Musunuri Nayakas

The Musunuri Nayakas were a family of Telugu warrior chiefs.¹²³ They led the recovery of the Telugu country from the Delhi Sultanate in the years after Warangal fell in 1323.¹²³ Only two of them, Prolaya Nayaka and his cousin Kapaya Nayaka, are known from their own records.¹²³

Their story was pieced together in the twentieth century from a handful of copper plates and stone inscriptions, and from the Persian histories of Delhi and the Deccan.¹²³ The family was of the fourth caste, the Sudras.⁴⁵ It bore the Telugu title nayaka (military chief), which the officers of the Kakatiya kings had held.⁴⁵ The Kakatiya background and the Delhi conquest are told on the pages of the Kakatiyas and of the Delhi Sultanate in the Telugu country.

The sources

Five kinds of evidence are used:

• The Vilasa grant of Prolaya Nayaka is a Sanskrit copper-plate charter of about 1330, published only in 1957–58.⁶⁷ It is the one record issued by Prolaya himself.⁶⁷
• Kapaya’s Guraja grant of February 1346 gives the family’s pedigree.⁸⁹
• Stone inscriptions of his reign survive at Ganapesvaram (Saka 1268, that is 1346–47; Saka is an Indian way of counting years) and at Pillalamarri, where one of his servants set up a record in 1357.⁷¹⁰
• Copper plates of neighbouring families mention Kapaya or both chiefs. They are the Akkalapundi grant of 1368 and the Kaluvacheru grant of the Reddi queen Anitalli of 1423.¹¹²
• The Persian historians Barani, Ferishta and the author of the Burhan-i Ma’asir describe a Hindu leader of Warangal under the names Kanya Naik, Krishna Naik and Kanabayand.¹²¹³¹⁴ Modern historians identify this leader with Kapaya.⁷

Prolaya Nayaka and the coast

The Vilasa grant gives a vivid picture of the country after the Delhi conquest.⁴¹⁵ It says that when Prataparudra died on the way to Delhi, the land was plunged into the “darkness” of the Turushkas (Turks).⁴¹⁵ The rich were tortured for their wealth, and Brahmins were forced to give up their rites.⁴¹⁵ Temples were desecrated, and the villages granted to scholars were seized.⁴¹⁵

Then Prola of the Musunuri family took up the rule of the earth.⁴¹⁵ The grant says that he was born as a portion of the god Vishnu.⁴¹⁵ He drove out the Yavanas (foreigners) from their forts and gave back the Brahmins’ villages.⁴¹⁵ He made his capital at Rekapalli, on the Godavari at the foot of the Malyavanta hill.¹⁵⁷ He left the administration to his younger brothers, among them Kapaya-nayaka.¹⁵⁷ See Rekapalli.

The editors of the grant drew on other records of the time to show that Prolaya headed a group of allied chiefs.¹⁶ The Pentapadu grant of the Telugu Choda Bhaktiraja says that the Yavanas had seized the Andhra country.¹⁶ Then Prolaya-nayaka, son of Pochaya-nayaka, and a chief named Venga retired to a forest fort among the hills.¹⁶ Together they won the country back, destroying the Turushka horsemen in battle.¹⁶

The editors took these chiefs to have been among his allies:¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹

• Prolaya Vema, the founder of the Reddi kingdom¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹
• Kolani Rudradeva¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹
• Anna-mantri of Bendapudi¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹
• the Recherla chief Singaya-nayaka¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹

In their reconstruction the coastal plain had fallen to Delhi by September 1324, when Ulugh Khan’s officer built the great mosque at Rajahmundry.¹⁸¹⁶ A Reddi record of October 1325 marks the turn of the tide.¹⁸¹⁶ A record of 1326 marks the completion of the recovery of the coast.¹⁸¹⁶ See the Reddis of Kondavidu.

Kapaya Nayaka and Warangal

According to his own grant, Kapaya Nayaka was Prolaya’s cousin.⁹² He succeeded Prolaya and took Warangal from the Delhi governors.⁹² Barani’s history of the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq records that “a revolt broke out among the Hindus at Arangal”.¹² “Kanya Naik had gathered strength in the country. Malik Makbul, the naib-wazir, fled to Dehli, and the Hindus took possession of Arangal, which was thus entirely lost.”¹²

Ferishta tells the story differently.¹³ In AH 744 (1343–44; AH is the Islamic way of counting years), he says, “Krishn Naig, the son of Luddur Dew, who lived near Wurungole”, persuaded “Bilal Dew, Raja of the Carnatic” to join a rising of the Hindus.¹³ Robert Sewell names the Hoysala Ballala princes as Krishna’s allies in this rising.²⁰ With an army lent by Bilal Dew, Krishn Naig “reduced Wurungole, and compelled Imad-ool-Moolk, the governor, to retreat to Dowlutabad”.¹³ Modern historians read the Persian names as forms of Kapaya’s.⁷²¹ They place the capture of Warangal in about 1336–37.⁷²¹ See Warangal.

Kapaya’s inscriptions call him “lord of the Andhra country” and lord of the city of Anumanamgallu.¹⁰²² The Pillalamarri inscription of 1357 records that his servant Era-Potu-lemka restored the image of the god Erakesvara.¹⁰²² “Sultan Alavadin” had damaged it in the disturbances of the time.¹⁰²²

A neighbouring family boasted of its link with him.¹¹²³ According to the Akkalapundi grant of 1368, Mummadi-nayaka of Korukonda married Kapaya’s sister’s daughter.¹¹²³ The grant calls Kapaya the “Sultan of the Andhra country”.¹¹²³

The Bahmanis

When the officers of the Deccan rose against Muhammad bin Tughluq, the ruler of Telingana helped them.²⁴ Ferishta says that Zafar Khan, the future first Bahmani sultan, defeated the royal army at Bidar after “being joined by fifteen thousand infantry, sent by the Raja of Tulingana”.²⁴

The Burhan-i Ma’asir says that soon after Bahman Shah’s accession his general Sikandar Khan wrote to “Kanabayand, who was wali of Telingana”, asking for elephants.¹⁴²⁵ Kanabayand submitted and met him.¹⁴²⁵ He sent two elephants and other presents to the sultan.¹⁴²⁵

Ferishta says that Bahman Shah took Kaulas from the Raja of Warangal and made an alliance with him.²⁶²⁷ The raja was treated with forbearance (patience) for his earlier help.²⁶²⁷ He agreed to pay the tribute he had paid to Delhi.²⁶²⁷ See Kaulas and the Bahmanis.

Under Bahman Shah’s son Muhammad Shah I the alliance broke down. In Ferishta’s account the rajas of Vijayanagara and Telingana demanded the return of the lands taken by the late sultan.²⁸ The Raja of Telingana sent his son Vinaik Dew with an army to recover Kaulas.²⁸ Bahadur Khan defeated it, and forced the raja to pay a large sum and twenty-five elephants.²⁸

Then the sultan heard that Vinaik Dew had seized horses meant for him at Velumputtun.²⁹³⁰ He raided the town with four thousand horse and took the prince.²⁹³⁰ He had him thrown from a catapult into a fire.²⁹³⁰ The retreat cost him most of his men.³¹ Gribble calls the prince Nagdeo.³² Haig names him Venayek Deva, and the town Vailampallam, his fief “on the sea coast”.³³

The war ended with the loss of Golconda. Muhammad Shah sent one army against Golconda and another against Warangal, and spent nearly two years in Telingana.³⁴³⁵ The raja retired to the woods.³⁴³⁵ At last he gave three hundred elephants, two hundred horses and thirty-three lakhs of rupees.³⁴³⁵ He also gave up “in perpetuity the hill-fort of Golconda, with its dependencies”.³⁴³⁵

The sultan then signed a treaty “fixing Golconda as the boundary between his kingdom and the Raja’s possessions”.³⁵³⁶³⁷ The raja’s envoys presented a jewelled throne, first made as a gift for Muhammad bin Tughluq.³⁵³⁶³⁷ The sultan named it the Takht-i-Feroza.³⁵³⁶³⁷ Briggs renders the name as the “cerulean throne”, and Haig as the “turquoise throne”.³⁵³⁶³⁷

Haig dates the sultan’s first sitting on this throne at Gulbarga to 21 March 1365.³⁷ The Imperial Gazetteer dates the cession of Golconda to 1364.³⁸ See Golconda.

The end

The Recherla Velamas challenged Kapaya’s power from within Telangana.³⁹⁴⁰ V. Yashoda Devi describes a first clash in which the Recherla chief Singama Nayaka defeated Kapaya.³⁹⁴⁰ In a final war, she says, Singama’s son Anapota Nayaka marched on Warangal and defeated and killed Kapaya in a battle at Bhimavaram.³⁹⁴⁰

She dates the battle to 1368.^41421143 That is between the Akkalapundi grant, in which Kapaya is still the “Sultan of the Andhra country”, and the Inavolu inscription of July 1369.^41421143 In the Inavolu inscription Anapota rules Orugallu, Tribhuvanagiri and Rajukonda.^41421143 The Akkalapundi grant is dated Saka 1290 (1368–69), though she gives its date as 1366.^41421143

The editors of the Vilasa grant summarised the Kaluvacheru grant of 1423.² It says that after Kapaya’s death the seventy-five nayakas who had served him went to their own towns and ruled their own countries.² See the Recherla Velamas and the Inavolu inscription.

Evidence and disagreements

• Who freed the country. The Vilasa grant, and the Kaluvacheru grant as read by the editors of the Vilasa grant, give the credit to Prolaya.⁴² In 1916 K. Rama Sastri, following H. Krishna Sastri, cited a grant published in the Journal of the Telugu Academy, the Kaluvacheru grant.⁴⁴³ He cited it as saying that Kapaya “rescued the Andhra country from the ravages of the Muhammadans, immediately after the death of the Kakatiya king Prataparudra”.⁴⁴³ Barani and Ferishta name only the leader of the rising at Warangal.¹²¹³
• Prolaya and Kapaya. The Vilasa grant makes them brothers.¹⁵ The pedigree of Kapaya’s Guraja grant, followed by the editors of the Vilasa grant, makes them first cousins.⁹² Krishna Sastri, as cited by Rama Sastri, made them father and son.⁴⁴ M. Somasekhara Sarma in 1931 thought them possibly unrelated.⁴⁵
• Kapaya and the Persian names. Barani’s Kanya Naik, Ferishta’s Krishn Naig “son of Luddur Dew” and the Burhan-i Ma’asir’s Kanabayand were identified with Kapaya by Somasekhara Sarma (1931) and by the editors of the Vilasa grant.⁴⁶⁷ Haig (1928) took Krishna or Kanhayya Naik for “apparently a scion of the Kakatiyas”.⁴⁷
• The capture of Warangal. Yashoda Devi dates it about 1336–37, and the editors of the Vilasa grant before 1339.²¹⁷ The epigraphist’s report of 1934–35 puts it after 1335.⁹ Ferishta gives AH 744, 1343–44.¹³ In 1931 Somasekhara Sarma put it in 1345–46.⁴⁸
• The Bahmani war. Briggs’s Ferishta dates the seizure of the horses to the end of AH 773 (1371), which would be after the cession of Golconda.²⁸ Haig dates it to 1362.³³ The terms also differ: thirty-three lakhs of rupees in Briggs, and 1,300,000 huns in Haig.³⁴³⁷
• Kapaya’s end. Yashoda Devi, after the Velama chronicle, has him killed by Anapota at Bhimavaram about 1368.⁴⁰⁴¹ No public-domain source read for this page describes his death.⁴⁰⁴¹

Footnotes

1. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 249 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 250 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V (1931), pp. 217–218 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 241 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

5. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka” (1931), pp. 228–229 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

6. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant of Prolaya-nayaka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1957–58), p. 239 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 256 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

8. Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for the Year ending 31st March 1935 (1938), p. 73, para. 52 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

9. Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for 1934–35 (1938), p. 74 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

10. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), p. 113, No. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

11. K. Rama Sastri, “Akkalapundi Grant of Singaya-nayaka; Saka-Samvat 1290”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 260 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

12. H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. III (1871), p. 245, Barani’s Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. I (1829), p. 427 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

14. J. S. King, The History of the Bahmani Dynasty, founded on the Burhan-i Ma’asir (1900), p. 9 and notes 15–17 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

15. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 242 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

16. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 253 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

17. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 251 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

18. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 252 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

19. Venkataramanayya and Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant” (1957–58), p. 254 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

20. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 26 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

21. V. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), p. 49. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

22. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part II (1940), p. 114, No. 40, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

23. Rama Sastri, “Akkalapundi Grant” (1916), p. 272, translation, verse 25 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Rise of the Mahomedan Power, Vol. II (1829), p. 289 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

25. King, History of the Bahmani Dynasty (1900), p. 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

26. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 293 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

27. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 294 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

28. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 301 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

29. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 302 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

30. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 303 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

31. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 304 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

32. J. D. B. Gribble, A History of the Deccan, Vol. I (1896), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

33. Haig, Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 379 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

34. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 305 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

35. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 306 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

36. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), p. 307 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

37. Haig, Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 380 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

38. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 114 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

39. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), p. 52. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

40. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), pp. 63–64. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

41. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), p. 65. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

42. K. Rama Sastri, “Akkalapundi Grant of Singaya-nayaka; Saka-Samvat 1290”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 259 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

43. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of Andhra Pradesh, Part III (1956), p. 119, No. Wg. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

44. Rama Sastri, “Akkalapundi Grant” (1916), p. 261 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

45. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka” (1931), pp. 226–227 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

46. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka” (1931), pp. 230–232 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

47. Wolseley Haig (ed.), The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 169 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

48. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka” (1931), p. 228 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩