Kakatiyas

The Kakatiyas were a family of military chiefs who became the ruling dynasty of the Telugu country in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.¹ They ruled first from Anumakonda (Hanamkonda) and then from Orugallu (Warangal), between about 1150 and 1323.¹ For about two centuries before that, they served the Rashtrakuta and then the Western Chalukya kings as subordinate chiefs.²

Their sovereign rule is usually dated from Rudradeva’s inscription of January 1163 at the Thousand Pillar Temple.² It ended when armies of the Delhi Sultanate took Warangal in the 1320s.²³

At its height under Ganapatideva, Kakatiya rule reached from Telangana to the coast, between the Godavari and the Penna.⁴⁵ Its armies campaigned as far as Kanchi.⁴⁵ The kings kept the modest title of mahamandaleshvara (great lord of a province) throughout, and left their allied chiefs much freedom.⁶⁷ So historians describe the kingdom as a loose network of subordinate rulers, military commanders and village assemblies, rather than a centralised empire.⁶⁷

Their reigns are also remembered for great irrigation tanks and the temples of Hanamkonda, Palampet and Warangal.⁸⁹¹⁰ They are remembered too for the sea-trade edict of Motupalli, and the Telugu and Sanskrit writers of their court.⁸⁹¹⁰

The sources

Most of what is known comes from inscriptions.¹¹¹ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry counted about a dozen copper-plate grants and nearly a thousand stone inscriptions of the period.¹¹¹ Many were found in the epigraphical survey of the Telangana districts, which the Andhra Pradesh government began in 1964.¹¹¹

Some of these finds changed the history.¹²¹³¹⁴ Parabrahma Sastry discovered the Bayyaram tank inscription in 1966, and it led him to rewrite the early genealogy.¹²¹³¹⁴ The Chandupatla inscription moved the death of Rudramadevi from about 1295 back to 1289.¹²¹³¹⁴

Contemporary literature adds a little.¹⁵ Vidyanatha’s Sanskrit treatise on poetics, the Prataparudriya, was written at the court of Prataparudra.¹⁵ Every one of its example verses praises the king.¹⁵ Parabrahma Sastry used it for the royal emblem, the family’s descent, and the relationship of Rudramadevi to Ganapatideva and Prataparudra.¹⁵

Telugu works supply details of government, religion and service.¹⁶ They include the Nitisara on statecraft, which survives only in quotations in a seventeenth-century anthology.¹⁶ They also include Palkuriki Somanatha’s Shaiva poems, and the Sivayogasara, a family history of the Induluri ministers.¹⁶

The Kridabhiramamu is a Telugu work of about 300 verses, of the fourteenth or fifteenth century.¹⁷ In it two friends wander through the streets of Orugallu.¹⁷ It describes the city as it was remembered soon after the dynasty fell.¹⁷

A third group of sources is the later chronicles:¹⁸

• Ekamranatha’s Pratapa Charitra (believed to be of the sixteenth century)
• the Siddheshvara Charitra (seventeenth century)
• the Somadevarajiyamu (eighteenth century)¹⁸

Parabrahma Sastry found them almost identical in content, full of legend, and at times misleading.¹⁸ For example, they make Rudramadevi Ganapatideva’s wife.¹⁸ He used them only for broad outlines.¹⁸

The family chronicles of the Velama chiefs are the Velugotivari Vamsavali and the Velugotivari Vamsacharitra.¹⁹ They describe the wars of their ancestors in Kakatiya service, but both are late.¹⁹

This page keeps the chronicles’ stories apart from what the inscriptions say.¹⁸¹⁹ The Delhi campaigns of 1303 to 1323 are known from the Persian historians, among them Amir Khusrau, Barani, Isami and Ferishta.²⁰²¹ Marco Polo described the sea trade of a kingdom he called “Mutfili”.²² His editor Henry Yule identified Mutfili as the Kakatiya kingdom.²³

Origins

The name and the Durjaya lineage

The family name comes from Kakati.²⁴²⁵ A fifteenth-century commentator on the Prataparudriya explained Kakati as a form of the goddess Durga worshipped by the family.²⁴²⁵ The Bayyaram tank inscription of Ganapatideva’s reign says instead that the founder of the line lived at a place called Kakati.²⁴²⁵ This place has not been securely identified.²⁴²⁵

The thirteenth-century records trace the kings to a legendary ancestor named Durjaya.²⁶²⁷²⁸ The Motupalli edict of 1244–45 traces the line back through the solar race to a Prolaraja of the family of Durjaya.²⁶²⁷ The Bayyaram inscription names Durjaya, then a king Venna who lived at Kakati, then a line of kings called Gunda.²⁸ Other families in Kakatiya service, the Malyala and Viriyala chiefs, also claimed descent from Durjaya.²⁹³⁰

Rashtrakuta generals or Eastern Chalukya officers?

The earliest reference to the family is in the Mangallu copper-plate grant, which Parabrahma Sastry dates to about 956.³¹ In it a general called Kakartya Gundyana obtains a grant of land from the Eastern Chalukya prince Danarnava.³¹

Earlier writers took Gundyana to be an Eastern Chalukya officer, and the family to be Telugu in origin.³² The literary historians Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, writing in 1928, still described the Kakatiyas as feudatories (subordinate rulers) of the Eastern Chalukyas.³³

N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma rejected the link altogether, in the Kakatiya chapter of The Early History of the Deccan (1960).³⁴ In their view the names might be related, but there was no ground for believing that the kings of Anumakonda descended from Gundyana.³⁴ The family rose under the Chalukyas of Kalyani, and Beta II was the first to leave records of his own.³⁴

Parabrahma Sastry argued the opposite.³⁵³⁶ He held that Danarnava had seized the Vengi throne with Rashtrakuta help.³⁵³⁶ Gundyana’s forefathers’ names end in “Rashtrakuta”, and Gundyana was a Rashtrakuta general.³⁵³⁶ In this view the family came to the Telugu country in Rashtrakuta service, and passed to the Chalukyas of Kalyani after 973.³⁵³⁶

Status and caste

Later Kakatiya records claimed descent from the solar line of kings, through Durjaya.²⁶³⁷ Ganapatideva’s Motupalli edict, for example, traces the family back to Ikshvaku and Rama.²⁶³⁷

Other inscriptions speak differently.³⁸³⁹ Inscriptions of Ganapatideva’s general Malyala Gunda at Bothpur and Vaddamanu describe the Kakatiyas as born in the fourth varna, the Shudra order.³⁸³⁹ The family married into chiefly houses, such as the Kotas and the Natavadi chiefs, that described themselves the same way.³⁸³⁹

Vidyanatha, at Prataparudra’s court, wrote that the family excelled both the solar and the lunar races.³⁷³⁸ The Malkapuram inscription of the royal preceptor (teacher) calls them Kshatriyas of the solar race.³⁷³⁸

Parabrahma Sastry concluded that the Kshatriya claims were panegyric (praise).³⁹⁴⁰ P. Sreenivasachar, writing in 1942, regarded any argument about the caste of the ruling family as futile.⁴⁰ Power, he said, commonly led families to claim Kshatriya rank and descent from the Sun or Moon.⁴⁰

Emblems and early religion

The early Kakatiyas had close links with Jainism.⁴¹ Their first emblem was the eagle (Garuda), which stayed on their banner until Prataparudra’s time.⁴¹ Parabrahma Sastry suggested that it had a Jain rather than a Vaishnava meaning, perhaps the Garuda of the Tirthankara Shantinatha.⁴¹

As Chalukya feudatories they later adopted the boar (Varaha), which appears on their seals and coins.⁴²⁴³ The Bayyaram inscription says that Prola I’s successors put the boar on their coins and cattle in gratitude to him.⁴²⁴³

Chiefs under the Rashtrakutas and the Chalukyas

The early chiefs held small territories in Telangana under their overlords.⁴⁴ Gunda IV is thought to have been killed about the end of the tenth century, after the fall of the Rashtrakutas.⁴⁴ His killer was a chief backed by the new Chalukya king Tailapa II.⁴⁴ His young son Beta I recovered the family’s position with the help of Kamavasani, wife of the Viriyala chief Erra.⁴⁴ The Gudur inscription of 1124 tells this story.⁴⁴

Prola I (c. 1052–1076) fought in the Chalukya prince Vikramaditya’s campaigns.⁴²⁴⁵ He received the district of Anumakonda from King Trailokyamalla (Someshvara I) as a permanent fief (land held from a lord).⁴²⁴⁵

Beta II (c. 1076–1108) took the name Tribhuvanamalla from his overlord Vikramaditya VI.⁴⁶ He won the Sabbi-nadu district through his minister.⁴⁶ His elder son Durgaraja appears in a single record of 1098, and may have been set aside by his younger brother.⁴⁶

Prola II (c. 1116–1157) was the most active of these chiefs.⁴⁷⁴⁸ As a loyal Chalukya feudatory he defeated rival chiefs around Anumakonda.⁴⁷⁴⁸ He captured and released a Tailapa, and restored Udaya Choda to the Kanduru country around Panugallu.⁴⁷⁴⁸ He also drove off the Paramara prince Jagaddeva.⁴⁷⁴⁸ His last known record as a subordinate is dated 1149.⁴⁷⁴⁸ He was killed in battle with chiefs of the coastal Andhra country.⁴⁷⁴⁸

J. F. Fleet identified his captive Tailapa with the Chalukya king Taila III.⁴⁹ Parabrahma Sastry identified him with Kumara Tailapa, a Chalukya prince who held the Kandurunadu region.⁵⁰

Rudradeva and the claim to sovereignty

Rudradeva (c. 1158–1195) defeated the rival chiefs of Telangana.⁵¹⁵² They were Domma of Nagunuru, Meda of Polavasa, Mailigi, and the Choda chiefs Bhima and Udaya of Kanduru.⁵¹⁵² His inscription of 1163 at Anumakonda celebrates these wars.⁵¹⁵² It records his foundation of the triple temple now called the Thousand Pillar Temple.⁵¹⁵²

Fleet published the inscription in 1882.⁴⁹ He treated Rudradeva as in practice an independent king who had thrown off the Chalukya overlordship.⁴⁹ But Rudradeva still used the feudatory title mahamandaleshvara.⁴⁹

Parabrahma Sastry drew on inscriptions found after 1964.¹²⁵³ He argued that the Kakatiyas did not revolt against their overlords.¹²⁵³ The Chalukya power at Kalyana was collapsing, and the Kakatiyas became masters of Telangana by putting down the other subordinate chiefs.¹²⁵³ Rudradeva declared himself sovereign only when no Chalukya claimant came forward.¹²⁵³

The Velanati chief Rajendra Choda II died in 1181, and Rudradeva then turned to the coast.⁵⁴ He defeated the Kota chief Dodda Bhima and took Dharanikota.⁵⁴ He left Bhima’s son Keta II as his subordinate.⁵⁴ A record at Tripurantakam of 1185 shows his authority south of the Krishna.⁵⁴

He began the new fort at Orugallu.⁵⁵⁵⁶ The Ganapesvaram inscription says that he settled the people of conquered towns there, in new quarters with temples of Rudreshvara.⁵⁵⁵⁶

How he died is disputed.⁵⁷⁵⁸ Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma held that he was killed in 1196, in battle with the Yadava (Seuna) king Jaitrapala of Devagiri.⁵⁷ Their evidence was the Yadava writer Hemadri.⁵⁷ Parabrahma Sastry found no evidence for this in the Kakatiya records.⁵⁸ He argued that Hemadri’s passage, as corrected by R. G. Bhandarkar, refers to Rudradeva’s brother Mahadeva.⁵⁸ Rudradeva’s last known date is April 1195.⁵⁹

Mahadeva and the disaster at Devagiri

Rudradeva had no children.⁶⁰ His younger brother Mahadeva succeeded him, perhaps as regent for the young prince Ganapati.⁶⁰ The one event of the short reign known for certain is Mahadeva’s attack on Devagiri, the Yadava capital.⁶¹⁶² There he died fighting from an elephant at night.⁶¹⁶²

Yadava inscriptions add that the Yadava king Jaitugi (Jaitrapala) took the young Ganapati prisoner.⁶¹⁶² Later Jaitugi released him and made him king of the Andhra country.⁶¹⁶² At home, nobles rose in revolt.⁶³⁶⁴ The general Recherla Rudra held the kingdom together until Ganapati returned.⁶³⁶⁴

Ganapatideva: expansion to the coast and the south

Ganapatideva (1199–c. 1262) was back on the throne by December 1199.⁶⁵ An inscription of that date at Manthena calls him the re-establisher of the whole kingdom.⁶⁵

His generals carried Kakatiya power to the coast.⁶⁶⁶⁷ Malyala Chaunda took the island fortress of Divi, at the mouth of the Krishna, by 1203.⁶⁶⁶⁷ The Velanati king Prithvishvara was killed in battle some time after 1206.⁶⁶⁶⁷ Ganapati married the two sisters of the young Ayya chief Jaya, and made him governor of Velanadu by 1213.⁶⁶⁶⁷

He restored Tikka to the throne of the Telugu Chodas of Nellore.⁶⁸⁵ About 1250 his army under Samanta Bhoja took Kanchi in support of Tikka’s son Manumasiddhi II.⁶⁸⁵ Manumasiddhi’s envoy to Ganapati’s court was the poet Tikkana.⁶⁸⁵

His campaigns into Kalinga reached the Aska region of Ganjam.⁶⁹ But the Eastern Ganga king Anangabhima III soon drove the Kakatiya forces back.⁶⁹ For many years after that, the Godavari formed the eastern limit of their rule.⁶⁹

The reign ended in reverses.⁷⁰ By Parabrahma Sastry’s dating, about 1263 the Pandya king Jatavarman Sundara Pandya defeated the Kakatiyas and their Nellore allies at Muttukur.⁷⁰ He annexed Nellore and Kanchi.⁷⁰ Ganapati completed the fort at Orugallu, and moved the capital there from Anumakonda.⁶³

Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma end his reign in 1261.⁷¹ Parabrahma Sastry cites a Durgi inscription of 1269, which still treats Ganapati as the ruling king.⁷² So he holds that Ganapati was alive in that year, though no longer ruling.⁷²

Rudramadevi and the succession

Ganapatideva had no son, and he named his daughter Rudramadevi his heir.⁷²¹⁵ Parabrahma Sastry holds that she ruled jointly with her father from about 1259–60, and alone from 1262.⁷²¹⁵ Her records usually call her by a masculine name, Rudradeva Maharaja.⁷²¹⁵ For example, an inscription of 1276 at Bothpur is dated while “the Kakatiya king Rudradeva” was ruling the earth from Orugallu.⁷³

Inscriptions settled an old confusion about her.⁷⁴²³ The Kotagiri plates of 1273 call her Ganapati’s daughter.⁷⁴ But the late chronicles, and Henry Yule’s notes on Marco Polo, had made her Ganapati’s widow.⁷⁴²³

Her succession was opposed.⁷²⁷⁵ The Pratapa Charitra says that two sons of Ganapati by other queens, Harihara and Murari, seized the capital.⁷²⁷⁵ In Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma’s summary of the chronicle, she retook the city and put her half-brothers to death.⁷⁵ Both histories note that the princes are known only from this late work.⁷²⁷⁵ But both allow that it may preserve the memory of a real rebellion.⁷²⁷⁵

Loyal chiefs upheld her rule.⁷⁶⁷⁷ Among them were the Kayastha brothers Jannigadeva and Tripurari, and the Recherla chief Prasaditya.⁷⁶⁷⁷ The Velama family chronicle gives Prasaditya all the credit.⁷⁶⁷⁷ It gives him the titles “establisher of the Kakatiya kingdom” and “grandfather of kings”.⁷⁶⁷⁷ But other commanders bore the same or similar titles in inscriptions of 1275 to 1290.⁷⁶⁷⁷

Her reign faced pressure on several fronts.⁷⁸ For about sixteen years the Godavari region shows no Kakatiya records.⁷⁸ Parabrahma Sastry puts this down to the Eastern Gangas of Orissa, until her generals pushed them back.⁷⁸

The Yadava king Mahadeva besieged Orugallu.⁷⁸ The Pratapa Charitra says she drove him back to Devagiri.⁷⁸ A fragmentary inscription of hers at Bidar shows that her armies did advance into Yadava territory.⁷⁸

From the 1270s the Kayastha chief Ambadeva built up an independent state in the south-west of the kingdom.⁷⁹⁸⁰ He was allied with the Yadavas and the Pandyas.⁷⁹⁸⁰ In an inscription of 1290 at Tripurantakam, he claimed to have conquered all the kings of the Andhra country.⁷⁹⁸⁰

How and when she died is disputed.⁸¹ A Telugu inscription at Chandupatla is dated November 1289.⁸¹ It records a gift for the merit of Rudramadevi and her general Mallikarjuna-nayaka, both already dead.⁸¹ Parabrahma Sastry suggests that they fell in the war with Ambadeva, though the inscription does not say so.⁸¹

Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma wrote before the Chandupatla record was found.⁸² They dated her death to the end of 1294, and Prataparudra’s accession to 1295.⁸² Yule placed the transfer of power in 1292 or 1295.²³

Marco Polo wrote that Mutfili had been ruled for some forty years by a queen, whom he does not name.⁸³²³ She was a woman “of much discretion”.⁸³²³ She “was more beloved by those of her kingdom than ever was Lady or Lord of theirs before”.⁸³²³

Prataparudra

Prataparudra was the son of Rudramadevi’s eldest daughter Mummadamma and a Kakatiya prince named Mahadeva.⁸⁴ Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma add that Rudramadevi adopted him as her son and heir, at Ganapatideva’s command.⁸² He was often called Kumara Rudradeva, “Prince Rudradeva”, even after his accession.¹⁴ He already shared in the government and wars of his grandmother.¹⁴

His first task was Ambadeva.⁸⁵⁸⁶ In 1291 his generals drove the Kayastha chief from Tripurantakam, and other armies went against Nellore and the Yadavas.⁸⁵⁸⁶ Within about eight years the Kayastha territories were recovered.⁸⁵⁸⁶ In 1294 a Kakatiya feudatory took Raichur and Adoni in the Krishna–Tungabhadra doab.⁸⁵⁸⁶

He then reorganised the military system, the nayankara.⁸⁷⁸⁸ Under it, commanders held land for keeping troops for the king.⁸⁷⁸⁸ Records of his reign call him lord of nine lakh archers.⁸⁷⁸⁸

Later in the reign his armies went south.⁸⁹⁹⁰ About 1316–17 his generals took Kanchi, defeated the Pandyas and reinstated Sundara Pandya.⁸⁹⁹⁰ They also fought the Hoysala Ballala III and the small kingdom of Kampili.⁸⁹⁹⁰

The Delhi invasions and the fall

The armies of the Delhi Sultanate came to Warangal several times between 1303 and 1323.⁸⁷ Parabrahma Sastry counts seven encounters, several of them ended by heavy tribute.⁸⁷

The first expedition under Ala-ud-din Khalji, in 1303, failed.⁹¹⁸⁷ Barani says it arrived in the rains and returned much reduced.⁹¹ The Velama chronicle credits the Kakatiya commanders Venna and Potugamti Maili with checking it at Upparapalli.⁸⁷

In 1309–10 Malik Kafur besieged Warangal for about twenty-five days.²¹⁹²⁸⁷ Amir Khusrau and Barani describe the storming of the outer mud wall.²¹⁹² After it, “Rai Laddar Deo” gave up his treasure, with elephants and horses, and promised yearly tribute.²¹⁹²⁸⁷ In 1318 Khusrau Khan came to demand the tribute again, and Prataparudra ceded five districts.⁹³⁹⁴

Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq sent his son Ulugh Khan, later Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, against Warangal.⁹⁵⁹⁶ The first siege collapsed when false rumours of the Sultan’s death set off a mutiny in the Delhi camp.⁹⁵⁹⁶ Ulugh Khan returned with fresh troops, and took Bidar and Bodhan on the way.⁹⁵⁹⁶ He captured Warangal, and its name was changed to Sultanpur.⁹⁵⁹⁶

Barani dates the campaign to 721 AH (1321).⁹⁷ The Imperial Gazetteer gives 1321 for the end of Kakatiya rule.⁹⁸ Parabrahma Sastry follows the contemporary historian Isami, and places the final five-month siege in 1323.⁹⁶

Prataparudra was sent towards Delhi as a prisoner.⁹⁹ According to the Vilasa grant of the Musunuri chief Prolaya Nayaka, he died on the banks of the Narmada on the way.⁹⁹ A Reddi grant of 1423 says that he departed to the world of the gods by his own wish.⁹⁹ Parabrahma Sastry reads this as suicide, or a death he asked for.⁹⁹ The fuller story of these campaigns and their aftermath belongs to the post-Kakatiya period.

After 1323: claimed successors

No inscription of any later Kakatiya king has been found, as Hirananda Sastri noted in 1932.¹⁰⁰ The Pratapa Charitra says that Prataparudra’s son Virabhadra was crowned by the late king’s brother Annamadeva.⁹⁹¹⁰¹ Annamadeva then left for the north-east.⁹⁹¹⁰¹ Parabrahma Sastry called this groundless.⁹⁹

Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma suggested that the chronicler had confused the Kakatiya king with the Gajapati king Prataparudra of Orissa.¹⁰¹ That king’s son Virabhadra was a famous warrior.¹⁰¹ Ferishta speaks of a “Kishan Nayak”, called a son of Prataparudra, who led a rising against the Delhi governors.¹⁰¹ In their view he was the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka, not a Kakatiya.¹⁰¹

The rajas of Bastar, in central India, traced their descent from Annamaraja.^102103104 An inscription of Samvat 1760 (1702–03) at Dantewara calls him a brother of “Kakati Prataparudra”.^102103104 Its editor Hira Lal doubted that the line went back to the Kakatiya king.¹⁰²¹⁰³ The genealogy allots too few generations to four centuries, so he suggested a later Prataparudra.¹⁰²¹⁰³

Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma wrote in one place that no contemporary record knows of Annamadeva.⁸²¹⁰⁵ In another place they wrote that Prataparudra “certainly had” such a brother.⁸²¹⁰⁵ Parabrahma Sastry thought the claim needed further examination.⁹⁹ Cynthia Talbot thought the founder of the Bastar family was probably a Telugu warrior who knew the Kakatiya legends.¹⁰⁴

Government

The king and the subordinate chiefs

The Kakatiya kings kept the title mahamandaleshvara, at first a feudatory’s rank, throughout their rule.¹⁰⁶ Parabrahma Sastry argued that they never claimed imperial status.¹⁰⁶ Allied chiefs, such as the Telugu Chodas of Nellore and the coastal mandalikas (local rulers), kept their own administrations.¹⁰⁶ Many of their inscriptions do not even name the Kakatiya king.¹⁰⁶

Even a copper-plate decree issued by Ganapatideva himself in 1246 says only that Kakatiya Ganapatideva was ruling the earth.¹⁰⁷ It does not use the title mahamandaleshvara.¹⁰⁷ Parabrahma Sastry saw in this a deliberate, decentralised polity, in which the king demanded only military loyalty.⁶¹⁰⁸ He noted that the one great breach of loyalty was Ambadeva’s revolt.⁶¹⁰⁸

Some records do use grander language.¹⁰⁹¹¹⁰ The Pakhal lake inscription calls Ganapati an emperor (chakravartin).¹⁰⁹¹¹⁰ A record of 1292 at Terala gives Prataparudra the title narendra-chakravarti, emperor among kings.¹⁰⁹¹¹⁰

Cynthia Talbot argued that the polity changed under the last two rulers.¹¹¹ It moved from loose alliances with old aristocratic families to direct ties with large numbers of new warriors.¹¹¹

Ministers, offices and divisions

The highest officers were the mahapradhanas (chief ministers).¹¹² Below them came officers called pradhanis, preggadas, amatyas and mantris, whose ranks the inscriptions do not distinguish.¹¹² The administration was divided into seventy-two niyogas, or branches, under an officer called the bahattara-niyogadhipati.¹¹²

The Kayastha chief Gangaya Sahini held the post under Ganapatideva.¹¹² After him came the Induluri minister Gannaya and Pomkala Mallaya-preggada.¹¹² Parabrahma Sastry was not sure whether it carried real power or was a title.¹¹² Palace officers included the treasurer (sri-bhandaru), the keeper of the palace gate, and the bearers of the betel-bag and the royal fan.¹¹³

The kingdom was divided into nadus (districts), such as Kammanadu, Pakanadu, Renadu, Kandurunadu and Velanadu.¹¹⁴ The nadus were divided into sthalas (groups of villages) of about twenty villages each.¹¹⁴ The capital, with Anumakonda, Mattewada and Orugallu, formed a single sthala.¹¹⁴

Each sthala had its accountant, toll-collector and assessor.¹¹⁵ Each village had its ayagars (village servants), among them the watchman (talari) and the man who shared out tank water.¹¹⁵

Village assemblies and justice

Inscriptions show a society organised in corporate bodies.¹¹⁶ The “eighteen sects of people” (ashtadasa-praja) were represented by assemblies (samayas) of their communities, villages and sthalas.¹¹⁶ Brahman residents formed bodies of mahajanas.¹¹⁶

An inscription of 1292 near Inkirala records how the officer of a local chief politely asked the assemblies of three villages to levy a contribution for a temple.⁷ Parabrahma Sastry concluded that such assemblies had more power in village matters than the chiefs.⁷ At Penumuli, villagers rebuked in harsh words a royal officer who had imposed undue taxes on temple lands, and he remitted (cancelled) them.¹¹⁷

Disputes were settled by temporary bodies of mahajanas, with one or two royal officers present.¹¹⁸¹¹⁹ In 1214 Ganapatideva sent two ministers to settle a boundary dispute at Duggirala.¹¹⁸¹¹⁹ In 1246 he decided a quarrel over a canal in the Karimnagar region himself, after an inquiry among the villagers.¹¹⁸¹¹⁹

The nayankara system

Under the nayankara system, the king assigned villages to commanders (nayakas) in place of a salary.⁸⁸ Each kept a fixed number of elephants, horses and foot soldiers for the king’s wars.⁸⁸ The Nitisara states the rule.⁸⁸ Parabrahma Sastry dates the system to Rudramadevi, and its full organisation to Prataparudra.⁸⁸

Inscriptions of Prataparudra’s reign name such holdings:^117120121

• An officer held the nayankara of twenty-two villages around Penumuli.
• Another held the Konduru sthala of eighteen villages.
• Four lenkas (sworn followers) held Kopparam together.
• A special levy for the soldiers (bantela-ayamu) was collected in these holdings.^117120121

The later traditions tell a different story.^88122123 The Pratapa Charitra says that Prataparudra gave the seventy-seven bastions of his fort to seventy-seven nayakas.^88122123 He also divided a portion of the kingdom among them.^88122123 Twentieth-century historians called these nayakas Velamas.^88122123

The historians do not agree on how far to trust this.⁸⁸⁸² Parabrahma Sastry doubted that all of them were Velamas.⁸⁸ Inscriptions, he noted, name nayakas and lenkas of other groups, including Reddis.⁸⁸ Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma found that the nayankaras were held by men of all classes.⁸² They found that their number was seventy-five rather than seventy-seven, and that there is no evidence that they defended the capital.⁸²

The Velama chronicle credits the Recherla chief Prasaditya with introducing the system under Rudramadevi.¹²⁴ Talbot pointed out that the chronicle calls the seventy-seven “Padmanayakas”, never Velamas.^123125111 Neither name appears as a warrior identity in Kakatiya inscriptions.^123125111 In her view the Padmanayaka identity was formed two centuries or more after 1323, partly from the memory of Prataparudra.^123125111

The army and the forts

Besides the troops of the nayakas, the king kept his own forces of elephants, cavalry and foot soldiers.¹²⁶ Their commanders were called gaja-sahini, ashva-sahini and senadhipati.¹²⁶ According to the chronicles cited by Parabrahma Sastry, Prataparudra had 100 elephants, 20,000 horses and 900,000 foot soldiers.¹²⁶ He reports these figures as tradition.¹²⁶

An unpublished inscription is said to record that Ganapatideva brought Gangaya Sahini from the north to train his cavalry.¹²⁶ The Kayasthas long commanded the Kakatiya horse, and Jaya commanded the elephants.¹²⁶ The kings often led their armies in person.¹²⁶ Next to them came a commander-in-chief (sakala-senadhipati), and soldiers received land in place of pay.¹²⁶

The capital was ringed by three walls:¹²⁷

• an outer earthen rampart round Kazipet and Anumakonda
• a great mud wall, with a moat and four gates, round Orugallu
• an inner fort of stone with its own moat¹²⁷

The stone fort has its own page, Warangal Fort.¹²⁷ The Kridabhiramamu describes its streets, markets and temples.¹²⁷

Revenue and taxes

Almost everything known about Kakatiya taxation comes from inscriptions that record gifts or remissions of dues to temples and Brahmans.¹²⁸ Many of the terms remain obscure.¹²⁸ Parabrahma Sastry divided the taxes into land taxes, taxes on industry and property, taxes on professions, commercial taxes and miscellaneous dues.¹²⁸ He thought that the Kakatiyas added new taxes to the Chalukya system, perhaps because of land reclamation and irrigation.¹²⁸

The basic land tax (pannu) was paid in coin.¹²⁹¹³⁰ The king’s share of the harvest (pangamu or koluchu) was paid in grain.¹²⁹¹³⁰ There were also tributes (kanika), grazing dues (pullari) and house taxes.¹²⁹¹³⁰ There were dues on oil mills, looms, potters’ wheels and other crafts.¹²⁹¹³⁰

Tolls (sunkamu) were levied in the markets, often on both sales and purchases.¹³¹ Their collection was farmed out to contractors, under the eye of royal assessors and accountants.¹³¹

Land that was not granted out belonged to the king.¹³²¹³³ It was leased to cultivators for a half, a third, a quarter or a sixth of the crop, according to its quality.¹³²¹³³ New settlers were allowed to clear land free of tax for several years.¹³²¹³³

Tanks and irrigation

Telangana has no great perennial river near the old capitals, and its farming depended on stored water.¹³⁴ Parabrahma Sastry credits the Kakatiyas with damming streams between hills to form large reservoirs.¹³⁴ He notes that building a tank was counted among the seven meritorious deeds (sapta-santana).¹³⁴

There was no department of irrigation.⁸¹³⁵ Tanks were built by kings, queens, ministers, chiefs, merchants and priests.⁸¹³⁵

• The Pakhal lake was built under Ganapatideva by Jagadalu Mummadi, son of one of his ministers.¹³⁶¹³⁷
• The Ramappa lake was built by Recherla Rudra in 1213.¹³⁶¹³⁷
• Ganapatideva’s sisters Mailamba and Kundamamba built the Bayyaram tank and the Kundasamudram.¹³⁶¹³⁷
• The general Malyala Chaunda built the Chaunda-samudram at Kondaparti.¹³⁶¹³⁷

Villages such as Ganapavaram, Rudravaram, Bayyaram and Muppavaram were named after the kings and queens who founded them.¹³⁸

Inscriptions show a market in water as well.¹³⁹ Owners of wells with water-lifts (ratanas), and of tanks and canals, sold water to their neighbours.¹³⁹ Temples received such rights as income.¹³⁹ Upkeep was paid for by a small share of the harvest, collected from the cultivators for the keeper of the tank.¹⁴⁰

Trade

In 1244–45 Ganapatideva set up a pillar at the port of Motupalli, with an edict of safety for sea traders.¹⁴¹¹⁴² In E. Hultzsch’s translation, it declares that “formerly kings used to take away by force the whole cargo” of ships wrecked on the shore.¹⁴¹¹⁴² But the king now granted “everything besides the fixed duty” to those who had braved the sea.¹⁴¹¹⁴² The duty was “one in thirty on (all) exports and imports”.¹⁴¹¹⁴² There were fixed rates for sandal, camphor, pearls, pepper, silks and areca-nuts.¹⁴¹¹⁴²

Yule identified Marco Polo’s “Mutfili” with this port.²³ Polo wrote of its diamonds and its buckrams (fine cloths).¹⁴³ The finest of these “look like tissue of spider’s web”, so that “there is no King nor Queen in the world but might be glad to wear them”.¹⁴³ Hultzsch concluded that Motupalli was the kingdom’s chief port in the thirteenth century.¹⁴⁴

Inland trade was carried on by guilds:¹⁴⁵

• local merchants (nakaramu, svadeshi)
• travelling merchants (paradeshi, ubhaya-nanadeshi)
• the old Ayyavali guild, which by now had become largely a name¹⁴⁵

A guild at Tripurantakam in 1292 included Reddis, nayudus and herders as well as merchants.¹⁴⁵ A Warangal fort inscription of Ganapatideva’s reign, of about 1228, lists the market quarters of the capital and the goods traded in each.¹⁴⁶¹⁴⁷ These were cloth, indigo, areca-nuts, betel, vegetables and fruit, grain and oil, salt, metals, perfumes, pearls and precious stones, and cotton.¹⁴⁶¹⁴⁷

Kings and chiefs licensed the guilds, ran weekly fairs (penta) with rented sheds, and appointed royal merchants.¹⁴⁸ The Nitisara warns the king against seizing merchandise and raising tolls.¹⁴⁹ It also warns him against barring foreign merchants and allowing false weights.¹⁴⁹

Society

Society was divided into the four classical varnas and many groups based on occupation.¹⁵⁰¹⁵¹ The inscriptions often refer to the people as a whole as “the eighteen sects”.¹⁵⁰¹⁵¹ Brahmans served as ministers and even generals, as the Induluri family of Induluri Annaya shows.¹⁵²¹⁵³ The ruling family itself was described in inscriptions as Shudra.³⁹

Women of the royal and chiefly families gave land and built temples and tanks, and some ruled.¹⁵⁴¹³⁶ Ganapatideva’s daughter Ganapamba governed the Kota country as a mahamandaleshvara after her husband’s death.¹⁵⁴¹³⁶

Temples were landlords, employers, banks and schools.¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁶ They employed priests, accountants, musicians, artisans and women dancers.¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁶ Parabrahma Sastry describes the dancers as married women attached to the temple to perform on behalf of donors.¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁶

Religion

The early Kakatiyas were close to Jainism.⁴¹ Beta I made a gift to a Jain temple at Sanigaram.⁴¹ In 1117 the wife of Prola II’s minister built a Jain temple on the Padmakshi hill at Anumakonda.⁴¹ Beta II and his sons were initiated into the Kalamukha school of Shaivism by Rameshvara Pandita, head of a monastery at Srisailam.¹⁵⁷¹⁵⁸

Under Ganapatideva the royal teachers came from the Pashupata Golaki monastery.¹⁵⁹¹⁶⁰ Its head Vishveshvara Shambhu initiated the king.¹⁵⁹¹⁶⁰ In 1261 he received the village of Mandadam from Rudramadevi.¹⁵⁹¹⁶⁰ There he founded a monastery, a college, a feeding house and a maternity home.¹⁵⁹¹⁶⁰ The family deity was Svayambhudeva, the Shiva of the great temple at the centre of the Warangal fort.¹⁶¹²⁶

Other Shaiva movements grew without royal patronage.¹⁶² The Aradhya teachers, among them Mallikarjuna Panditaradhya, preached across the Telugu country.¹⁶² Palkuriki Somanatha wrote the Telugu scriptures of the Virashaiva faith of Basava.¹⁶²

The kings also worshipped Vishnu.¹⁶³ The boar emblem and the shrines of Vasudeva in their triple temples show it.¹⁶³ Prataparudra’s general gave a village to the god Ranganatha at Srirangam.¹⁶³

Buddhism survived in a few places.¹⁶⁴¹⁶⁵ Rudradeva’s minister Gangadhara set up an image of the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu.¹⁶⁴¹⁶⁵ A chief of Rudradeva’s time wrote that the Shaiva, Vaishnava, Jain and Buddhist faiths differed only in appearance.¹⁶⁴¹⁶⁵

Literature

Sanskrit held the first place in learning.¹⁰ The Thousand Pillar Temple inscription is a short poem by Achintendra.¹⁰ The Bothpur inscriptions of Malyala Gunda include a verse arranged in circles, one inside another.¹⁰

Vidyanatha’s Prataparudriya is still studied as a manual of poetics.¹⁶⁶ Jaya wrote the Nritta Ratnavali, a treatise on dance with a chapter on the regional dances of Andhra.¹⁶⁶ Sakalya Malla wrote the Udattaraghava.¹⁶⁶ The general Kolani Rudra, of the Induluri family, wrote a commentary on grammar.¹⁶⁶ Verses of a court poet named Narasimha survive on the Ekashila rock, the gateways of Warangal fort and a hillock at Ursu near Warangal.¹⁶⁷

In Telugu, Tikkana continued the Mahabharata at the court of the Nellore Chodas.^168169170 His disciple Marana wrote the Markandeya Purana for a commander of Prataparudra.^168169170 The Ranganatha Ramayana, in the native dvipada metre, was written by or for Gona Budda Reddi.¹⁷¹¹⁷⁰ The Bhaskara Ramayana, written by several hands, was dedicated in part to the cavalry officer Maraya Sahini.¹⁷¹¹⁷⁰

Palkuriki Somanatha’s Basava Purana and Panditaradhya Charitra are the main works of Telugu Shaiva literature.¹⁷² Baddena, a Telugu Choda chief, wrote the Nitisastra Muktavali, and is said to be the author of the Sumati Satakam.¹⁷²¹⁷³

Dates are uncertain.^172174162 Some scholars attribute the Nitisara to Rudradeva, and others to Prataparudra.¹⁷² Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao placed Palkuriki Somanatha in Rudradeva’s reign.¹⁷⁴ Parabrahma Sastry made him a contemporary of Prataparudra.¹⁶²

Art and architecture

The Kakatiya builders inherited the style of the Western Chalukyas.¹⁷⁵ They used local granite and sandstone for walls, and black stone for pillars, doorways and sculpture.¹⁷⁵ They built superstructures (the towers above the shrines) of brick.¹⁷⁵

The main surviving works are these:¹⁷⁶

• Rudradeva’s Thousand Pillar Temple at Hanamkonda
• Recherla Rudra’s Ramappa temple at Palampet, of 1213
• the four gateways of the Svayambhu temple in Warangal Fort¹⁷⁶

Parabrahma Sastry noted that most of the surviving monuments, apart from the Thousand Pillar Temple, were built not by the kings.¹⁷⁷ They were built by their generals of the Recherla family, at Palampet, Ghanpur, Pillalamarri and Nagulapadu.¹⁷⁷ Bracket figures, Nandis and dancers in the friezes are typical.¹⁷⁸ The dancers have been compared with the regional dances described by Jaya.¹⁷⁸

Coins and measures

Each king carried a title ending in gaja-kesari, likening him to a lion facing elephants.¹⁷⁹¹⁸⁰ The titles appear on seals, coins, standard measures and even tanks:¹⁷⁹¹⁸⁰

• Prola I and Prola II used ari-gaja-kesari.
• Ganapatideva and Rudramadevi used raya-gaja-kesari.
• Rudradeva and Prataparudra used daya-gaja-kesari.¹⁷⁹¹⁸⁰

The seal of the Khandavalli copper plates bears the legend Dayagajakesari.¹⁸¹¹² This allowed Parabrahma Sastry to assign gold coins with the boar and that legend to Prataparudra.¹⁸¹¹² Coins with the legend “Kakati Prataparudra” had earlier been shown to belong to the Gajapati king of that name.¹⁸¹¹² The gold gadyana, or mada, was the standard coin.¹⁷⁹

Evidence and disagreements

• Origin. Parabrahma Sastry derived the family from Gundyana, a Rashtrakuta general of about 956.³⁵ Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma rejected the link.³⁴ Older writers made them Eastern Chalukya feudatories.³³
• Sovereignty. Fleet saw Rudradeva as throwing off the Chalukya yoke.⁴⁹ Parabrahma Sastry saw no revolt.⁵³
• Rudradeva’s death. Killed by the Yadavas, according to Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma.⁵⁷ No evidence for this, according to Parabrahma Sastry.⁵⁸
• Rudramadevi’s reign. About 1259–60 or 1262 to 1289 (Parabrahma Sastry, after the Chandupatla inscription).⁷² 1259–1295 (Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma).¹⁸² Or to 1292 or 1295 (Yule).²³
• Rudramadevi’s daughters. Three, the second married to the Yadava prince Ellanadeva (Parabrahma Sastry, from the Alapadu grant).¹⁸³ Or two (Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma).¹⁸⁴
• Prataparudra’s status. Grandson and successor (Parabrahma Sastry).⁸⁴ Or grandson adopted as son and heir (Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma).⁸²
• The nayakas. Seventy-seven Velamas (the chronicle as read by twentieth-century historians).⁸⁸ Seventy-five men of all classes (Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma).⁸² Or Padmanayakas, a later identity (Talbot).¹²⁵
• The end. Warangal fell in 1321 (Barani, Imperial Gazetteer) or 1323 (Parabrahma Sastry, after Isami).⁹⁷⁹⁸⁹⁶

Memory

The Kakatiyas were remembered long after 1323.^185186187 Chiefs who rose after the fall, such as the Musunuri and Recherla Nayakas and the Reddis, presented themselves as heirs of the Kakatiya kings.^185186187 The Pratapa Charitra made Warangal’s seventy-seven bastions a picture of the whole kingdom.^185186187 Talbot found that later warrior families of Telangana remembered Prataparudra, rather than Ganapatideva, as the king who raised humble fighters to high rank.¹¹¹¹⁰⁴

For a detailed, source-by-source history of the dynasty, see kakatiya.info↗ (opens in a new tab).

Footnotes

1. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 1. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 2. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), p. 233 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 177. ↩ ↩²

5. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 113. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 176. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 186. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 204. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 254. ↩ ↩²

10. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 293. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

11. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 3–6. ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 6. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

13. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 7. ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 129. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

15. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 8–9. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

16. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 9–10. ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 9. ↩ ↩² ↩³

18. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 10–11. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

19. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 11–12. ↩ ↩² ↩³

20. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 12. ↩

21. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), pp. 83–84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

22. Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. II (1903), p. 360 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

23. Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. II (1903), p. 362, note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

24. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 22–23. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

25. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXVIII”, Indian Antiquary XI (1882), p. 12, citing A. C. Burnell (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

26. E. Hultzsch, “Motupalli Pillar-Inscription of Ganapatideva”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1913–14), p. 188 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

27. E. Hultzsch, “Motupalli Pillar-Inscription of Ganapatideva”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1913–14), p. 189 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

28. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 308. ↩ ↩²

29. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 149. ↩

30. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 148. ↩

31. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 14–15. ↩ ↩²

32. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 14. ↩

33. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

34. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 577. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

35. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 15–16. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

36. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 26. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

37. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 27. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

38. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 28. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

39. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 29. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

40. P. Sreenivasachar, A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part I (1942), p. 31 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

41. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 272. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

42. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 45. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

43. S. Hanumant Rao and Lakshmi Kanta Sastri, The Kotagiri Plates of the Reign of the Kakatiya Queen Rudramamba (1925), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

44. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 41–43. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

45. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), p. 29 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

46. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 47–50. ↩ ↩² ↩³

47. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 74–87. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

48. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXVIII”, Indian Antiquary XI (1882), p. 17 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

49. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXVIII”, Indian Antiquary XI (1882), p. 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

50. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 76–87. ↩

51. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXVIII”, Indian Antiquary XI (1882), pp. 17–18 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

52. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 88–97. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

53. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 96–97. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

54. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 98. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

55. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 101. ↩ ↩²

56. E. Hultzsch, “Ganapesvaram Inscription of the Time of Ganapati”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 83 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

57. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), pp. 598–599. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

58. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 99–100. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

59. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 100. ↩

60. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 103. ↩ ↩²

61. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 103–104. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

62. E. Hultzsch, “Yenamadala Inscription of Ganapamba”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 101, verse 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

63. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 116. ↩ ↩² ↩³

64. L. D. Barnett (ed.), Inscriptions at Palampet and Uparpalli (1919), p. 9, verse 24 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

65. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 106. ↩ ↩²

66. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 107–108. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

67. E. Hultzsch, “Ganapesvaram Inscription of the Time of Ganapati”, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

68. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 109. ↩ ↩² ↩³

69. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 110–112. ↩ ↩² ↩³

70. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 114–115. ↩ ↩² ↩³

71. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 599. ↩

72. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 118. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

73. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), No. 50, translation, p. 141 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

74. S. Hanumant Rao and Lakshmi Kanta Sastri, The Kotagiri Plates of the Reign of the Kakatiya Queen Rudramamba (1925), p. v (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

75. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), pp. 621–622. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

76. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 119. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

77. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 622. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

78. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 120–121. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

79. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 122–124. ↩ ↩² ↩³

80. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 159–160. ↩ ↩² ↩³

81. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 125–126. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

82. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 642. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

83. Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. II (1903), pp. 359–360 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

84. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 128. ↩ ↩²

85. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 130–131. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

86. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 161. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

87. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 132. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

88. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 195. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

89. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 133–135. ↩ ↩² ↩³

90. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 179 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

91. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), p. 189 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

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93. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), pp. 560–561 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

94. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 134. ↩

95. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), pp. 231–233 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

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97. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. III (1871), p. 231 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

98. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 11 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

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100. Hirananda Sastri, Shitab Khan of Warangal (1932), p. 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

101. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 658. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

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104. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 193. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

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106. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 175–176. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

107. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 178. ↩ ↩²

108. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 179. ↩ ↩²

109. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 260. ↩ ↩² ↩³

110. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 261. ↩ ↩² ↩³

111. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 192. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

112. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 192. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

113. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 194. ↩

114. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 191–192. ↩ ↩² ↩³

115. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 193. ↩ ↩²

116. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 180–181. ↩ ↩² ↩³

117. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 187. ↩ ↩² ↩³

118. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 189. ↩ ↩² ↩³

119. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 190–191. ↩ ↩² ↩³

120. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 195–196. ↩ ↩²

121. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 221. ↩ ↩²

122. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 187. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

123. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 190. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

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125. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 191. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

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127. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 174. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

128. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 211–212. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

129. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 214–218. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

130. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 222–228. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

131. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 231–235. ↩ ↩²

132. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 202. ↩ ↩² ↩³

133. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 212. ↩ ↩² ↩³

134. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 203. ↩ ↩² ↩³

135. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 198–199. ↩ ↩²

136. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 205. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

137. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 206. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

138. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 199. ↩

139. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 207–208. ↩ ↩² ↩³

140. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 208. ↩

141. Hultzsch, “Motupalli Pillar-Inscription of Ganapatideva” (1913–14), translation, p. 196 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

142. Hultzsch, “Motupalli Pillar-Inscription of Ganapatideva” (1913–14), translation, p. 197 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

143. Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. II (1903), p. 361 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

144. E. Hultzsch, “Motupalli Pillar-Inscription of Ganapatideva”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1913–14), p. 190 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

145. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 241. ↩ ↩² ↩³

146. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 242. ↩ ↩²

147. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 247. ↩ ↩²

148. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 244–249. ↩

149. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 253–254. ↩ ↩²

150. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 270. ↩ ↩²

151. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 180. ↩ ↩²

152. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 117. ↩

153. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 163. ↩

154. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 166. ↩ ↩²

155. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 283–286. ↩ ↩² ↩³

156. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 289. ↩ ↩² ↩³

157. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 274. ↩

158. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), p. 30 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

159. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 275–277. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

160. P. Sreenivasachar, A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part I (1942), pp. 19–20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

161. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 282. ↩

162. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 278. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

163. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 279–280. ↩ ↩² ↩³

164. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 271. ↩ ↩² ↩³

165. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 273–274. ↩ ↩² ↩³

166. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 293–295. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

167. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 295–296. ↩

168. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 296. ↩ ↩²

169. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 298. ↩ ↩²

170. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 57 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

171. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 297–298. ↩ ↩²

172. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 299. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

173. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 56 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

174. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 51 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

175. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 299–300. ↩ ↩² ↩³

176. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 300–302. ↩ ↩²

177. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 157. ↩ ↩²

178. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 303. ↩ ↩²

179. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 262. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

180. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 142. ↩ ↩² ↩³

181. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 258–259. ↩ ↩² ↩³

182. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 620. ↩

183. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 5–6. ↩

184. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 641. ↩

185. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 178. ↩ ↩² ↩³

186. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 179. ↩ ↩² ↩³

187. Cynthia Talbot, Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra (2001), p. 182. ↩ ↩² ↩³