Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), the essential vegetarian protein diet of India is yielding lesser than as potential. The major constraints for productivity of pigeonpea are inadequate availability of seeds of high yielding short duration improved varieties, biotic and abiotic stress and poor crop management. To utilize the genomic resources for yield improvement it is necessary to evaluate the pigeonpea germplasm for yield traits and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. The present investigation led to the identification of better performing lines based on yield. A total collection of 2000 accessions were subjected to initial evaluation. From these 2000 accessions better performing lines were selected for crossing and generation of mapping populations. Initial data was evaluated to identify better performing accessions over the check varieties used in evaluation. Based on days to first flowering, days to 50 per cent flowering and days to maturity parental lines for crossing were identified. Among selected accessions IC33671 and Palamedu local were found to have short stature and early maturing independently. These selected accessions were crossed and progenies were evaluated to identify high yielding individuals. The resultant high yielding determinant short duration crop DG (RG) 55 has been evaluated for its performance under multiple locations and identified to yield up to 15 per cent more than the better performing check varieties Asha and APK1.