrian history. Examples as Tiglath-Pileser III

Tiglath-Pileser III

Tiglath-Pileser III was a prominent king of Assyria in the eighth century BC and is widely regarded as the founder of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Tiglath-Pileser III seized the Assyrian throne during a civil war and killed the royal family...

 (reigning over Babylon as "Pulu") and his son Shalmaneser V

Shalmaneser V

Shalmaneser V was king of Assyria from 727 to 722 BC. He first appears as governor of Zimirra in Phoenicia in the reign of his father, Tiglath-Pileser III....

 (reigning over Babylon as "Ululayu") are not based on authentic and official evidence. The chronological text from the reign of Kandalanu indicates that he ruled Babylon after the death of Ashurbanipal and four years into the reign of his son King Ashur-etil-ilani

Ashur-etil-ilani

Ashur-etil-ilani was a king of Assyria . He succeeded his father Ashurbanipal.- Problems with source material :The reconstruction of the events occurring during Ashur-etil-ilani's rule has proven to be very difficult...

. After a reign twenty one years, Kandalanu died in 627 B.C. and was after a short interregnum succeeded by Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar

Nabopolassar was the king of the Babylonia and played a key role in the demise of the Assyrian Empire following the death of the last powerful Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal...

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