Chalukyas of Mudigonda

The Chalukyas of Mudigonda were a line of chiefs of Chalukya descent. They held the country between the Eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengi and the lands of the Chalukyas of Vemulavada. This country lies in today’s Khammam and Mahabubabad districts. Their history has to be pieced together from a few undated records.¹²³

The name

The first record of the family to be published, the copper-plate grant of Kusumayudha IV, calls it the Madugonda-Chalukyas of Mudugondu.¹ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry identified Mudugondu with the village of Mudigonda near Khammam.⁴

The grant addresses the people of the Manchikonda district.⁵ It names Koravi, the modern Kuravi, as a boundary of the gift village.⁵ The later Kukkunur plates call an ancestor “lord of Koravipura”.³ In Parabrahma Sastry’s view the family moved its capital from Koravi to a place called Bottu after about 973.⁶ After that it was known by Bottu as its family name.⁶

Under the Eastern Chalukyas

N. Venkataramanayya held that the chiefs were for a long time loyal feudatories of the Eastern Chalukyas.⁷² He cited an undated inscription at Koravi of one Peddana, a subordinate of Kusumayudha. In his summary, it says that the Rashtrakuta king Kannara Ballaha (Krishna II) invaded Vengi and seized the lands of the Ranamarddaka family.⁸ Then Kusumayudha won back his ancestral lands and tied the necklace of royalty on Chalukya-Bhima I.⁸ As his reward he ruled half of the kingdom.⁸

Venkataramanayya also read the Bezwada plates of Chalukya-Bhima I, issued at his coronation in 892, as made at the request of this Kusumayudha.⁸² F. Kielhorn edited the plates in 1899.⁹ He had translated the same word in the verse as an epithet of Bhima, who “gladdens the learned with the excellent god of love” (kusumayudha).⁹ He confessed that he did not see the exact force of the statement.⁹

The editors of The Early History of the Deccan (1960) wrote that Bhima escaped from his Rashtrakuta captivity with the help of Kusumayudha of the Mudugonda branch.¹⁰

Bijja and the fall of Govinda IV

The Vemulavada inscription and Pampa say that Arikesari II of Vemulavada sheltered a Chalukya prince named Bijja or Vijayaditya. The prince was hiding from the Rashtrakuta king Govinda IV. Venkataramanayya identified this prince with Bijayita, son of Kusumayudha I.¹¹¹²¹³ In his account Bijayita held the country from Kondapalli in the Krishna district to Koravi.¹¹¹²¹³

He suggested that Govinda’s army overran Bijayita’s lands on its way to fight Chalukya-Bhima II in Vengi.¹¹¹²¹³ Bijayita then fled to his neighbour Arikesari.¹¹¹²¹³

Parabrahma Sastry gave a different account.¹⁴¹⁵ In his reading a chief of the family named Gonaga took refuge with Arikesari II.¹⁴¹⁵ Gonaga’s younger brother Niravadya, named in the Koravi inscription, became king of Koravi with the help of Chalukya-Bhima II, about 934.¹⁴¹⁵

The two copper-plate grants

The Mogalcheruvula grant of Kusumayudha IV was found by Cecil Bendall in the Nizam’s treasury in 1899. It gives a village near Koravi to a Brahmana, and traces eight generations from Kokiraja to the donor. Bendall dated the letters to “about the eleventh century or later”.¹ By 1974 the whereabouts of its plates were not known.³ See the Mogalcheruvula grant.

The Kukkunur plates of Kusumaditya, in Telugu prose, give a different line of descent. It runs from Kariya-Gonaga of Koravipura to Bottu-Beta and his sons Kusumaditya and Nagati. They tell how Kusumaditya’s ministers took him into exile for twelve years and restored him to the Visuru-nadu.³

Bh. Lakshminarayana, the editor of the plates, joined the two genealogies.¹⁶ He took the Nijjayaraja and Kusumayudha at the head of the Kukkunur list to be Nijjiyaraja and Kusumayudha IV of the earlier grant.¹⁶ Parabrahma Sastry noted that this rests only on the likeness of the names.¹⁷ See the Kukkunur plates.

The Kakatiyas

The Mudigonda chiefs’ southern neighbours in Koravi were the early Kakatiyas. Parabrahma Sastry argued that the Kakatiya chief Gunda IV, after the fall of the Rashtrakutas in 973, drove the Mudigonda chief out of Koravi.⁴

P. Sreenivasachar published a Telugu inscription from Gudur in the Warangal district in 1942.¹⁸¹⁹ It praises Erra of the Viriyala family.¹⁸¹⁹ It says that Erra took up the cause of Bottu-Beta, killed his enemy and established him in the Koravi country.¹⁸¹⁹ It adds that Erra and his wife Kamasani helped the young Kakatiya chief Beta to the emperor’s favour.¹⁸¹⁹

Parabrahma Sastry dated the record to 1124, but held that it describes events of about 1000.²⁰¹⁴ He held that its Bottu-Beta was an earlier chief of the name than the father of Kusumaditya.²⁰¹⁴ Lakshminarayana took the two Bottu-Betas to be the same man.¹⁶ See Beta I.

Parabrahma Sastry held that the family kept Koravi as feudatories of the Chalukyas of Kalyani from about 1000 until the Kakatiyas became independent. In his account, the Kakatiya Rudradeva then sent his general Recherla Rudra against them.¹⁵ Recherla Rudra’s Palampet inscription of 1213 says that a Nagati-bhupala fled before him.¹⁵

Parabrahma Sastry identified Kusumaditya and Nagati with two brothers of those names in a Vengi inscription of 1218.²¹ He thought the family was later driven from Visuru-nadu by Ganapatideva.²¹ The last mention he found was of a Bottu Sriramabhadra, “lord of Koravipura”, in a late inscription at Srikakulam in the Krishna district.²¹

Evidence and disagreements

• Chronology. None of the family’s records is dated. Venkataramanayya’s dates for the first eight generations rest on an assumed date of about 1050 for Kusumayudha IV.² Parabrahma Sastry doubted Bendall’s eleventh-century date for the grant.⁴
• Founder. Bendall made Kokiraja the founder.¹ He thought that Polakesi and Ranamarda, also named in the grant, were ancestors of the queen-mother Achidevi.¹ Parabrahma Sastry began the genealogy with Ranamarda.⁴
• One family or two lines. Lakshminarayana joined the Kukkunur genealogy to the Mogalcheruvula one.¹⁶ Parabrahma Sastry treated the link as unproved.¹⁷
• Date of the Kukkunur plates. The government epigraphist’s report of 1971-72 put their letters at about the 11th century.²²²³ Lakshminarayana put them at about the beginning of the 13th.²²²³
• Bijja. Venkataramanayya identified Arikesari II’s guest with Bijayita.¹³ Fleet identified him with the Eastern Chalukya Vijayaditya IV.²⁴ Parabrahma Sastry named him Gonaga.¹⁴

Footnotes

1. C. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV”, Indian Antiquary XXXII (1903), p. 281 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 36, note 55 continued (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 353, reprinting Lakshminarayana (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 41, 52. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV” (1903), p. 284 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

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

7. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 33 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

8. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Grants: C. Bezvada Plates of Chalukya-Bhima I”, Epigraphia Indica V (1899), p. 130 and note 11 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and N. Venkataramanayya, “The Chalukyas of Vemulavada”, appendix C to “The Eastern Chalukyas”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 508. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

11. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 34 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

12. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 35, note 55 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 37, note 55 continued (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

14. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 55. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

15. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 56. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

16. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 354, reprinting Lakshminarayana (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

17. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 53. ↩ ↩²

18. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Dominions, Part II (1942), p. 78, No. 23, “Gudur Inscription of Kamasani” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

19. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part II (1942), p. 79, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

20. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 54. ↩ ↩²

21. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 57. ↩ ↩² ↩³

22. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 351, summarising the Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy for 1971-72, p. 20. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

23. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 352, reprinting Bh. Lakshminarayana, “Kukkunuru Plates of Kusumadya”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974), pp. 39–49. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

24. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 381 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩