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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Banas

Chiefs of the Bana or Mahabali family who ruled the hill country 'west of the Andhra road', roughly the later Chittoor district from Kolar to Kalahasti, as subordinates of the Pallava and Ganga-Pallava kings of Kanchi. Their inscriptions at Gudimallam, in Tamil and Sanskrit, run from the 8th century to Saka 827 (905), and a copper-plate grant found there gives their family tree. In the late 9th century an outpost of theirs reached Pottipadu in the Cuddapah country. They fought the Nolamba-Pallavas at Soremati, and soon after 900 the Chola king Parantaka I uprooted them and gave their country to a Ganga prince. A Bana chief still ruled near Podili in Nellore in 968.

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Each bar is a ruling power in its region; time runs left to right. Dashed = approximate dates. Select a bar for details.

6507007508008509009501000Ikshvakus, Vishnukundins & early kingdoms (225–624 CE)Eastern Chalukyas & the Deccan powers (624–1163 CE)Eastern Chalukyas & the Deccan powersTelanganaChalukyas of BadamiChalukyas of MudigondaChalukyas of VemulavadaRashtrakutas of MalkhedEastern Chalukyas of VengiWestern Chalukyas of KalyaniCoastal AndhraChalukyas of BadamiCholas of TanjorePallavasEastern Chalukyas of VengiEastern Gangas of KalingaEastern Chalukyas of VengiChalukyas of BadamiRayalaseemaPallavasCholas of TanjoreTelugu Cholas of RenaduWestern Chalukyas of KalyaniChalukyas of BadamiBanasVaidumbasNolamba-PallavasRashtrakutas of Malkhed6507007508008509009501000
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Ikshvakus, Vishnukundins & early kingdoms 225–624 CE

Telangana
Vishnukundins (c. 375–612 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Pallavas (c. 250–630 CE) · Vishnukundins (c. 500–630 CE) · Eastern Gangas of Kalinga (c. 537–1434 CE) · Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (c. 615–973 CE) · Chalukyas of Badami (c. 615–642 CE)
Rayalaseema
Pallavas (c. 300–900 CE) · Telugu Cholas of Renadu (c. 550–800 CE)

Eastern Chalukyas & the Deccan powers 624–1163 CE

Telangana
Chalukyas of Badami (c. 655–753 CE) · Chalukyas of Mudigonda (c. 890–1218 CE) · Chalukyas of Vemulavada (c. 750–973 CE) · Rashtrakutas of Malkhed (c. 753–973 CE) · Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (c. 935–973 CE) · Western Chalukyas of Kalyani (c. 973–1163 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Pallavas (c. 250–630 CE) · Chalukyas of Badami (c. 655–680 CE) · Cholas of Tanjore (c. 999–1135 CE) · Vishnukundins (c. 500–630 CE) · Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (c. 999–1077 CE) · Eastern Gangas of Kalinga (c. 537–1434 CE)
Rayalaseema
Pallavas (c. 300–900 CE) · Cholas of Tanjore (c. 985–1268 CE) · Telugu Cholas of Renadu (c. 550–800 CE) · Western Chalukyas of Kalyani (c. 1000–1190 CE) · Chalukyas of Badami (c. 654–753 CE) · Banas (c. 700–915 CE) · Vaidumbas (c. 750–1000 CE) · Nolamba-Pallavas (c. 750–974 CE) · Rashtrakutas of Malkhed (c. 750–973 CE)
Kingdoms and empires Uncertain or debated dates Held another region first This page

Reigns

Each bar is one ruler’s reign; time runs left to right. c. = approximate date.

800825850875900925950Vijayaditya (under Dantivarman) · c. 820–830 CE · c. 10 yrsVijayaditya (under Dantivarman)c. 820–830 CE · c. 10 yrsVikramaditya I (Banavidyadhara, Jayameru) · c. 850–880 CE · c. 30 yrsVikramaditya I (Banavidyadhara, Jayameru)c. 850–880 CE · c. 30 yrsVijayaditya II Prabhumeru (Bana) · c. 880–910 CE · c. 30 yrsVijayaditya II Prabhumeru (Bana)c. 880–910 CE · c. 30 yrsVikramaditya II · c. 910–921 CE · c. 11 yrsVikramaditya IIc. 910–921 CE · c. 11 yrs
  1. Vijayaditya (under Dantivarman)c. 820–830 CE · c. 10 yrs
  2. Vikramaditya I (Banavidyadhara, Jayameru)c. 850–880 CE · c. 30 yrs
  3. Vijayaditya II Prabhumeru (Bana)c. 880–910 CE · c. 30 yrs
  4. Vikramaditya IIc. 910–921 CE · c. 11 yrs
Reign · c. = approximate date

Approximate only. The Gudimallam plates (Hultzsch, 1924) give the line Nandivarman, Vijayaditya, Malladeva, Vikramaditya Jayameru, Vijayaditya Prabhumeru and Vikramaditya. The only fixed dates are Saka 820, 827 and 831 (898, 905 and 909) for Vijayaditya II. The earlier kings are placed by the regnal years of their Pallava overlords, as Venkayya (1912) set them out; the end is the conquest by the Chola Parantaka I, in or before 921–22.

The Banas were a family of chiefs who ruled the hill country of the later Chittoor district, between Kolar and Kalahasti, from about the 8th century.1 They served the Pallava kings of Kanchi and their successors as subordinate rulers.2 Much of what is known about them comes from their stone records and a copper-plate grant at Gudimallam, near Kalahasti.34 Early in the 10th century they became vassals of the Chola king Parantaka I.1

Name and legend

The family called itself the Mahabali or Mahavali line.5 It claimed descent from the demon king Bali and his son Bana, who made the god Siva his door-keeper.56 The Gudimallam plates repeat the story: Bali, son of Virochana, gave the earth to Vishnu at a sacrifice, and the Bana kings were born in his line.7

B. Lewis Rice (1909) wrote that their flag showed a black buck and their crest was a bull.5 The seal of the Gudimallam plates bears a bull lying down, with a lamp-stand and a crescent above it.4

The country west of the Andhra road

The Bana inscriptions describe their land as lying west of the Andhra or Telugu country.5 In Tamil this was the “Vadugavali twelve thousand” (Vadugavali, the northern or Telugu road).58 The Sanskrit form was the land west of Andhrapatha, the Andhra road.5 The Cuddapah gazetteer of 1915 took this road to be the coast road from Kanchi (Kanchipuram, then Conjeeveram) to Nellore.1

The same gazetteer placed the Bana kingdom, set up early in the 8th century, between Kolar in the west and Kalahasti in the east.1 Its north and south limits were roughly those of the Chittoor district.1 Sewell and Aiyangar (1932) named Punganur and Kalahasti among its chief towns.9 They described it as rough country, troubled by raids and cattle theft.9

V. Rangacharya (1919) noted that Parigi, in the Hindupur taluk of Anantapur, had been identified with Parivi, capital of the early Bana kings.10 He added that no inscription proved this.10

Early notices

The Banas were known long before their Gudimallam records.116 Sewell and Aiyangar wrote that the Kadamba founder Mayurasarma took tribute from the Bana chiefs of North Arcot about 340.11 They also reported that about 450 the Pallava king set up a Ganga king to conquer the Bana lands west of the Telugu road.11

Under the Pallavas: the Gudimallam stones

V. Venkayya published five Bana inscriptions from the Parasuramesvara temple at Gudimallam in 1912.3 Most of the stones lay loose in the temple court.3 He thought they might have come away when the temple was rebuilt under the Chola king Vikrama-Chola.3

The records show the Banas as subordinates of the kings at Kanchi.2

  • The first is dated in the 23rd year of the Pallava king Nandippottaraiyar, while Vikramaditya-Mavali-Vanaraya ruled the country west of Vadugavali.12
  • The second is of the 49th year of the Ganga-Pallava king Vijaya-Dantivikramavarman, when Vijayaditya-Mahavali-Vanaraya ruled.13
  • The third, of the 24th year of Nripatunga, names Vanavidyadhara-Mahabali-Vanaraya.1415
  • The last two are dated in the Saka era, in 820 and 827 (898 and 905), under Vijayaditya.1416

Venkayya explained why the last two give no overlord.2 He thought the Ganga-Pallavas had collapsed and the Banas had not yet accepted the Cholas.217 The country of Kalahasti and Gudimallam, he wrote, had belonged to the Pallavas.2

The Gudimallam plates

A set of five copper plates from Gudimallam was published by E. Hultzsch in 1924.4 It was a grant of the Bana king Vikramaditya, son of Vijayaditya Prabhumeru.7 It confirmed an old grant of the village Viprapitha to Brahmins.7 Hultzsch showed that Viprapitha was the Sanskrit form of Tiruvippirambedu, the old name of Gudimallam.7 See the Gudimallam plates.

The plates give this line of kings:7

  • Nandivarman
  • his son Vijayaditya
  • his son Malladeva
  • his son Jayameru, also called Vikramaditya
  • his son Vijayaditya, also called Prabhumeru
  • his son Vikramaditya, the donor

Hultzsch matched this list with the older Udayendiram plates.18 Vikramaditya Jayameru was the Banavidyadhara of those plates.7 One of his queens, Kundavvai, was a daughter of the Ganga prince Prithivipati I.1819 Vijayaditya Prabhumeru has records dated Saka 820 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), 827 and 831 (898, 905 and 909).18 See Vijayaditya II.

Into the Cuddapah country

In the late 9th century the Banas pushed north.1 An inscription at Pottipadu in the Jammalamadugu taluk records a grant by a Bana chief named Dhavaleyarasa.1 The Cuddapah gazetteer dated it to 884.1 R. S. Panchamukhi (1938) read the date as Saka 807.20 Both took it to show that the Banas had reached deep into the old Telugu Chola country.120

Rice wrote that about 850 the Ganga king Nitimarga captured Banarasa’s Maharajara-nad.21 He placed that district chiefly in the Kadapa country.21

War with the Nolambas: Soremati

In the later 9th century the Nolamba-Pallava king Mahendra attacked the Bana country of Pulinadu, round Punganur.2223 An inscription at Kalakattur, near Palamaner, says his officers burnt the town of Perravi.23 The Bana king Vira-Chulamani, Vijayaditya Prabhumeru, then drove off the enemy.23

Many hero-stones in Chittoor remember a battle at Soremati.15 In it the Bana and Vaidumba chiefs fought the Gangas and Nolambas.15 Mahendra later took the title “destroyer of the Mahabali race”.2224 See the Nolamba-Pallavas.

The Chola conquest

The Chola king Parantaka I claimed to have uprooted two Bana kings by force.2521 He gave the Bana kingdom to his Ganga vassal Prithivipati II Hastimalla.25 He named Prithivipati “Sembiyan Mavalivanarayan”, the Bana ruler under the Chola.25 Venkayya dated this in or before 921–22.25 A record of Parantaka’s 9th year (915) already calls Prithivipati lord of the Banas, according to Sewell and Aiyangar.26

Hultzsch saw the struggle as a contest of two great powers.18 In his view Prithivipati II was the Chola king’s candidate for the Bana throne.18 The Bana Vikramaditya-Vijayabahu, a friend of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna, was the Rashtrakuta candidate.18

After the conquest

The Banas did not disappear.2125

  • A Bana chief named Sambayya held a district under the Nolamba king Iriva-Nolamba in 961.2125
  • At Sannamuru, in the Podili division of Nellore, Venkayya read a Bana record of a chief named Aggaparaju.25 He read its date, tentatively, as Saka 890 (968).25 The record names no overlord.25
  • Sewell and Aiyangar read the title of a vassal of the Chola Rajaraja I in 992 as a sign that the Banas had submitted to him.27
  • Rice noted later rulers in Madurai in the 15th century who called themselves Mahavali Vanadhiraja.21

Where the sources disagree

  • When the kingdom began. Early in the 8th century (the Cuddapah gazetteer).1 Sewell and Aiyangar, and Rice, trace Bana chiefs back to the 4th century.116
  • The Krishna of the plates. The Udayendiram plates call Vikramaditya-Vijayabahu a friend of a king Krishna.18 Venkayya (1912) took him to be the Rashtrakuta Krishna II.17 Hultzsch (1924) showed from the new Saka dates that he must be Krishna III.18
  • The date of Soremati. About 877–78 (Sewell and Aiyangar), about 885 (Panchamukhi, 1938) or 900 (the Cuddapah gazetteer).152829

Footnotes

  1. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah (1915), p. 28 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 229 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. V. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions from Gudimallam”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1911–12), p. 223 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. E. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates of the Bana King Vikramaditya II”, Epigraphia Indica XVII (1923–24), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. B. Lewis Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions (1909), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions (1909), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates” (1924), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  8. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  9. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 34 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 16, Anantapur district, Parigi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 18 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 224 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 227 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 38 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 228 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  17. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 237 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Hultzsch, “Gudimallam Plates” (1924), p. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  19. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  20. R. S. Panchamukhi, “Three Inscriptions of Vaidumba-Maharaja Gandatrinetra”, Epigraphia Indica XXIV (1937–38), p. 186 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  21. Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions (1909), p. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  22. H. Krishna Sastri, Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1912–13, Part II, para. 13, p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  23. Krishna Sastri, Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1912–13, Part II, para. 13, p. 91 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 40 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  25. Venkayya, “Five Bana Inscriptions” (1912), p. 238 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  26. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 42 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  27. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 55 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  28. Panchamukhi, “Three Inscriptions of Vaidumba-Maharaja Gandatrinetra” (1938), p. 189 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  29. Brackenbury, Cuddapah (1915), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

People

Vijayaditya II Prabhumeru (Bana)

c. 898–909 CE

Bana king of the country west of the Andhra road (the Chittoor country), also called Prabhumeru, Vira-Chulamani and Mahavali-Vanaraya. He was the son of Vikramaditya Jayameru (Banavidyadhara) and the father of Vikramaditya II, donor of the Gudimallam plates. His stone records at Gudimallam and in the Kolar country are dated Saka 820, 827 and 831 (898, 905 and 909), with no overlord named. He drove back the Nolamba invasion of Pulinadu and fought, with the Vaidumbas, at Soremati.

Inscriptions

Gudimallam plates of the Bana king Vikramaditya II

c. 910 CE

Five copper plates with a bull seal, found at Gudimallam in the Kalahasti zamindari and acquired for the Government Museum, Madras. In Sanskrit verse and prose with a short Tamil postscript, they record that the Bana prince Vikramaditya, son of Vijayaditya Prabhumeru, confirmed an old grant of the village Viprapitha (Gudimallam) to its Brahmins. Published by E. Hultzsch in 1924, they gave a fuller family tree of the Banas and showed that their friend 'Krishna-Raja' was the Rashtrakuta Krishna III.

References

Sources (8)
  1. B. Lewis Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions (opens in a new tab), Archibald Constable, London, 1909, pp. 17–20. [Public domain]
  2. H. Krishna Sastri (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XVII (1923–24) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1924, pp. 1–3. E. Hultzsch, Gudimallam Plates of the Bana King Vikramaditya II. [Public domain]
  3. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI (1911–12) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1912, pp. 223–229, 234, 237–238. V. Venkayya, Five Bana Inscriptions from Gudimallam. [Public domain]
  4. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 28. [Public domain]
  5. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 16. [Public domain]
  6. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1910-11 to 1914-15 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, Report for 1912–13, Part II, pp. 90–92. [Public domain]
  7. N. P. Chakravarti (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXIV (1937–38) (opens in a new tab), Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1938, pp. 186, 189. R. S. Panchamukhi, Three Inscriptions of Vaidumba-Maharaja Gandatrinetra. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  8. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 18, 31, 34, 36, 38–42, 55. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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