Kandur Chodas

The Kandur Chodas were a family of Telugu Choda chiefs who held the Kandurunadu country in southern Telangana in the 11th and 12th centuries. They held it first under the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani and then under the Kakatiyas. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry placed their rule, with Kodur and Panugallu as capitals, between about 1060 and 1160.¹ In his account, their lands were the present Jadcharla and Achampet taluks of the Mahbubnagar district and the Nalgonda and Miryalaguda taluks of the Nalgonda district.¹

Their history is known from their own Telugu and Kannada inscriptions.¹² It is also known from the victories over them claimed in the Kakatiya Thousand Pillar Temple inscription of 1163.¹²

Name and descent

In their records the chiefs traced themselves to the solar race and to the line of Karikala, the legendary Chola king, and called themselves lords of Kodur.³⁴ An inscription of 1178 at Mamillapalli likewise calls its donors sons of Udayaditya of the dynasty of Karikala-Choda of the solar race.⁵ A damaged inscription at Kandur itself, in the Mahbubnagar district, mentions the place and the god Ramesvara.⁶

Parabrahma Sastry read the Ollala inscription of 1098, published after 1965.¹⁷ He read it as tracing the family to a branch of the Chodas ruling the Eruva region, whose member Bhima I became lord of Panugallu.¹⁷ He wrote that Bhima’s grandson Choda Bhima II obtained Kandurunadu as a fief from Vikramaditya VI.¹⁷ In his account, the family therefore took the title “lord of the city of Kandur”.¹⁷

Under the Chalukyas of Kalyani

The earliest dated record of the family in the Telangana collections is a Kannada inscription at Kolanupaka. It is dated in the thirteenth year of Vikramaditya VI’s Chalukya-Vikrama era, 24 December 1088.⁴ It names the king’s feudatory, the mahamandalesvara (great provincial lord) Tondarasa Chola-maharaja of Kandur, as ruling the Kollipake seven-thousand province.⁴ It records his gift to the god Uttaresvara.⁴ See Tondaya II and the Kolanupaka inscription of Tondarasa.

Parabrahma Sastry identified this Tondarasa with Tondaya II, eldest son of Bhima II.¹⁷ He also cited an unpublished inscription at Panugallu of 1091.¹⁷ It records gifts to a Brahman who carried Bhima II’s ashes to the Ganga.¹⁷

In 1124 Tondaya’s widow Mailamba granted an agrahara (village given to Brahmans) called Choda-Bhima-Narayana-pura to 108 Brahmans at Panugallu.⁸ She made the grant for the welfare of her son Bhima.⁸ The inscription names her three sons, Udayaditya, Bhima and Gokarna.⁸ See the Panugallu inscription of Mailamba.

A damaged Kannada inscription at Panugallu describes a mahamandalesvara who held his office from the king’s son, Prince Tailapadeva.⁹ Parabrahma Sastry took this prince to be Kumara Tailapa, who held Kandurunadu as his appanage (estate given to a prince).¹⁰ In his account, the prince divided it between the brothers, giving Kandur to Bhima and Panugallu to Gokarna.¹⁰ A Telugu inscription of Gokarna at Panugallu records his grant of two village lordships to a minister’s son-in-law and his son.¹¹¹²

The quarrel of the brothers and the Kakatiyas

Rudradeva’s inscription of 1163, in J. F. Fleet’s translation, tells the end of Gokarna in a single image.² It compares his death to that of a house-mouse caught in dense darkness by a fine young cat.² It calls him “the serpent named Gokarna, who was of low birth, but who took himself to be a hero in the world”.² He “died instantly when he was seized by the terrible mungoose Bhima” (Bhima the mongoose).²

The poem goes on to say that a king Chododaya died of fear of Rudradeva.² It calls Bhima “the slayer of the best of brothers while he was engaged in eating”.² It says that after the death of king Tailapa he “assumed a transitory position of sovereignty” (ruled for a short time).²

Parabrahma Sastry dated Gokarna’s death to about 1128, after which no record of his is known.¹³¹⁴ He argued that Bhima acted with Kumara Tailapa against the loyal Gokarna.¹³¹⁴

The same inscription credits Rudradeva’s father Prola II with capturing and releasing one Govindaraja.¹⁵ It says that Prola then gave “his kingdom to king Udaya”.¹⁵

Parabrahma Sastry identified this Udaya as Udaya Choda II, Gokarna’s son.¹⁶¹⁷ He identified Govindaraja as the Western Chalukya general of that name, governor of the Kondapalli country, who had seized part of the Panugallu kingdom.¹⁶¹⁷ He dated Prola’s intervention to about 1131.¹⁶¹⁷

Rudradeva then turned on Bhima. Fleet’s translation describes how Rudradeva “sacrificed first the city of Vardhamananagari” in the fire of his anger.² In the poem, Bhima fled to the forests with his brother, his mother and his wife.²

Rudradeva pursued him and burned “the city of (the king) Chododaya”.² He cut down the forest that had been its fortress, and made a great lake in the centre of a city there.² The poem calls Rudradeva the “sole resting-place” of a goddess of fortune born from “the charming ocean of milk which is the lineage of Kandurodaya-Choda”.²

Parabrahma Sastry dated this campaign to the 1150s.¹⁰¹⁸ He cited an inscription of Bhima at Kistapuram that he placed in 1157.¹⁰¹⁸ He wrote that Rudradeva annexed Kandurunadu, married Udaya Choda’s daughter and let Udaya keep his fief.¹⁰¹⁸

The Cheraku chiefs, who had helped in the campaign, were rewarded with the upper Srisailam forest.¹⁸ According to Parabrahma Sastry, a quarter of the new city outside Warangal was called Panugantivada after Panugallu, one of the towns Rudradeva had plundered.¹⁹

Subordinates of the Kakatiyas

Udaya Choda II’s records run from 1136 to 1176. An inscription at Jedcherla is dated on 25 December 1162.²⁰¹³ In it, two customs officers of the mahamandalesvara Kanduru-Odaya Chola-maharaja grant five coins a month to the god of Kodur.²⁰¹³ The coins were called Gokarna-Singa rukas, and they came from the shop dues of the town.²⁰¹³ See the Jedcherla inscription.

An inscription of 1178 at Mamillapalli records gifts by two brothers, Bhima and Gokarna, sons of Udayaditya, to the god Narasimha.⁵ Parabrahma Sastry noted that the family went on holding its fiefs for another century without naming the Kakatiyas in its records.²¹ He found that its last known record is at Agamotukuru in the Miryalaguda taluk, in 1282, and that it refers to the reign of Rudramadevi.²¹

Evidence and disagreements

• Who was Tondarasa? The Kolanupaka record of 1088 names a Tondarasa Chola-maharaja of Kandur.⁴ Parabrahma Sastry made him Tondaya II, son of Bhima II, ruling while his father still lived.⁷
• The long life of Bhima III. Parabrahma Sastry dated Bhima III’s earliest record to 1105 and his last to 1157.¹⁰²¹ He explained the long span by the custom of issuing grants in the names of young princes.¹⁰²¹
• Which Tailapa? Fleet took the Tailapa of the 1163 inscription to be the Western Chalukya king Taila III.²²²³ Parabrahma Sastry argued for Kumara Tailapa, the prince of the Kandur country.²²²³ See Taila III.
• Chododaya’s city. Fleet offered an alternative reading, “the city called the lesser Chododayanagari”, and did not identify the place.²
• The brothers of 1178. The Mamillapalli inscription calls Bhima and Gokarna sons of Udayaditya.⁵ Parabrahma Sastry placed them as sons of Udaya Choda II, Bhima IV and Gokarna II.¹³

Footnotes

1. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 64. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXVIII” (1882), p. 18 and note 24 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. Desai, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1961), p. 18, No. 48 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

4. Desai, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1961), p. 19, No. 50 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part III (1956), pp. 61–62, Mn. 26 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. P. B. Desai, introduction to P. Sreenivasachar, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series 3, 1961), p. 11, No. 28 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 65. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

8. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part II (1940), pp. 105–108, No. 36 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Desai, Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1961), p. 20, No. 53 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

10. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 66. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

11. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, Part II (1940), p. 96, No. 32 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

12. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part II (1940), p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

13. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 67. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

14. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 78–79, 83. ↩ ↩²

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

16. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 79. ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 80. ↩ ↩² ↩³

18. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 95. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

19. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 101. ↩

20. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of Andhra Pradesh, Part III (1956), pp. 43–44, Mn. 12 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

21. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 68–69. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

22. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 81. ↩ ↩²

23. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 84. ↩ ↩²