Vishnukundins

The Vishnukundins were a royal family of the lower Krishna and Godavari valleys, the country later called Vengi. They came after the Salankayanas and before the Eastern Chalukyas.¹²

Almost all that is known of them comes from five copper-plate charters in Sanskrit, a sixth from Maharashtra attributed to them, and one damaged stone inscription.³⁴⁵⁶⁷ The charters record gifts of villages to Brahmins and to a temple and trace the kings’ descent.³⁴⁵⁶⁷ None of them is dated in an era, and modern dates for the dynasty differ by two centuries or more.⁸⁹¹

How the dynasty was found

The name first appeared in 1897, when F. Kielhorn published the Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II.¹⁰³ The plates had been found in a tank in the Tuni division of Godavari district.¹⁰³ Kielhorn knew of no other record that named the family.¹⁰³

H. Krishna Sastri described a second grant in 1909, the Ramatirtham plates of Indravarman, kept by a family of pandits near Vizianagaram.¹¹ E. Hultzsch edited them in 1914.⁴ In 1914 the epigraphy office examined the Polamuru plates of a Madhavavarman Janashraya, found in Godavari district.¹² Two more sets came to light in 1919–20 at Ipur in Tenali taluk, and Hultzsch edited both in 1924.¹³⁵

In 1925 the only stone inscription of the family was noticed on a marble pillar at Velpuru in Guntur district.⁷ The Khanapur plates from Satara district, found in 1927, were attributed to the Vishnukundins by V. V. Mirashi and Y. R. Gupte in their edition of 1956.⁶¹⁴ D. C. Sircar drew the evidence together in 1939.¹⁵

Origins and name

The grants use Vishnukundin as a family name. The Chikkulla plates call Vikramendravarman I’s birth “embellished by the two families of the Vishnukundins and Vakatas”.¹⁶ Where the family came from is disputed:

• Vinukonda. Kielhorn noted that the writer’s own language was Telugu, and that the kings worshipped the lord of Sriparvata.¹⁷ He took Sriparvata to be Srisailam in Kurnool district.¹⁷ He suggested that the family name survived in Vinukonda, a hill fort and town in Krishna (then Kistna) district about 60 miles east of Srisailam.¹⁷ He thought Vinukonda had been the Vishnukundin capital.¹⁷ Jouveau-Dubreuil called Vinukonda the probable cradle of the family.¹⁸ K. R. Subramanian reported the connection without endorsing it. He noted that Vishnukundin is not found in the lists of Brahmin gotras (clans).¹⁹
• The Srisailam region. Sircar took Sriparvatasvamin, the god named in every Vishnukundin grant, to be the family deity. He concluded that the family’s original home was not far from Srisailam.²⁰ Subramanian likewise traced their earliest associations to Srisailam. He thought they began as rulers of that region under the Vakatakas and moved into the coastal plain about 460.¹⁹²¹
• A northern family. Krishna Sastri argued in 1909 that the Vishnukundins, kinsmen of the Vakatakas of the north, must have been “distinctly a northern family”.¹¹ He placed their early home in Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district, where he looked for Sriparvata.¹¹ The epigraphical report for 1919–20 found support for this in the Trikuta-Malaya and Trivaranagara of the Ipur plates.²² It placed these north of the Godavari.²²
• No link with the Satakarnis. Sircar was tempted to connect the name with the Vinhukada Chutukulananda Satakarnis of earlier inscriptions and coins, but rejected the idea. Those kings used metronymics and named their gotra, which the Vishnukundins never do.⁹

Sircar also reported traditions about a Madhavavarman of Vijayawada (then Bezwada), collected by K. V. Lakshman Rao. A 13th-century inscription at Vijayawada tells of a king Madhavavarman who put his own son to death for killing a poor woman’s son. A poem of about 1540 says that a Madhavavarman led four Rajput tribes into Telingana.²³ The Razu caste and the Maharajas of Vizianagaram claimed descent from him.²³ Subramanian too noted traditions linking a Madhavavarman with Vijayawada.²⁴ Neither writer connects these stories with the Vishnukundin grants by more than the name.²³²⁴

Territory and capitals

The grants name several royal seats, but most cannot be placed with confidence:

• Lendulura, the residence from which Vikramendravarman II issued the Chikkulla plates, was identified by J. Ramayya with Dendaluru (Denduluru), a village on the ruins of Vengi about five miles north-east of Eluru (then Ellore).¹⁷ Sewell and Aiyangar called Dendalur the family’s seat.²⁵ Sircar took the identification as proof that the Vishnukundins held Vengi after the Salankayanas.²
• [Ama]rapura, from which Madhavavarman II issued the second Ipur grant, was identified by Sircar, with “probably”, as Amaravati on the Krishna.²⁶²⁷ Subramanian placed it near Srisailam.²¹
• Trivaranagara, named in the first Ipur grant as a city whose young women the king delighted, is the most disputed. Hultzsch could not identify it.²⁸ The report for 1919–20 thought it was Tripuri.²² Mirashi and R. S. Panchamukhi took it for the city of Tivaradeva, king of Mahakosala (Chhattisgarh).²⁹³⁰
• Puranisangama (Ramatirtham plates) and Kudavada (first Ipur grant, a camp of victory) have not been identified. Sircar took Puranisangama to mean a camp at the confluence of a river Purani.⁴³¹³²

The villages granted give a better idea of the kingdom’s reach. Vikramendravarman II gave land on the Krishna near Ravireva, which Robert Sewell identified with Ravirela.⁸³³ Madhavavarman Janashraya’s Polamuru grant concerns the Guddavadi district of the Godavari delta.¹² Indravarman’s Ramatirtham grant gives a village in the Plaki district, which Krishna Sastri and Sircar placed in Visakhapatnam district or the Vizianagaram region.¹¹³⁴

The Velpuru pillar, near Amaravati, lies south of the Krishna.⁷ Panchamukhi described the Vishnukundin dominions as reaching from the borders of Kalinga to Guntur district.³⁵ Subramanian thought their hold south of the Krishna was brief, because of Pallava power there.²¹ Mirashi argued for a far wider empire under Madhavavarman I, taking in Maharashtra, as the Khanapur plates show, and Dakshina Kosala.³⁶

In Telangana

Two sets of copper plates found at Tummalagudem, in the Ramannapeta taluk of the Nalgonda district, carry the Vishnukundins into Telangana. Both grant villages to a Buddhist monastery. The first is dated in the thirty-seventh year of Govindavarman, son of Madhavavarman and grandson of Indravarman. The second is dated in the eleventh year of Vikramendravarman II and Saka 488 (566–67; Saka is an Indian way of counting years). The editor noted that this dated set helps to settle the disputed Vishnukundin chronology.³⁷³⁸³⁹

Its editor identified the city of Indrapura, where Govindavarman’s queen built the monastery, with the Indrapala Gutta near the findspot.⁴⁰ The second set also says that Vikramendra I was born of a Vakataka princess.⁴¹

A modern history of Telangana places the early kingdom north of Srisailam, in the Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar country.⁴²⁴³ It puts the first capital at Keesaragutta near Hyderabad or at Indrapura.⁴²⁴³ It says the capital was later moved east to Trivaranagara.⁴²⁴³ A short Brahmi inscription of about the fifth century on a boulder at Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad names a Govinda Vihara.⁴⁴ The published notice does not connect it with Govindavarman.⁴⁴

Kings

The grants give the following pedigrees, each running from father to son:

• Chikkulla plates: Madhavavarman, Vikramendravarman I, Indrabhattarakavarman, Vikramendravarman II.¹⁶
• Ramatirtham plates: Madhavavarman, Vikramendra, Indravarman.⁴⁵
• Ipur plates (set I): Govindavarman, Madhavavarman, with Madhavavarman’s son Manchyanna-bhattaraka as executor.³¹
• Ipur plates (set II): Madhavavarman, Devavarman, Madhavavarman.⁴⁶
• Polamuru plates: Vikramahendra, Govindavarman, Madhavavarman Janashraya.¹²

Hultzsch showed that Indravarman of the Ramatirtham plates was the Indrabhattarakavarman of Chikkulla.⁴ Two questions decide every reconstruction. First, was Govindavarman’s son Madhavavarman, who claims the same eleven horse sacrifices as the head of the Chikkulla line, the same king? Second, was Vikramahendra of the Polamuru plates the Vikramendravarman II of Chikkulla?⁴⁷⁴⁸³⁰ See Madhavavarman, Madhavavarman II, Indravarman and Vikramendravarman II.

Source	Order of kings
Epigraphical report, 1919–2022	Three separate groups: Madhavavarman I, Devavarman, Madhavavarman II; Govindavarman, Madhavavarman III; then the Chikkulla line followed by Vikramahendra, Govindavarman and Madhavavarman Janashraya. It thought Madhavavarman III and the Chikkulla Madhavavarman might be the same king
Jouveau-Dubreuil (1920)4933	Madhavavarman I, Vikramendravarman I, Indrabhattarakavarman, Vikramendravarman II (= Vikramahendra), Govindavarman, Madhavavarman II Janashraya
K. V. Lakshman Rao, in Sewell (1932)1	Madhava I, Devavarma, Madhava II, Vikramendra I, Indrabhattaraka, Vikramendra II, Govinda, Madhava III Janashraya, Manchanna-bhattaraka (?)
Subramanian (1932)50	Madhavavarman I, Devavarman, Madhavavarman II; Govindavarman I, Madhavavarman III; Vikramendravarman I, Indrabhattaraka, Vikramendravarman II, Govindavarman II, Madhavavarman IV Janashraya
Panchamukhi (1936)51	Madhavavarman I; his sons Vikramendra I and Devavarman (whose son Madhavavarman II ruled a collateral branch); Indrabhattaraka, Vikramendra II, Govindavarman Vikramashraya, Madhavavarman III Janashraya, Prince Manchanna-bhattaraka
Sircar (1939)529	Vikramahendra, Govindavarman, Madhavavarman I Janashraya; his sons Devavarman, Manchyanna and Vikramendravarman I; Madhavavarman II (son of Devavarman), Vikramendravarman I, Indravarman, Vikramendravarman II
Mirashi (1938, 1956)2953	Follows Sircar’s pedigree; Madhavavarman II ruled the west and Indravarman the east

The reign chart and family tree on this page follow Sircar’s scheme.⁹

Marriages

The Chikkulla plates say that Vikramendravarman I’s birth was embellished by the two families of the Vishnukundins and the Vakatas. The Ramatirtham plates call him an ornament of both families. Krishna Sastri and Hultzsch took this to mean that his mother, the wife of Madhavavarman, was a Vakataka princess.¹⁶¹¹⁵⁴

Her identity is unknown, and Jouveau-Dubreuil thought she was a daughter or granddaughter of Prabhavati, the Gupta princess who married the Vakataka Rudrasena II.⁵⁵⁵⁶ He linked this with a story that a daughter of Chandragupta worshipped the god of Srisailam.⁵⁵⁵⁶

Vincent Smith, as reported by Sewell and Aiyangar, made her a daughter of the Vakataka king Harishena.²⁵ Panchamukhi and Mirashi also thought Harishena the likeliest.⁵⁷⁵⁸ Several writers thought the Vakatakas had placed Madhavavarman on the throne of Vengi.⁵⁶⁵⁹⁶⁰ Sircar rejected this, since Madhavavarman was not the first king of his line.⁶⁰

Jouveau-Dubreuil also proposed a Pallava marriage. He suggested that the Pallava Simhavishnu married a daughter of the Vishnukundin Vikramahendra and named his son Mahendravikrama (Mahendravarman I) after her father. No grant records such a marriage.⁶¹

Wars

• Kalinga and the Eastern Gangas. The Godavari plates of Raja Prithivimula record an alliance of chiefs against Indrabhattaraka. Kielhorn and most later writers identified him with the Vishnukundin Indravarman.¹⁷⁶² The victory is claimed for his enemy Indradhiraja, often taken to be a Ganga king.⁶³⁶⁴⁶⁵ Jouveau-Dubreuil and Subramanian thought the Vishnukundin really won.⁶³⁶⁴⁶⁵ Madhavavarman Janashraya’s Polamuru grant was made while he was crossing the Godavari to conquer the east.¹² Sewell and Aiyangar took this for an attack on Kalinga.⁵⁹ Panchamukhi thought it an attempt to win back the Plaki district from the Gangas.⁶⁶
• The Pallavas. Sewell and Aiyangar thought the Pallavas held the Vengi country about 500, so that the Vishnukundins could only have been minor chiefs.²⁵ Subramanian thought the Pallavas checked the family’s first advance south of the Krishna.²¹ Panchamukhi noted that the Kopparam plates of Pulakeshin II, about 631, show Kammarashtra in Chalukya hands.⁶⁶ Kammarashtra had once been held by the Pallavas and the Vishnukundins.⁶⁶
• Northern powers. Sircar identified Madhavavarman I with the lord of the Andhras whom the Maukhari king Ishanavarman claims to have defeated in the Haraha inscription.⁶⁷⁶⁰ Mirashi read the Trivaranagara phrase as a boast of victory over Tivaradeva of Mahakosala.²⁹⁶⁸

The end of the dynasty

The sources agree that the Chalukyas of Badami ended Vishnukundin rule, but not on how or when:

• Sewell and Aiyangar (1932), following Lakshman Rao, have Madhava III defeated about 610 by the Chalukya kings Mangalesha, Kubja Vishnuvardhana and Pulakeshin II. Kubja Vishnuvardhana then became ruler of Vengi about 615.¹⁶⁹ Somasekhara Sarma reports Lakshman Rao’s view that Madhava III and his son Manchanna-bhattaraka were defeated by Pulakeshin II or his brother.⁷⁰
• Jouveau-Dubreuil (1920) placed Janashraya’s eastern campaign shortly before the invasion of Pulakeshin II, which ended the dynasty.³³
• Panchamukhi (1936) put the Chalukya conquest of the Vishnukundins between 621 and 631, perhaps in the same campaign in which Pulakeshin II took southern Kalinga.⁶⁶⁵¹
• Mirashi (1938) thought Vikramendravarman II, the last known king of the line, was dethroned by Pulakeshin II.⁶⁸
• Sircar (1939) argued that there was no proof that Pulakeshin II took Vengi at once. He thought the battle at the “water of Kunala” (the Kolleru lake) named in the Aihole inscription was fought against a Vishnukundin king. In his view the Vishnukundins, though weakened, held their capital for some time alongside the Eastern Chalukyas.²⁷¹⁷² They lost their last lands only at the end of the 7th century or later.²⁷¹⁷²

The village of Polamuru shows the change of rulers. Madhavavarman Janashraya granted it to a Brahmin, Shivasharman, and the Eastern Chalukya Jayasimha I granted it again to Shivasharman’s son Rudrasharman.¹²⁷³⁷⁴ See the Kubja Vishnuvardhana page for the founding of the Eastern Chalukya kingdom.

The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 did not mention the Vishnukundins at all. It treated the period before the Chalukya conquest simply as a Pallava age (about 200–615).⁷⁵⁷⁶ Yet the Chikkulla plates had been published ten years earlier.⁷⁵⁷⁶

Administration

The grants are royal orders and show something of how the kingdom was run. Kings issued them from a residence (vasaka) or a camp of victory (vijaya-skandhavara).¹⁶³¹ The orders were addressed to the villagers of the place granted, to the “ryots assembled” there, or to the village heads (mahattaras) and royal officials.⁴⁵³¹⁷⁷

Each grant names its executor (ajna).³¹⁴⁵⁷⁸ For the first Ipur grant it was a prince, and for Ramatirtham the king himself.³¹⁴⁵⁷⁸ For Polamuru there were two officers styled Hastikosha and Virakosha.³¹⁴⁵⁷⁸ Sircar took these titles to mean military officers, perhaps of the elephant corps and the infantry. He noted that officers of the same names appear in the Godavari plates of Prithivimula and in the Eastern Chalukya grant of Polamuru.⁷⁹

The kingdom was divided into districts called vishaya or rashtra: Guddadi or Guddavadi, Plaki and Natripati.³¹⁴⁵⁸ Granted villages were freed from all taxes and burdens. The Ramatirtham grant orders the ryots (peasants) to give the donee “the customary produce” and to do their customary duties, such as carrying messages.⁴⁵ Sircar read a phrase of the Polamuru grant as evidence of trial by ordeal in Vishnukundin courts.⁸⁰

Religion

Every Vishnukundin grant names the holy lord of Sriparvata. Kielhorn, Hultzsch and Sircar took him to be the Shiva of Srisailam.¹⁷²⁸²⁰ Krishna Sastri looked for Sriparvata in Visakhapatnam district instead.¹¹ Indravarman and Vikramendravarman II call themselves devout worshippers of Maheshvara (Shiva). The Chikkulla grant endowed a temple of Somagirishvaranatha, a form of Tryambaka.¹⁶⁸⁴⁵

The kings also patronised Vedic sacrifice. The grants credit Madhavavarman I with eleven horse sacrifices and a thousand agnishtomas. The Chikkulla plates add the purushamedha, which Kielhorn noted is a human sacrifice, the vajapeya, the rajasuya and others.¹⁶³

Sircar observed that no other Vishnukundin king is credited with any sacrifice.⁸¹ Jouveau-Dubreuil noted that the praise of Madhavavarman resembles that of the Vakataka Pravarasena I.⁶³ Most donees were Brahmins learned in the Vedas.⁴⁵⁸²³¹ They included the Taittiriya scholars Nagnasarman of the Ramatirtham plates and Shivasharman of the Polamuru plates.⁴⁵⁸² At Ipur the donee was Agnisharman of the Vatsa gotra.³¹

No source in the library records a Vishnukundin gift to a Buddhist community. The temple at Velpuru that holds the Vishnukundin pillar stands on a mound.⁷⁸³ The epigraphists thought the mound might cover a stupa (relic mound), and old bricks and apsidal (round-ended) foundations there suggested Buddhist ruins.⁷⁸³ Subramanian, by contrast, saw the Vishnukundins as leaders of a Brahmanical revival.⁸⁴

Monuments attributed to the Vishnukundins

No building is dated by a Vishnukundin inscription. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil attributed the rock-cut cave temples at Vijayawada, Mogalrajapuram, Undavalli and Sitanagaram to the Vishnukundins in 1917, and repeated the attribution in 1920. He pointed to the lions carved on pillars at Undavalli, like the lion on the Vishnukundin seals, and to vases carved at Undavalli and Mogalrajapuram.¹⁸⁶¹³³

A. H. Longhurst saw no proof of this and, on architectural grounds, treated the caves as Pallava work of the early 7th century.⁸⁵ Subramanian reported both views.⁸⁴ Longhurst also described the cave temples at Bhairavakonda in Nellore district as Pallava; no source in the library attributes them to the Vishnukundins.⁸⁶

Coins

Krishna Sastri noted in 1909 that many old coins found in Visakhapatnam district bear a lion.¹¹ He connected that symbol with the lion on the Vishnukundin seals.¹¹ Coins with a lion on one side and a vase on the other have been found on the Godavari and the Krishna.⁸⁷³³ They had been attributed to the Pallavas, but Jouveau-Dubreuil, in 1917 and 1920, attributed them to the Vishnukundins.⁸⁷³³ Subramanian also listed lion-and-vase coins from Visakhapatnam district as attributed to the dynasty.⁸⁴ No coin bearing a Vishnukundin king’s name is described in the library sources.

Seals, script and language

The seals of the Chikkulla and Ramatirtham plates show an advancing lion with one fore-paw raised and the tail looped over its back. Jouveau-Dubreuil took the lion to be the family crest.³¹¹³³ The seals of the two Ipur sets carry the legend Sri-Madhavavarma.⁵²⁶ The symbol above it on the first set is a figure of Lakshmi or a svastika.⁵²⁶

All the grants are in Sanskrit, but with Prakrit forms.³ The Chikkulla plates use the Telugu-style plural samvassarambul (“years”), which Kielhorn took as proof that the writer’s own language was Telugu.³ Three of the grants are dated by fortnights of the seasons, an old style of dating.³⁰

Panchamukhi connected a prosody text named Janashrayi Chhandovichiti, which quotes the poet Bharavi, with the surname Janashraya of the Polamuru king.⁸⁸ The editor of Epigraphia Indica thought the link uncertain.⁸⁸

Chronology

Source	Dates proposed
Kielhorn (1897)17	Chikkulla plates not later than about the end of the 8th century
Epigraphical report for 1919–201389	Second Ipur set not later than the 5th century; first set about the 6th
Jouveau-Dubreuil (1920)9091	Conquest of Vengi in the 5th century with Vakataka help; Indrabhattaraka about the beginning of the 6th
Lakshman Rao, in Sewell (1932)1	Madhava I about 357–382 to Madhava III, about 546–610
Subramanian (1932)1950	About 350–610; entry into Vengi about 460
Panchamukhi (1936)8851	Madhavavarman I about 500; end between 621 and 631
Mirashi (1938, 1956)6814	Madhavavarman I about 525–568, later 510–560
Sircar (1939)9	Vikramahendra about 500 to Vikramendravarman II about 670; end possibly late 7th or 8th century

These schemes cannot all be right. The 1932 and 1956 positions differ by more than a century for the king who married into the Vakataka family.¹³⁶ The reign chart follows Sircar. The dates given for the dynasty as a whole (about 500–630) follow most of the later reconstructions.⁵¹⁶⁸⁹ These end it with the Chalukya conquest of the early 7th century.⁵¹⁶⁸⁹ Sircar’s chart runs on to about 670.⁹

The dynasties before and after them

The Vishnukundins followed the Salankayanas of Vengi, a dynasty whose capital was Vengipura and whose seals carried a bull.⁹² Jouveau-Dubreuil and Sewell and Aiyangar thought the Vakatakas installed the first Vishnukundin at Vengi in place of the Salankayanas.⁹¹⁵⁹ Subramanian thought the Pallavas had overthrown the Salankayanas first.¹⁹ Their successors, the Eastern Chalukyas, kept some of their districts. The Plaki district of Indravarman’s grant appears again in the records of Vishnuvardhana I.⁴ The village of Polamuru passed from a Vishnukundin grant to an Eastern Chalukya one.⁷³

Footnotes

1. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 404 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 194 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. E. Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates of Indravarman”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1914), p. 133 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. E. Hultzsch, “Ipur Plates of Govindavarman’s Son Madhavavarman”, Epigraphia Indica XVII (1924), p. 334 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. V. V. Mirashi and Y. R. Gupte, “Khanapur Plates of Madhavavarman”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 313 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for 1925–26 (1927), Part I, para. 7, p. 8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 198, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 112, chronological table and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

10. F. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates of Vikramendravarman II”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 193 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. H. Krishna Sastri, Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1908–09 (1909), Part II, para. 62, p. 109 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

12. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1913–14 (1914), Part II, para. 35, p. 102 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1919–20 (1920), Part II, paras. 6–7, p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

14. Mirashi and Gupte, “Khanapur Plates” (1956), p. 314 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

15. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

16. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 197, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

17. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 195 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

18. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, The Pallavas (1917), p. 33 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

19. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (1932), p. 111 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

20. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 123 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

21. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 112 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

22. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1919–20 (1920), Part II, para. 10, pp. 98–99 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

23. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 124, note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 113 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

25. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

26. E. Hultzsch, “Ipur Plates of Madhavavarman II”, Epigraphia Indica XVII (1924), p. 338 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

27. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 133 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

28. Hultzsch, “Ipur Plates of Govindavarman’s Son Madhavavarman” (1924), p. 335 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

29. V. V. Mirashi, “Thakurdiya Plates of Maha-Pravararaja”, Epigraphia Indica XXII (1938), p. 19 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

30. R. S. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant of Prithivi-Maharaja: 46th Year”, Epigraphia Indica XXIII (1936), p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

31. Hultzsch, “Ipur Plates of Govindavarman’s Son Madhavavarman” (1924), p. 337, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

32. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 137 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

33. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 92 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

34. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 138 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

35. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 96 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

36. Mirashi and Gupte, “Khanapur Plates” (1956), p. 315 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

37. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 16, reprinting S. Sankaranarayanan, “Two Vishnukundi Charters from Tummalagudem”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974), pp. 4–20. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

38. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), pp. 17–18. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

39. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 19. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

40. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 21. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

41. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 23, translation of Set II, lines 9–10. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

42. A. K. Goel, D. Satyanarayana, Rekha Pande and Ravulapati Madhavi, History of Telangana – Land and People, vol. 1 (2022), p. 251. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

43. Goel et al., History of Telangana – Land and People, vol. 1 (2022), p. 252. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

44. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 386, Indeterminate inscriptions No. 3, from Indian Archaeology 1986–87: A Review, p. 105. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

45. Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates” (1914), p. 136, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

46. Hultzsch, “Ipur Plates of Madhavavarman II” (1924), p. 339, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

47. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

48. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 103 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

49. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

50. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), pp. 114–115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

51. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 95, genealogical table (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

52. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 104, genealogical table (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

53. Mirashi and Gupte, “Khanapur Plates” (1956), p. 316 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

54. Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates” (1914), p. 134 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

55. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 73 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

56. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 74 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

57. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 92 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

58. Mirashi, “Epoch of the Ganga Era” (1942), p. 336 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

59. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

60. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 126 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

61. Jouveau-Dubreuil, The Pallavas (1917), p. 35 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

62. V. V. Mirashi, “Epoch of the Ganga Era”, Epigraphia Indica XXVI (1942), p. 334 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

63. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

64. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

65. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 123 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

66. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

67. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 111 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

68. Mirashi, “Thakurdiya Plates” (1938), pp. 20–21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

69. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

70. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Indrabhattaraka and the Ganga Era”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 3 (1930–31), p. 184 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

71. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), pp. 116–117 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

72. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 120 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

73. V. Rangacharya, “The Pulibumra Plates of the Eastern Chalukya King Jayasimha I”, Epigraphia Indica XIX (1928), p. 255 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

74. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 108 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

75. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari (1907), p. 18 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

76. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 19 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

77. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 131 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

78. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 132 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

79. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 110, note 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

80. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 127 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

81. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), pp. 99–100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

82. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 107 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

83. Annual Reports on South Indian Epigraphy for 1939–40 to 1942–43 (1952), Part II, para. 4, p. 229 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

84. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 118 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

85. A. H. Longhurst, Pallava Architecture, Part I (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 17, 1924), p. 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

86. Longhurst, Pallava Architecture, Part I (1924), p. 30 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

87. Jouveau-Dubreuil, The Pallavas (1917), p. 34 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

88. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 93 and editor’s notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

89. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1919–20 (1920), Part II, para. 8, p. 98 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

90. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 76 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

91. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 89 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

92. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1960), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩