Velanati Chodas

The Velanati Chodas, or chiefs of Velanandu, were a family of the western Krishna delta.¹² They governed the Vengi country for the Chola emperors in the 12th century.¹²

For a time they were the leading power on the Telugu coast, between the fall of the Eastern Chalukyas and the coming of the Kakatiyas. M. Rama Rao, writing in 1930, summed up their place: “they form a link between the Eastern Chalukyas and the Kakatiyas in the history of the Telugu country”.¹ Their capital was Chandavolu, the modern Tsandavolu in the old Repalle taluk.²

The name and the country

The name comes from the inscriptions. E. Hultzsch edited the family’s pedigree in 1897.² He noticed the Telugu possessive form Velananti before the name of Prithvisvara’s grandfather, and in many records of his predecessors.² So he called them “the chiefs of Velanandu”.²

He quoted Gordon Mackenzie’s Manual of the Kistna District (1883), where Velnad is “an old name for all the Tsandavolu country”.²³ Mackenzie also recorded that the early Telugu settlers called the Tsandavolu country Velnadu, “the outer or nether land”.⁴ In contrast, they called the Amaravati country Krorunadu, “new land”.⁴

An inscription at Draksharama says that Gonka III lived at Sanadavrolu in Velanandu.² This allowed Hultzsch to identify Tsandavolu as their former capital.² The Godavari District Gazetteer (1907) placed the Chandavolu country in “the western part of the Kistna delta”.⁵

Origins

The family traced its descent from the fourth, or Sudra, caste. Hultzsch called the earlier part of the genealogy in the Pithapuram inscription “perfectly fictitious”.²⁶ Its first ancestor, Indrasena, is said to have been adopted by the mythical king Yudhishthira.²⁶ A later Malla I is said to have taken the “Six-thousand” country (Shatsahasra) in alliance with Trinetra Pallava.²⁶

Hultzsch noted that the chiefs of Amaravati, the Kotas, claimed the same country “through the favour of the glorious Trinayana-Pallava”.⁶ The first ancestor with a date is Kudyavarman II, a vassal of the Eastern Chalukya king Vimaladitya (1015–1022).⁶ He received the two Gudravara districts, which Hultzsch connected with Gudivada.⁶

In 1917 H. Krishna Sastri read a set of copper plates of Rajendra Choda II, which the tahsildar (revenue officer) of Bapatla had lent him.⁷⁸⁹ They add that an ancestor named Malliya was a chief servant of the Eastern Chalukya Chalukya-Bhima II.⁸⁹ They also say that Nanna, from whom both genealogies agree, was a general of Rajaraja I.⁸⁹

Officers of Kulottunga I

The family rose with the Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I, who held Vengi through viceroys. According to the Pithapuram inscription, Gonka I ruled the Andhra country under Kulottunga’s orders.¹⁰ His nephew Vedura II won a battle against an unnamed Pandya king for the viceroy Vira-Choda.¹⁰

Vira-Choda rewarded him with “one half of his throne” and the country between two rivers.¹⁰ Hultzsch took the rivers to be the Krishna and the Godavari.¹⁰ A record of Gonka at Chebrolu is dated Saka 998 (1076; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).¹¹

Kulottunga then adopted Gonka’s son Choda, Rajendra Choda I.¹⁰ He gave him “the country of Vengi, which contained Sixteen-thousand (villages)”.¹⁰ Hultzsch placed this between 1100 and 1112.¹⁰

The Godavari District Gazetteer calls the family the most important of the petty rulers of Vengi after the departure of the last Chola viceroy in 1118.⁵ It adds that they were “apparently the admitted suzerains over the others”, that is, their accepted overlords.⁵

Between the Cholas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani

The Chola viceroy Vikrama Chola left Vengi for the south in 1118.¹² The Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI was then recognised in the country, and Rajendra Choda went over to him.¹² Hultzsch found that a Draksharama inscription of Rajendra Choda is dated both in Saka 1042 (1120) and in the forty-fifth year of Vikramaditya’s Chalukya-Vikrama era.¹³¹⁴ From this he concluded that after Kulottunga’s death the chiefs of Velanandu “became tributary to the Western Chalukya king” (paid him tribute).¹³¹⁴

The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1916 noted a record of 1132 calling him a subordinate of Vikramaditya VI.¹⁵ The same record calls him the victor over a certain Siddhi-Beta, perhaps a Telugu Choda.¹⁵ Rama Rao placed the Western Chalukya occupation and the Chola reconquest in this reign.¹⁶ See the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani.

Gonka II and Rajendra Choda II

Gonka II (1132–1163 in Rama Rao’s reckoning) is credited in the Pithapuram inscription with placing a golden pinnacle on the temple of Bhimanatha at Draksharama.¹⁰¹ It also credits him with ruling over all the kings between Kalahasti and the Mahendra mountain.¹⁰¹ Hultzsch explained that this meant the whole Telugu country.¹⁰¹

One of his titles was “Chalukya-rajya-bhavana-mulastambha”, the central pillar of the house of the Chalukya kingdom.¹⁴ Rama Rao called him “the most independent and glorious member of the family”.¹⁶ An inscription of 1154 at Karempudi records that his minister Isana-peggada built the temple of Suresvara there.¹⁷

Rajendra Choda II (1163–1181) is known from his copper plates, issued at Dhanadapuri (Tsandavolu).⁹ The tahsildar of Bapatla lent them for study in 1917.⁷ The plates are dated Saka 1091, the twenty-third year of the Chola king Rajaraja II.⁹ They call Rajendra Choda a general and vassal of Rajaraja.⁸⁹ He killed Bhima of Kolanandu, and received from Rajaraja the Andhra country bounded by the eastern ocean, the Kalahasti hill, the Mahendra mountain and Srisailam.⁸⁹

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry wrote that he remained loyal while Rajaraja II lived.¹⁸ In his account, after that king’s death in 1172 Rajendra Choda threw off Chola authority and made himself master of the coast from Darsi to Simhachalam.¹⁸ So the Kakatiya Rudradeva could not advance into coastal Andhra while he lived.¹⁸ Rama Rao, on the other hand, thought that Rudradeva had already taken the Tripurantakam region from the Velanati kingdom before 1162.¹⁹

The last chiefs and the Kakatiya conquest

Rajendra Choda II died in 1181.¹⁸ In Parabrahma Sastry’s account, his death and the civil war among the chiefs of the Palnadu together gave the Kakatiya Rudradeva his chance on the coast.¹⁸ See the Haihayas. Gonka III’s reign was short, and Rama Rao placed it between 1181 and 1186.²⁰

His son Prithvisvara issued the Pithapuram inscription of 1186.² It records a grant by his mother Jayambika to the temple of Kunti-Madhava at Pithapuram.² See the Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara. Hultzsch read the Pithapuram inscription of the Kona chiefs as showing that they were dependent on Prithvisvara.²¹ In his reading, Prithvisvara was still alive in 1195.²¹

Parabrahma Sastry described the end. Prithvisvara moved his seat from Chandavolu to Pithapuram.²²²³ About 1203 the Kakatiya general Malyala Chaunda took the island of Divi, where Prithvisvara’s subordinates held out.²²²³ Prithvisvara’s last record is of 1206, and he was later killed in battle against the forces of Ganapatideva, among them the Telugu Choda Tikka of Nellore.²²²³

In his view, an inscription of Ganapatideva at Idupulapadu in 1209 marks the annexation of Velanadu.²³ In 1213 Ganapati gave Chebrolu to his general Jaya.²³¹¹ According to Hultzsch, this is the earliest authenticated date of his reign.¹¹ Jaya’s inscriptions stand at Chebrolu and at Tsandavolu, “the capital of the chiefs of Velanandu”.²⁴ See the Chebrolu inscription of Jaya and the Ganapesvaram inscription.

Related families and neighbours

The Velanati chiefs stood at the head of a network of related families. Hultzsch found that Gonka III’s queen Jayambika came from the chiefs of the country “to the west of the hill” (Kondapadumati).¹³ Their inscriptions stand at Nadendla.¹³

Rama Rao added that Rajendra Choda II married Akkama of the same family.¹⁹ He also said that the Mandadi chiefs served as hereditary officers.¹⁹ Hultzsch took the Haihaya chiefs of the Kona country, in the Godavari delta, to be dependent on them.²¹ The mother of the Kota chief Keta II of Amaravati was a sister of a Gonka of Velanandu.²⁵

The Annual Report for 1914 noted a record at Peddakodamagundla.²⁶ In it, officers of Gonka III and of the Haihaya chief Kamaraja-Mallidevaraja shared the taxes of a village.²⁶ The village lay, the epigraphist thought, on the border of the two territories.²⁶

The Telugu poet Manchana’s Keyurabahucharitramu was dedicated to Nanduri Gundanna, grandson of Ketana, a minister of Prithvisvara.⁹ Its preface names the ministers of the family back to Govinda, minister of Gonka.⁹

Evidence and disagreements

• How many Gonkas, and when? Hultzsch (1897) assigned the records of Saka 1060–1079 (1138–1157) to Gonka III.¹⁴ He identified the Rajendra Choda of the records of Saka 1085–1102 (1163–1180) with Prithvisvara.¹⁴ The Godavari Gazetteer followed him, dating Gonka III to 1137–56 and Prithvisvara to 1163–1186.⁵ The Annual Report for 1916 also called Prithvisvara “Rajendra-Choda” and gave his records as Saka 1085 to 1121.¹⁵ In 1917 Krishna Sastri read the copper plates of a Rajendra Choda who was the son of Gonka II and Sabbambika.⁹ He suggested that most of these dates belonged instead to Gonka II and his son Rajendra Choda.⁹ Sewell’s table (1932), Rama Rao (1930) and Parabrahma Sastry (1978) follow this reading.²⁷¹⁹¹⁸
• Was there a Gonka III? Rama Rao noted that the Keyurabahucharitramu makes Prithvisvara a son of Choda, while the Pithapuram inscription puts a Gonka between them.¹⁹²⁰ He argued from three inscriptions that Gonka III existed and ruled jointly with his father from 1170.¹⁹²⁰
• The end of Prithvisvara. Mackenzie (1883) and the Godavari Gazetteer knew him only “down to 1186”.²⁸⁵ Hultzsch placed him alive in 1195.²¹ Parabrahma Sastry gives his last date as 1206 and his death in battle soon after.²³
• Which overlord did they serve? The inscriptions date the family’s records by the Chola–Chalukya kings, by Vikramaditya VI, or by neither.¹⁴ Parabrahma Sastry held that in the late 12th century none of the coastal chiefs was strictly loyal to the Chola king.²⁹

Footnotes

1. M. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 2 (October 1930), p. 65 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Prithvisvara; Saka-Samvat 1108”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 33 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

3. Mackenzie, Kistna District Manual (1883), p. 214 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. Mackenzie, Kistna District Manual (1883), p. 151 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 34 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (1917), Part II, para. 26, p. 118 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, paras. 26–27, p. 119 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (1917), Part II, paras. 27–28, p. 120 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

10. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 36 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

11. E. Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya; after Saka-Samvat 1135”, Epigraphia Indica V (1899), p. 143 and note 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 96 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

13. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

14. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

15. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1915–16 (G.O. No. 99, Home (Miscellaneous), 29 August 1916), Part II, paras. 48–49, p. 134 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

16. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs” (1930), p. 68 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

17. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 810, No. 522 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

18. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 98. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

19. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs” (1930), p. 71 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

20. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs” (1930), p. 72 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

21. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II; Saka-Samvat 1117”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 86 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

22. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 107, 150. ↩ ↩² ↩³

23. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 108. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

24. Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya” (1899), p. 150, postscript (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

25. E. Hultzsch, “Two Pillar Inscriptions at Amaravati”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1901), p. 148 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

26. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1913–14 (G.O. No. 920, Public, 4 August 1914), Part II, para. 41, p. 104 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

27. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), pp. 398–399, “Velanandu Chiefs” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

28. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 7 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

29. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 95. ↩