Ikshvakus, Vishnukundins & early kingdoms

Ikshvakus of Vijayapuri

c. 225–350 CE

Dynasty of the lower Krishna valley in the 3rd and early 4th centuries CE, with its capital at Vijayapuri in the Nagarjunakonda valley. Four kings are known from Prakrit and Sanskrit inscriptions. The kings performed Vedic sacrifices and built temples to Shiva and Karttikeya, while the royal women endowed the Buddhist monasteries of the capital.

Pallavas

c. 250–900 CE

Dynasty of Kanchi (Kanchipuram) whose kings held the Telugu country south of the Krishna for much of the 4th to 7th centuries CE. Their earliest charters, in Prakrit, were sent from Kanchi to an officer at Dhanyakataka near Amaravati. A later line issued Sanskrit grants of villages in the Guntur and Nellore country from camps such as Palakkada and Dasanapura. The Chalukyas took Vengi and the Guntur country early in the 7th century. But Pallava kings still granted villages in Nellore until about 700, and their vassals held parts of Chittoor and Rayalaseema until the Chola conquest about 900.

Vakatakas

c. 275–530 CE

Dynasty of the northern Deccan and central India, about the 3rd to the 6th century, with its heartland in Vidarbha (Berar) north of the Telugu country. Its kings married into the Gupta imperial family, and one of their princesses married the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil (1920) thought the Vakatakas ruled almost the whole of the later Hyderabad State and placed the first Vishnukundin on the throne of Vengi. A modern history of Telangana (2022) counts only the Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar country inside their lands. The Ajanta inscription credits their last great king, Harishena, with the conquest of Andhra.

Salankayanas of Vengi

c. 300–470 CE

Dynasty of the country between the Krishna and the Godavari in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, ruling from Vengipura, the modern Pedavegi near Eluru. Seven copper-plate grants name seven kings in two lines descended from Hastivarman. Most scholars identify him with the 'Hastivarman of Vengi' of Samudragupta's Allahabad inscription. Their earlier grants are in Prakrit and their later ones in Sanskrit. Their seals bear a bull, and their family god was Chitrarathasvamin.

Eastern Gangas of Kalinga

c. 498–1434 CE

Dynasty of Kalinga that ruled from Kalinganagara, now Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam district, and later from Orissa, from about the 6th century until 1434. Its early grants are dated in a Ganga era whose starting point is still disputed. The north of the Telugu country, the old Ganjam and Vizagapatam districts, was the heart of the kingdom. Their copper plates come from Chicacole, Achyutapuram, Jirjingi, Nadagam and Alamanda, and hundreds of their inscriptions in Telugu and Sanskrit survive at Mukhalingam, Srikurmam and Simhachalam. Anantavarman Chodaganga, a grandson of Kulottunga I, reigned from 1078 for about seventy years. The later kings fought the Kakatiyas across the Godavari, and their minister Kapilesvara founded the Gajapati dynasty in 1434.

Vishnukundins

c. 500–630 CE

Dynasty of the Krishna–Godavari country that ruled after the Salankayanas and before the Eastern Chalukyas. It is known from a handful of Sanskrit copper-plate grants and one stone inscription. Its kings worshipped the lord of Sriparvata, claimed eleven horse sacrifices for their greatest ruler, Madhavavarman, and married into the Vakataka royal family. Their capital in the later grants was Lendulura (Denduluru near Vengi). Scholars have dated them anywhere from the 4th to the 8th century. Most later reconstructions put the main line in the 6th century and end it with the Chalukya conquest of the early 7th, though D. C. Sircar continued it to about 670.

Chalukyas of Badami

c. 550–757 CE

Dynasty of the western Deccan that ruled from Vatapi (Badami) from about 550 to 757. Pulakesin II took Pishtapura (Pithapuram) and the Kolleru lake country about 615. He left his brother Vishnuvardhana in Vengi, where the Eastern Chalukya line began. Their grants and inscriptions show them holding the Guntur country in 631, the Kurnool and Alampur country under Vikramaditya I and his successors, and land in Nellore in 660. The Rashtrakuta Dantidurga overthrew the last king, Kirtivarman II, in the 750s.

Telugu Cholas of Renadu

c. 550–800 CE

Kings of Renandu, the country around Kadapa, from about the later 6th to the 8th century. They claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala, took the names of their Pallava and then Chalukya overlords, and ruled from Chippili and Malepadu. Their stone inscriptions at Kalamalla and Erragudipadu are among the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. None of their records is dated in an era. Three editors have placed the same king, Punyakumara, about 625, about 740 and about 800.

Vasishthiputra Chamtamula

c. 225–255 CE

First known king of the Ikshvakus of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda). His descendants' inscriptions remember him as a performer of the horse sacrifice and other Vedic rites, while the women of his family founded the Buddhist monuments of the Krishna valley. His reign ended before about 255; D. C. Sircar had dated it to about 223–240.

Sivaskandavarman (Pallava)

c. 250–275 CE

Earliest Pallava king known from his own charters. As crown prince he sent the Mayidavolu plates from Kanchipura to his officer at Dhannakada (Amaravati), granting a village in Andhrapatha, the Telugu country. As king he issued the Hirahadagalli plates and claimed the horse sacrifice. His date is disputed: from the early 3rd century to the middle of the 4th.

Virapurushadatta

c. 255–275 CE

Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (3rd century CE). In his reign the women of the royal family rebuilt the Great Stupa at Nagarjunakonda, and founded shrines and monasteries for Buddhist monks, including monks from Sri Lanka. His records run to his 20th regnal year, and one is dated in a cyclic year equated with 273–74. D. C. Sircar dated his reign to about 255–275.

Vijaya-Skandavarman (Pallava)

c. 275–340 CE

Pallava king in whose reign the queen Charudevi, wife of the crown prince Vijaya-Buddhavarman, granted land to a temple of Narayana. Her Prakrit grant was found near Guntur and is now in the British Museum. It is the only record of his reign. Scholars disagree whether he was the same man as Sivaskandavarman of the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli plates.

Ehuvula Chamtamula

c. 280–335 CE

Third known Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda), son of Virapurushadatta. His records run to his 24th regnal year. In his reign a prince and a noble built the earliest dated Shiva temples in the valley. Queens, bankers and lay Buddhists went on giving gifts to its monasteries. D. C. Sircar dated his reign to about 280–335.

Devavarman (Salankayana)

c. 320–345 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi. He is known from a Prakrit grant of his 13th year addressed to the villagers of Ellore, in which he calls himself a performer of the horse sacrifice and a devotee of Shiva. His place in the family is unknown. Scholars have made him a son of Hastivarman, an earlier king (perhaps Hastivarman's father), and a successor of Nandivarman I.

Vishnugopa of Kanchi

c. 325–350 CE

King of Kanchi named in the Allahabad pillar inscription of the Gupta emperor Samudragupta, among the southern kings whom he captured and released, about the middle of the 4th century. Most scholars take him for a Pallava. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil argued that the meeting took place near the Krishna, where Vishnugopa led an alliance of eastern kings, not at Kanchi.

Rudrapurushadatta

c. 335–346 CE

Fourth and last known Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda), son of Ehuvula Chamtamula. He was identified in 1955–56 from a memorial pillar of his 11th regnal year. D. C. Sircar thought his reign ended before about 350, when the Pallavas took the Krishna–Guntur region.

Hastivarman (Salankayana)

c. 345–370 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, the earliest king in the family list of his family's copper-plate grants, which praise him for victories in many battles. Since 1926 most scholars have identified him with the Hastivarman of Vengi whom the Gupta emperor Samudragupta claims to have captured and released in the mid-4th century. Older works took that king for a Pallava viceroy.

Nandivarman I (Salankayana)

c. 370–395 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, son of Hastivarman and father of Chandavarman and Hastivarman II. A Prakrit grant of his 14th year, found at Kanukollu and published in 1960, is the only record of his own. Its editor dated it to the close of the 3rd century, but D. C. Sircar placed it about the middle of the 4th.

Chandavarman (Salankayana)

c. 395–420 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, son of Nandivarman I and father of Nandivarman II. He is known only from his son's grants, which say that subordinate rulers bowed to his power. He has often been confused with Chandavarman, a 5th-century king of Kalinga who issued the Komarti plates.

Nandivarman II (Salankayana)

c. 420–445 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, eldest son of Chandavarman, and the best-documented king of the dynasty. The Kolleru plates of his 7th year, the Peddavegi plates of his 10th and probably one of the Kanteru grants are his. He called himself a parama-bhagavata (devout worshipper of the Lord) and gave land to a temple of Vishnu. Most scholars date him to the first half or middle of the 5th century.

Kumaravishnu II (Pallava)

c. 425–450 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi known from the Chendalur plates. He issued them from Kanchipura in the second year of his reign, granting land in the village of Chendalura in Karmarashtra, in the present Prakasam district. Where he belongs in the Pallava line is disputed: before Simhavarman, according to Jouveau-Dubreuil, or between Simhavarman and Simhavishnu, according to Hultzsch.

Skandavarman II (Pallava)

c. 450–475 CE

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, known from the first Omgodu grant, issued from Tambrapa in the 33rd year of his reign. The grant gives his ancestors back to a Kumaravishnu, who performed the horse sacrifice. He was the father of the crown prince Vishnugopa and the grandfather of Simhavarman, whose grants come from the same region.

Vishnugopa (Pallava crown prince)

c. 475–500 CE

Pallava prince of the Nellore–Guntur line, son of Skandavarman II and father of Simhavarman. As crown prince (yuvamaharaja) he issued the Uruvupalli grant from Palakkada, dated in the 11th year of a king Simhavarman, giving land to a temple at Kandukura. Scholars disagree whether he ever reigned, and who the Simhavarman of his grant was.

Madhavavarman (Vishnukundin)

c. 535–585 CE

The most famous Vishnukundin king. His own and his descendants' grants credit him with eleven horse sacrifices and a thousand agnishtoma rites. He married into the Vakataka royal family. Whether he was also Madhavavarman Janashraya, the son of Govindavarman and donor of the first Ipur and the Polamuru plates, is disputed: D. C. Sircar and V. V. Mirashi thought so, while other scholars made Janashraya a later king, Madhavavarman III. His date is also disputed: Sircar placed him about 535–585, Mirashi about 510–560.

Dhananjaya (Telugu Chola)

c. 575 CE

Telugu Chola ruler of Renandu in the Kadapa country, whom his editors date to about 575. As Erikal-Muturaju Dhananjaya he is named in the Kalamalla pillar inscription, one of the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. As Dhananjayavarman, youngest son of Nandivarman, he heads the line of Punyakumara in the Malepadu plates.

Madhavavarman II (Vishnukundin)

c. 585–615 CE

Vishnukundin king, son of Devavarman and grandson of the great Madhavavarman. He is known from the second set of Ipur plates, issued from [Ama]rapura. The grant calls him lord of the Trikuta and Malaya mountains. Scholars have read this claim as an empty boast, as evidence of a western Vishnukundin realm, or as the name of a local hill. His place in the line and his date are disputed.

Mahendravarman I

c. 600–630 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi (about 600–630), son of Simhavishnu. In his reign the Chalukya Pulakesin II took Vengi and the Pallava provinces of the Guntur and Nellore country, though Mahendravarman defended Kanchi. Some of his surnames in his cave inscriptions in the Tamil country are Telugu. This led Jouveau-Dubreuil to argue that his family and his cave style came from the Telugu country.

Mahendravikrama (Telugu Chola)

c. 600 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu, son of Dhananjaya and father of Punyakumara, the first of his line to take the title Chola-Maharaja. His name copies that of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I, and his editors placed him about 600. Short Telugu stone records of a 'Chola-Maharaja' at Uruturu and Indukuru are assigned to him.

Pulakesin II

c. 609–642 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (609–642), the son of Kirtivarman I. His Aihole inscription of 634–35 says that he humbled the Kalingas and Kosalas, took the fortress of Pishtapura (Pithapuram), ravaged 'the water of Kunala' (taken to be the Kolleru lake) and drove the Pallava king behind the walls of Kanchi. He gave the conquered Vengi country to his younger brother Vishnuvardhana, the founder of the Eastern Chalukyas. His Kopparam plates of about 631 grant land in the Guntur country. He died when the Pallava Narasimhavarman I took Badami, probably in 642.

Indravarman (Vishnukundin)

c. 625–655 CE

Vishnukundin king, called Indrabhattarakavarman in his son's Chikkulla plates, who issued the Ramatirtham plates near Vizianagaram in his 27th year. His grants praise his victories with war elephants. Most scholars identify him with the Indrabhattaraka against whom a group of kings fought, according to the Godavari plates of Prithivimula. His date depends on the disputed Vishnukundin chronology: about 469–496, 535, 570–600 and 625–655 have all been proposed.

Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu and Hiranyarashtra, the best-documented ruler of the family. He is known from two sets of Sanskrit copper plates (Malepadu, fifth year; Dommara-Nandyala, tenth year) and from Telugu stone records at Tippaluru, Ramesvaram and Veludurti. His titles imitate those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I. Editors have dated him about 625, about 740 and near the end of the 8th century.

Vikramaditya I (Chalukya of Badami)

c. 655–680 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (about 655–680), a son of Pulakesin II. He restored the kingdom after the Pallavas took Badami, fought three Pallava kings and took Kanchi. His copper-plate grants come from the Telugu country: Amudalapadu and Gadwal in today's Telangana, the Kurnool district, Talamanchi near Nellore, and Hyderabad. His Amudalapadu plates of 660 record his initiation into the Shaiva faith. A queen of his installed a linga at Alampur.

Vikramendravarman II (Vishnukundin)

c. 655–670 CE

Vishnukundin king, eldest son of Indravarman, who issued the Chikkulla plates from Lendulura (Denduluru near Vengi) in his 10th year, giving a village on the Krishna to a Shiva temple. The plates say he took up the government as a child. Some scholars identify him with the Vikramahendra of the Polamuru plates, the grandfather of the last known Vishnukundin king; D. C. Sircar did not. Sircar dated him about 655–670, and the scheme printed by Sewell in 1932 about 496–521.

Bhatideva

Ikshvaku queen, wife of King Virapurushadatta and mother of King Ehuvula Chamtamula. In the 2nd year of her son's reign she founded a monastery at Nagarjunakonda for Buddhist teachers of the Bahusutiya school.

Chamtisiri

Ikshvaku princess, sister of King Chamtamula and aunt and later mother-in-law of King Virapurushadatta. She was the chief donor of the Buddhist monuments of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda). She gave the pillars of the Great Stupa, an apsidal shrine and a pillared hall beside it, all to the Aparamahavinaseliya school, in the 3rd century CE.

Simhavarman (Pallava, Manchikallu inscription)

Pallava king of the Bharadvaja gotra, known only from a broken Prakrit pillar inscription found at Manchikallu in the Palnad taluk. D. C. Sircar took it for the earliest Pallava record. He suggested that this Simhavarman brought the Krishna–Guntur country under the Pallavas, pushing out the Ikshvakus, and was perhaps the father of Sivaskandavarman.

Simhavarman II (Pallava)

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. Four of his grants survive. All give villages in the Guntur and Nellore districts and were issued from camps, not from Kanchi: the second Omgodu grant (year 4), the Pikira grant from Menmatura (year 5), the Mangalur grant from Dasanapura (year 8) and the Vilavatti grant (year 10). Many scholars date his accession to 436 from a Jain work, the Lokavibhaga; others place him about 500.

Skandavarman (Salankayana)

Salankayana king of Vengi, known from two Sanskrit grants of his first regnal year, from Kanteru and Kanukollu. The Kanukollu plates, published in 1960, make him a son of Hastivarman II and a great-grandson of Hastivarman I, a cousin of Nandivarman II; before they were found he was usually placed after Nandivarman II as the last known king of the line.

Alamanda

Village in the old Sringavarapukota taluk of the Vizagapatam district, now in the Vizianagaram district. Copper plates of the Ganga king Anantavarman, son of Rajendravarman, were found underground here in the early 1890s. They are dated in the 304th year of the Gangeya race.

Alampur

Town on the west bank of the Tungabhadra near its meeting with the Krishna, now in Telangana. It was formerly the head of a taluk of the Raichur and then the Mahbubnagar district of Hyderabad State. Its fort holds the Nava Brahma temples, whose inscriptions name kings and queens of the Chalukyas of Badami. Copper-plate grants of Vikramaditya I and Vinayaditya were found in the taluk. Inscriptions call the place Hatampura, and its god Brahmesvara the guardian of the western gate of Srisailam.

Badami (Vatapi)

Town in northern Karnataka, the ancient Vatapi. It was the capital of the Chalukyas of Badami from the 6th to the 8th century. Pulakesin I acquired it, and Kirtivarman I adorned it with temples and finished its great Vaishnava cave temple. The Pallava Narasimhavarman I captured and ruined it about 642.

Bhairavakonda

Hill site in the old Udayagiri taluk of the Nellore district, near the Cuddapah border. It has a group of early rock-cut cave temples reported by A. H. Longhurst in 1921. R. Gopalan described them as of the Pallava age and very like the caves of Mahendravarman I.

Chendalur

Village formerly in the Ongole taluk. It is the Chendalura of a Pallava copper-plate grant of Kumaravishnu II and the Chendapura of an Eastern Chalukya grant of 673. Both sets of plates were dug up there from a pot of paddy husk while a house was being built.

Chikkulla

Agrahara (village granted to Brahmins) in the former Tuni division of Godavari district, later East Godavari. A copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Vikramendravarman II was dug up from a tank here in the 1880s.

Chippili

Village in the Madanapalle country of the former Chittoor district. It has been identified with Chirpali, the capital of Renandu named in the Tippaluru inscription of the Telugu Chola Punyakumara. A Kannada memorial stone there names a Punyakomaran ruling Chirpuli.

Darsi

Town formerly in the Podili division of the Nellore district, now in Prakasam, where the first plate of a lost Pallava grant issued from Dasanapura was found in a tobacco field. V. Venkayya suggested that Dasanapura, one of the camps of the Pallava kings of the Nellore–Guntur country, was the old name of Darsi itself.

Erragudipadu

Village in the former Kamalapuram taluk of Kadapa district. A stone beside its Chennakesava temple carries an inscription of an Erikal-Mutturaju of the Telugu Cholas of Renandu. Its editors dated it to the late 6th century, and it is among the earliest records written in Telugu.

Gadwal

Town in Telangana. In 1909 it was the seat of the Gadwal samasthan (tributary estate) of the Raichur district of Hyderabad State. The Gadval plates of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I, dated 674, were kept in a house there and were said to have been found in its fields.

Ghantasala

Village west of Machilipatnam in the Krishna delta, site of a large brick Buddhist stupa excavated by A. Rea in 1892. Carved limestone slabs and inscribed pillars from it survive scattered through the village.

Ipur

Village in the former Tenali taluk of Guntur district. Two sets of Vishnukundin copper plates, kept as heirlooms in a Brahmin household, were secured here in 1919–20. One is a grant of Govindavarman's son Madhavavarman, the other of Madhavavarman II. With them were two early Eastern Chalukya grants.

Jaggayyapeta

Market town on the Paleru near where it meets the Krishna, formerly called Betavolu. On a hill nearby, James Burgess excavated in 1882 the remains of an early Buddhist stupa with an inscription of the Ikshvaku period.

Jirjingi

Village near Tekkali in the Srikakulam district. Copper plates of the Ganga king Indravarman, lord of Trikalinga, dated in the year 39, were found here during the excavation of an old temple. The village is itself the Jijjika granted in the plates.

Kalamalla

Village in the former Kamalapuram taluk of Kadapa district. A broken pillar in its Chennakesava temple carries a late-6th-century inscription of the Telugu Chola Dhananjaya. It is one of the earliest records written entirely in Telugu.

Kalingapatnam

Seaport at the mouth of the Vamsadhara in the Srikakulam district, long supposed to be Kalinganagara, the capital of the Ganga kings of Kalinga. E. Hultzsch still thought so in 1895. But G. V. Ramamurti found no antiquities there fit for a capital, and he placed Kalinganagara at Mukhalingam instead.

Kanchipuram

City in the Tamil country, the capital of the Pallava kings. The earliest Pallava charter of the Telugu country, the Mayidavolu plates, was issued from Kanchipura. So were later Pallava grants of villages in the Ongole and Nellore country. The Chalukyas besieged the city in the 7th and 8th centuries, and the Chola Aditya I conquered it at the end of the 9th.

Kandukur

Town formerly in the Nellore district, now in Prakasam. C. R. Krishnamacharlu took it to be the Kandukura of the Pallava Uruvupalli grant. The grant gave land to a temple of Vishnuhara there, which he thought was one of the early temples of Kandukur. He also thought the southern part of the Kandukur taluk lay in the ancient Mundarashtra.

Kanukollu

Village in the Krishna delta, formerly in the Gudivada taluk of Krishna district. Two copper-plate grants of the Salankayana kings Nandivarman I and Skandavarman were dug up here on the old village site, outside the ramparts of a ruined mud fort.

Kopparam

Village in the old Narasaraopet taluk of the Guntur district, near which the copper-plate grant of the 21st year of the Chalukya king Pulakesin II (probably 631) was found. The grant gives land in Karmarashtra and shows the Chalukyas of Badami granting land in the Guntur country at that time.

Mahendragiri

Mountain in the Eastern Ghats in southern Odisha. It is the Mahendra mountain of the Eastern Ganga grants, and on its summit the kings worshipped the god Gokarnasvamin. Old temples of large granite blocks stand on the top, and an inscription there records a Chola pillar of victory.

Malepadu

Village on the south bank of the Penner near Proddatur in Kadapa district. The copper plates of the Telugu Chola king Punyakumara and a stone inscription of Satyaditya came to light here in 1904. The 1956 editors of the Telugu Chola records thought it was perhaps Biriparu, one of the family's capitals.

Manchikallu

Village in the old Palnad taluk of the Guntur district, near Rentachintala. A fragment of an octagonal pillar came from here, with a Prakrit inscription of the Pallava king Simhavarman. D. C. Sircar took the inscription for the earliest Pallava record.

Mayidavolu

Village about twelve miles east of Narasaraopet, formerly in the Kistna and later the Guntur district, where the Prakrit copper plates of the Pallava crown prince Sivaskandavarman, the earliest Pallava charter, were dug up in 1899 on the site of an abandoned village with the ruins of a small old temple.

Mukhalingam

Village on the left bank of the Vamsadhara in the Srikakulam district. Since 1897 it has been identified with Kalinganagara, the capital named in the copper-plate grants of the Eastern Ganga kings. Its three Orissan-style Siva temples, the Madhukesvara, Bhimesvara and Somesvara, stand among ruins that stretch south to Nagarakatakam. They carry scores of Ganga inscriptions in Telugu and Sanskrit.

Nagarjunakonda

Hill and enclosed valley on the right bank of the Krishna in Palnad taluk, Guntur district. It is the site of Vijayapuri, capital of the Ikshvakus in the 3rd and early 4th centuries CE. A. H. Longhurst excavated its Buddhist monuments in 1927–31. The Archaeological Survey excavated the whole valley in 1954–60, before the Nagarjunasagar dam was to submerge it.

Ongole

Town on the Gundlakamma in the old Guntur district, now the headquarters of Prakasam district. H. Krishna Sastri suggested that it was the Omgodu given away in two Pallava copper-plate grants. The country round it was the Karmarashtra (later Kammanadu) of the Pallava and Eastern Chalukya charters. In the eighteenth century Ongole belonged to the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot). The Company took over its management in 1790 and its government in 1801, when it was joined to the Nellore district.

Pithapuram

Town in the Godavari country, about twelve miles north by east of Kakinada (Cocanada). It has been identified with Pishtapura, the fortress taken by the Chalukya king Pulakesin II according to his Aihole inscription of 634–35. It has also been identified with the Pishtapura of Samudragupta's Allahabad inscription.

Polamuru

Village near Anaparti in the former Ramachandrapuram taluk of Godavari district. D. C. Sircar identified it with Puloburu, the village granted by the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman Janashraya. The Eastern Chalukya Jayasimha I granted it again to the donee's son. Another scholar placed the village at a Polamuru in Bhimavaram taluk.

Ramatirtham

Village near Vizianagaram, where a family of pandits kept the copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Indravarman. It was published in 1914 as the Ramatirtham plates. The grant itself concerns a village in the Plaki district, which most writers place in the Vizianagaram region.

Srikakulam

Town on the Langulya river, formerly Chicacole. In 1908 it was the headquarters of a taluk of the Ganjam district. A hoard of six copper-plate grants dug up in the town is now in the Madras Museum. It includes several of the oldest grants of the Ganga kings of Kalinganagara. In the Qutb Shahi period the town was the capital of the Chicacole Sarkar.

Talamanchi

Village north of Nellore town, in the old Nellore taluk. Here a ploughman turned up the copper-plate grant of the sixth year of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I (660). He found it in land called Talamanchipadu, said to be the site of a former village.

Tippaluru

Village in the former Kamalapuram taluk of Kadapa district, the Tirpaluru of an early Telugu stone inscription of the Telugu Chola Punyakumara. The letters of the inscription resemble those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I. Its date contains the earliest mention of the hora (planetary hour) then known in south Indian inscriptions.

Undavalli

Village on the south bank of the Krishna opposite Vijayawada (Bezwada), in Guntur district. It is known for its large rock-cut temple of several storeys with a colossal reclining Vishnu. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil attributed the caves to the Vishnukundins. A. H. Longhurst thought them Pallava work of the early 7th century.

Vavveru

Village near Buchireddipalem in the old Kovur taluk of the Nellore district. About 1928 the copper-plate grant of the Pallava king Simhavarman, giving the village of Vilavatti, was dug up here from about eight feet below the old village site. Its editor thought Vilavatti might be Vavveru itself or the neighbouring Vidavaluru.

Velpuru

Village in the former Sattenapalle taluk of Guntur district. Its hilltop Ramalingasvamin temple holds a marble pillar with the only known stone inscription of the Vishnukundin dynasty. The hill is covered with old bricks of the kind found on Buddhist stupa mounds, and a second early Brahmi inscription has been found in the village.

Vengi (Pedavegi)

Village a few miles north of Eluru (Ellore). It stands on the site generally taken to be Vengipura, the capital of the Salankayana kings and then of the early Eastern Chalukyas. Nineteenth-century surveys found ruined temples and mounds spread over Pedavegi, Chinavegi and Denduluru. The city gave its name to the whole country between the Krishna and the Godavari.

Jaggayyapeta stupa

c. 200 BCE

Small early Buddhist stupa on Dhana Bodu hill near Jaggayyapeta. Its old limestone casing slabs and Mauryan-type letters point to the 2nd century BCE. Pillar inscriptions of the Ikshvaku king Virapurushadatta record a later dedication.

Ghantasala stupa

c. 200 CE

Brick Buddhist stupa at Ghantasala in the Krishna delta, excavated by A. Rea in 1892. Its foundations show a solid core inside a ring of radiating cells. Rea dated it a little after the later work at Amaravati.

Alampur temples (Nava Brahma temples)

Group of early stone temples inside the old fort of Alampur on the Tungabhadra, in today's Telangana, known as the Nava Brahma or Navalingesvara temples. Inscriptions on them name queens and kings of the Chalukyas of Badami. They name a queen of Vikramaditya I (655–680), a queen of Vinayaditya, and Vijayaditya, under whom an enclosure was built in 704 and 713. The Nizam's Archaeological Department surveyed them in 1926-27 and compared their curved towers with the Papanatha temple at Pattadakal.

Bhairavakonda cave temples

Group of early rock-cut cave temples at Bhairavakonda in the old Udayagiri taluk of the Nellore district, reported by A. H. Longhurst in 1921. R. Gopalan described them as attributable to the Pallava age and closely resembling the caves of Mahendravarman I; the Madras epigraphy office linked one shrine, named Damodaresvaram in an archaic inscription, with the Ananda king Damodaravarman.

Chula-Dhammagiri monastery

Buddhist monastery buildings on the hill of Naharallabodu at Nagarjunakonda. It is identified with the monastery on the Lesser Dhammagiri east of Vijayapuri. There the lay woman Bodhisiri built an apsidal (round-ended) shrine for monks from Sri Lanka in the 14th year of the Ikshvaku king Virapurushadatta.

Nagarjunakonda Mahachaitya

The Great Stupa of the Ikshvaku city of Vijayapuri. Its limestone ayaka pillars carry Prakrit inscriptions of the princess Chamtisiri and other royal women, dated in the 6th year of King Virapurushadatta. A small bone relic was found in one of its chambers during the 1928–29 excavations.

Temples of Mukhalingam

Three Siva temples at Mukhalingam on the Vamsadhara: the Madhukesvara (Mukhalingesvara), Bhimesvara (Aniyankabhimesvara) and Somesvara. They are in the Orissan style and stand among the ruins of Kalinganagara, the capital of the Eastern Ganga kings. A grant of Anantavarman Chodaganga credits the Madhukesvara temple to an early king Kamarnava, and the Bhimesvara is thought to be named after the king Vajrahasta Aniyankabhima. Their walls and pillars carry scores of Telugu and Sanskrit inscriptions of the Gangas.

Undavalli cave temple

Four-storeyed rock-cut temple on the south bank of the Krishna opposite Vijayawada. Medieval inscriptions call it Anantashayanagudi, after its huge image of Vishnu lying on the serpent. No inscription records who cut it. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil (1917, 1920) gave it and the caves of Bezwada, Mogalrajapuram and Sitanagaram to the Vishnukundins. A. H. Longhurst (1924) judged it a Pallava monument of the time of Mahendravarman I.

Vijayapuri citadel

Citadel with brick walls and a moat, the heart of the Ikshvaku capital on the Krishna bank in the Nagarjunakonda valley, excavated in 1956–59. Inside and around it the excavators found barracks, royal houses, a stepped tank they connected with the horse sacrifice, temples of Karttikeya and Shiva, a river ghat and a large stadium.

Mayidavolu plates of Sivaskandavarman

c. 250 CE

A Prakrit copper-plate grant issued from Kanchipura by the Pallava crown prince Sivaskandavarman to his official at Dhannakada (Amaravati). It gives the village of Viripara in Andhrapatha, the Telugu country, to two Brahmans. It was found in 1899 at Mayidavolu near Narasaraopet and edited by E. Hultzsch in 1901. It is the earliest Pallava copper-plate charter, and it shows the Pallavas ruling as far as the Krishna.

Nagarjunakonda inscriptions of Chamtisiri

c. 250 CE

Prakrit inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda recording gifts by the Ikshvaku princess Chamtisiri. They are cut on the ayaka pillars of the Great Stupa (Mahachaitya), on the pillars of a stone hall and on the floor of an apsidal shrine beside it. They are dated in the 6th, 15th and 18th regnal years of King Virapurushadatta.

Nagarjunakonda inscription of Bodhisiri

c. 268 CE

Prakrit inscription on the floor of an apsidal (round-ended) shrine on the Chula-Dhammagiri at Nagarjunakonda, dated in the 14th year of King Mathariputra (Virapurushadatta). It records the gifts of the lay woman Bodhisiri to Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka. It names the city of Vijayapuri, the Sriparvata and the trading town of Kantakasela.

Memorial pillar of Chamtamula, Nagarjunakonda

c. 273 CE

A carved pillar found near Stupa 9 at Nagarjunakonda, with a Prakrit inscription. It records that the sisters, mothers and queens of the dead Ikshvaku king Chamtamula raised it in the reign of his son Virapurushadatta. Vogel dated it to the king's 20th year. Sircar re-read the date as the cyclic year Vijaya, 273–74, the earliest known use of the cyclic year in Indian inscriptions.

Jaggayyapeta inscriptions of Virapurushadatta

c. 274 CE

Three copies of a Prakrit inscription on the ayaka pillars of the Jaggayyapeta stupa. They record the gift of five pillars at the eastern gate of the Great Chaitya by the artisan Siddhartha, in the 20th year of the Ikshvaku king Virapurushadatta. James Burgess found them in 1882, and they were the first Ikshvaku records to be discovered.

Nagarjunakonda inscription of Abhira Vasushena

c. 278 CE

A Sanskrit-Prakrit inscription found on the Krishna bank at Nagarjunakonda in 1958–59, dated in year 30 of the Abhira king Vasishthiputra Vasushena. It records that a local noble and men from Avanti, Sanjayapura and Vanavasa installed the god Ashtabhujasvamin, a form of Vishnu. D. C. Sircar dated it to about 278–79, and took it as evidence of a short Abhira break in Ikshvaku rule.

Nagarjunakonda inscription of Pushpabhadrasvamin

c. 295 CE

A Sanskrit inscription on a four-faced flagstaff pillar from a temple at the foot of Nagarjuna's hill, dated in the 16th year of the Ikshvaku king Ehuvula Chamtamula. It records that his son, the prince Virapurushadatta, built a shrine of the god Shiva as Pushpabhadrasvamin and gave it a village. It is the first direct evidence of Shaiva worship in the Ikshvaku royal house.

Manchikallu inscription of Simhavarman

c. 300 CE

A broken Prakrit inscription on part of an eight-sided stone pillar from Manchikallu in the Palnad taluk. It records gifts by the Pallava king Simhavarman of the Bharadvaja gotra to the priests of the god Jivasivasvamin. D. C. Sircar, who edited it, took it for the earliest Pallava record. He dated it first to the end of the 3rd century and later to the middle of the 4th.

Ellore plates of Devavarman

c. 345 CE

A Prakrit copper-plate grant of the 13th year of the Salankayana king Devavarman, issued from Vengipura. It is addressed to the villagers of Elura (Ellore, now Eluru), and gives twenty nivartanas of land and house sites to a Brahmin. E. Hultzsch edited it in 1908, and it gave the dynasty its modern name, 'the Salankayana Maharajas of Vengipura'.

Kanukollu plates of Nandivarman I

c. 350 CE

Prakrit copper-plate grant of the 14th year of the Salankayana king Nandivarman I, issued from Vengipura and found at Kanukollu in the Krishna delta. It gives a village as an agrahara (Brahmin village) to a Brahmin learned in the four Vedas of the Rathakara community. Its editor dated it to the close of the 3rd century, and D. C. Sircar to about the middle of the 4th.

Kolleru plates of Nandivarman II

c. 430 CE

Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the 7th year of the Salankayana king Nandivarman, eldest son of Chandavarman. He issued it from Vengipura, giving a village in the Kuduhara country to 157 Brahmins. It was reported found in the Kolleru lake before 1840. It was the first record of the dynasty to be known, and A. C. Burnell and J. F. Fleet edited it in the 1870s.

Peddavegi plates of Nandivarman II

c. 430 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the 10th year of the Salankayana king Nandivarman II, found near Pedavegi north of Ellore and first published in 1924. It gives land in four villages to a temple of Vishnu. Its four-generation family line, beginning with Hastivarman of Vengi, is the backbone of the dynasty's history.

Omgodu grant of Simhavarman (No. 2)

c. 440 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Pallava king Simhavarman, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa, made in the fourth year of his reign. It gives the village of Omgodu in Karmarashtra, bounded by Kodikim, Narachadu, Kadakuduru and Penukaparru, to the Brahman Devasarman of Kundur. Its editor, H. Krishna Sastri, thought it a 7th-century copy of an earlier grant. Its date became part of the debate over the Lokavibhaga date of 436 for Simhavarman.

Vilavatti grant of Simhavarman

c. 446 CE

Sanskrit copper-plate grant issued from Paddukkara in the tenth year of the Pallava king Simhavarman, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. It gives the village of Vilavatti in Mundarashtra, with the taxes due from it, to the Brahman Vishnusarman. It was found about 1928 at Vavveru in the Kovur taluk of Nellore, and C. R. Krishnamacharlu edited it in 1938. It lists the dues of craftsmen and traders and bears the earliest clear Pallava bull on its seal.

Jirjingi plates of Indravarman

c. 537 CE

A copper-plate grant of the Ganga king Indravarman, lord of Trikalinga, issued from Dantapura and dated in the year 39. It was found in an old temple site at Jirjingi near Tekkali in the Srikakulam country. When R. K. Ghoshal re-edited it in 1940, it was the oldest known record of the Eastern Gangas. It gives the village of Jijjika, the modern Jirjingi, to a Brahmin. On V. V. Mirashi's epoch (starting date) of the Ganga era, the year 39 falls in about 537.

Kalamalla inscription of Erikal Muturaju Dhananjaya

c. 575 CE

A damaged pillar inscription from Kalamalla in Kadapa district, dated from the shape of its letters to about 575 CE. Its editors called it one of the earliest records written entirely in Telugu.

Achyutapuram plates of Indravarman

c. 585 CE

Three small copper plates, found near Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam country. They record a gift of land made at Kalinganagara by the Ganga king Indravarman, alias Rajasimha, at the consecration of a tank in honour of his mother. The grant is dated in the 87th year of a reckoning that most later scholars took to be the Ganga era. The plates are among the best-preserved early Ganga grants and show the box-headed Kalinga script.

Erragudipadu inscription of Erikal-Mutturaju

c. 590 CE

An early Telugu stone record beside the Chennakesava temple at Erragudipadu in the Kamalapuram country. Its letters are almost the same as those of the Kalamalla pillar, and its editors dated it to the last quarter of the 6th century or a little later. It records a tax-free grant of 24 measures of land to a Brahmana in the reign of an Erikal-Mutturaju. The witnesses included a Mutturaju called Navapriya and a 'Vallava Dukaraju', perhaps a Pallava crown prince.

Malepadu plates of Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Three Sanskrit copper plates with a lion seal, found at Malepadu in the Cuddapah district and given to the Madras Museum. They record a grant of land by the Telugu Chola king Punyakumara in the fifth year of his reign. Published in 1912, they gave the first family tree of the Telugu Cholas, from Nandivarman through Dhananjaya and Mahendravikrama. Their date has been put near 800, about 625 and about 750.

Tippaluru inscription of Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

An early Telugu stone record at Tippaluru in the Kamalapuram country. It was issued while Erikalla-Mutturaju Punyakumara ruled Renandu from his capital Chirpali. Its ornamental letters look like those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I's Vallam rock inscription. It names the weekday and the hora (planetary hour), the earliest mention of the hora then known in south Indian inscriptions.

Kopparam plates of Pulakesin II

c. 631 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the 21st year of the Chalukya king Pulakesin II, probably 631, found near Kopparam in the Narasaraopet taluk of the Guntur district. It gives a field of 800 nivartanas in Karmarashtra to a Brahmana of Mugamur. E. Hultzsch read its 'Prithividuvaraja' as Pulakesin's brother Vishnuvardhana, still a subordinate in that year. Its first editor, K. V. Lakshmana Rao, identified him with another Chalukya prince.

Aihole inscription of Pulakesin II

634 CE

A Sanskrit poem of 37 verses by the Jaina poet Ravikirti, engraved in 634–35 on the Meguti temple at Aihole in Karnataka. It is the main account of the conquests of the Chalukya king Pulakesin II, including his eastern campaign. There he humbled the Kalingas and Kosalas, took Pishtapura (Pithapuram), and ravaged 'the water of Kunala', which Kielhorn identified with the Kolleru lake. He also defeated the Pallava king before Kanchi.

Amudalapadu plates of Vikramaditya I

660 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the fifth year of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I, from Amudalapadu in the Alampur taluk (now in Telangana). D. C. Sircar dated it to 30 April 660. It records the gift of a village to the king's guru Sudarsanacharya when the king was initiated into the Shaiva faith. Its letters are early Telugu-Kannada, and the editors of Epigraphia Telanganica (2023) call it the earliest Telugu inscription in Telangana.

Talamanchi plates of Vikramaditya I

660 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the sixth year of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I, found by a ploughman at Talamanchi in the Nellore taluk and now in the Madras Museum. It gives the village of Elasatti to the king's own teacher, Srimeghacharya. F. Kielhorn dated its solar eclipse to 13 July 660, and used it to fix Vikramaditya's accession between September 654 and July 655.

Gadval plates of Vikramaditya I

674 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the 20th year of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya I, dated 25 April 674. It was kept at Gadwal (then in Hyderabad State, now in Telangana) and is said to have been found in the fields there. Issued from a camp at Uragapura on the south bank of the Kaveri, it names the three Pallava kings whom Vikramaditya defeated. E. Hultzsch noted two Telugu terms for measures of grain in it.

Chicacole plates of Devendravarman, son of Gunarnava

c. 681 CE

A copper-plate grant of the Ganga king Devendravarman, son of Gunarnava, issued from Kalinganagara and dated in the 183rd year of the Ganga reckoning. It is one of six sets of plates dug up together at Srikakulam (then Chicacole). It gives the village of Poppangika as an agrahara (Brahmin village) to six Brahmin brothers living at Kalinganagara. It shows an early use of a decimal zero beside the old number symbols.

Alamanda plates of Anantavarman

c. 802 CE

A copper-plate grant of the Ganga king Anantavarman, son of Rajendravarman, found near Alamanda in the Vizagapatam district (now Vizianagaram). It was issued from Kalinganagara on a solar eclipse at the consecration of a tank, and it gives the village of Medelaka to a Brahmin. It is dated in the 304th year of the reign of the Gangeya race, one of the clearest references to a Ganga era.

British Museum grant of Charudevi

A Prakrit copper-plate grant of the Pallava queen Charudevi, wife of the crown prince Vijaya-Buddhavarman, made in the reign of the Maharaja Vijaya-Skandavarman. It gives four nivartanas of land to the temple of Narayana at Dalura. Sir Walter Elliot secured the plates, which are now in the British Museum. They were reported to have been found near Guntur. J. F. Fleet first edited them in 1880, and E. Hultzsch edited them again in 1906.

Chendalur plates of Kumaravishnu II

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant issued from Kanchipura in the second year of the Pallava king Kumaravishnu II. It gives a field of 432 pattikas (a land measure) in the village of Chendalura in Karmarashtra to the Brahman Bhavaskandatrata. It was found buried in a pot of paddy husk at Chendalur in the Ongole taluk, and E. Hultzsch edited it in 1906. With it he edited a grant of the same village by the Eastern Chalukya Sarvalokasraya of 673, which was reported found in the same way.

Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II

A Vishnukundin copper-plate grant, issued from Lendulura in the king's 10th regnal year, giving the village of Regonram near the Krishna to a Shiva temple. It was found in a tank at Chikkulla near Tuni, and F. Kielhorn edited it in 1897. Its date depends on the disputed Vishnukundin chronology.

Chura grant of Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant, with some Telugu words, issued from Palotkata by the Pallava king Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman, son of a Simhavarman. It gives 108 nivartanas in the village of Chura in Karmarashtra to the Brahman Chasamisarman of Kundur. It was obtained at Narasaraopet and edited by C. R. Krishnamacharlu in 1938. It is written in letters of about the 7th century, and he took it to be a copy of an older grant.

Darsi plate of a Pallava grant

Single copper plate, the first of a lost Sanskrit grant of a Pallava king, found in a tobacco field at Darsi in the Nellore district and now in the Madras Museum. A great-grandson of the Maharaja Virakorchavarman issued it 'from the prosperous and victorious residence of Dasanapura'. E. Hultzsch edited it in 1892. Later scholars identified Virakorchavarman with Viravarman of the Nellore–Guntur line and Dasanapura with Darsi itself.

Ipur plates (set I) of Govindavarman's son Madhavavarman

Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman, son of Govindavarman. He issued it from his camp at Kudavada in his 37th year, giving the village of Vilembali in the Guddadi district to a Brahmin. It is one of two Vishnukundin sets found at Ipur in Tenali taluk, and E. Hultzsch edited it in 1924. Whether its king is the great Madhavavarman I or a later Madhavavarman III is disputed.

Ipur plates (set II) of Madhavavarman II

A damaged Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman II, son of Devavarman and grandson of Madhavavarman I, issued from [Ama]rapura. It calls the king lord of the Trikuta and Malaya mountains. It was found at Ipur in Tenali taluk, and E. Hultzsch edited it in 1924. It is in the most archaic script of all the Vishnukundin grants, and its regnal year has been read as 47, 37 and 17.

Kanteru plates of the Salankayanas

Two Sanskrit copper-plate grants of Salankayana kings found buried at Kanteru, six miles from Guntur. One is of Skandavarman in his first year, and one of a king Nandivarman, probably Nandivarman II. Both were issued from Vengi, and both gave land to Brahmins of the Maudgalya gotra. One seal shows a crouching bull, the clearest image of the dynasty's emblem.

Kanukollu plates of Skandavarman

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the first year of the Salankayana king Skandavarman, issued from Vengi. It was found at Kanukollu with a Prakrit grant of Nandivarman I. Its four-generation family line, published in 1960, showed that Skandavarman was a great-grandson of Hastivarman I through a second son of Nandivarman I.

Khanapur plates of Madhavavarman

An incomplete Sanskrit copper-plate grant of a Maharaja Madhavavarman, found in 1927 at Khanapur in Satara district, Maharashtra. It gives a village on the Krishna near Karad to two Brahmins. Its first plate, which would have named the dynasty, is lost. V. V. Mirashi and Y. R. Gupte, who edited it in 1956, gave it to the Vishnukundin Madhavavarman I because of the sacrifices and the imperial title it claims. They took it as proof of a Vishnukundin empire reaching into Maharashtra.

Mangalur grant of Simhavarman

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant issued from Dasanapura in the eighth year of the Pallava king Simhavarman, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. It gives the village of Mangadur in Vengorashtra to eight Brahmans. J. F. Fleet published it in 1876 from Sir Walter Elliot's facsimiles. D. C. Sircar took Vengorashtra to be the southern edge of the Vengi country, and V. Venkayya suggested that Dasanapura was Darsi.

Omgodu grant of Skandavarman II (No. 1)

Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Pallava king Vijaya-Skandavarman (Skandavarman II), issued from Tambrapa in the 33rd year of his reign. It gives the village of Omgodu in Karmarashtra to the Brahman Golasarman. H. Krishna Sastri edited it in 1920. It gave the earliest known members of the Pallava line of the Nellore–Guntur country and is dated in the old seasonal manner of the Prakrit charters.

Pikira grant of Simhavarman

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant issued from the camp at Menmatura in the fifth year of the Pallava king Simhavarman, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. It gives the village of Pikira in Mundarashtra to the Brahman Vilasasarman. The village munsiff (headman) of Nelatur in the Ongole taluk sent in the plates, which had been the unclaimed property of a dead ascetic. E. Hultzsch edited the grant in 1906.

Polamuru plates of Madhavavarman Janashraya

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman Janashraya, son of Govindavarman and grandson of Vikramahendra. He made it while crossing the Godavari to conquer the east. It gave the village of Polamuru to a Brahmin whose son received the same village again from the Eastern Chalukya king Jayasimha I. Noticed in 1914 and edited in Telugu-country journals, it is the key to the Vishnukundin chronology. But its regnal year, its date and even its king are disputed.

Ramatirtham plates of Indravarman

Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Indravarman (Indrabhattarakavarman), issued from Puranisangama in his 27th year. It gives the village of Peruvataka in the Plaki district to a Brahmin. A family of pandits at Ramatirtham near Vizianagaram held it. It was noticed in 1909, and E. Hultzsch edited it in 1914. Its short family line confirmed the line of the Chikkulla plates and the Vishnukundin marriage with the Vakatakas.

Uruvupalli grant of Vishnugopavarman

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Pallava crown prince Vishnugopavarman, issued from Palakkada in the 11th year of a king Simhavarman. It gives two hundred nivartanas of land in the village of Uruvupalli, in the country of Munda, to a temple at Kandukura. J. F. Fleet published it in 1876 from Sir Walter Elliot's facsimiles. Its findspot is unknown.

Velpuru pillar inscription of Madhavavarman

A Sanskrit inscription on a white marble pillar in the Ramalingasvamin temple at Velpuru, in the former Sattenapalle taluk of Guntur district. It names a Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman. Noticed in 1925, it is the only known stone inscription of the dynasty. Only the exposed part has been copied, because the pillar could not be removed from the temple.

Language & literature

From Prakrit inscriptions and the first Telugu records to Nannaya, Pothana, Vemana and modern prose.

Music & dance

Annamacharya, Tyagaraja, Kuchipudi, Perini and the folk performance traditions.

Religion & philosophy

Buddhism, Jainism, Shaiva and Vaishnava movements, Islam and the Sufi orders, Christianity and village deities.

Temples & architecture

Stupas, rock-cut caves, temples, mosques, tombs and palaces, and how they were built.

Forts & warfare

Hill forts, city walls, armies and the battles that changed who ruled the region.

Trade & economy

Ports such as Motupalli and Machilipatnam, Golconda diamonds, tanks and farming, merchant guilds.

Government & administration

Kingship, the nayankara system, village officers, land revenue and law.

Society & communities

Castes, communities and tribes, and how social life changed over time, from scholarly sources.

Inscriptions & sources

How we know: inscriptions, coins, travellers' accounts, the Mackenzie kaifiyats and archives.

Land, rivers and water

How the land shaped Telugu history: a coastal plain with two great river deltas, the forested hills of the Eastern Ghats, and the dry Deccan plateau of Telangana and Rayalaseema. The deltas rarely failed, while the uplands lived by rain and by tanks. The pages below follow the rivers, the water works, the forests and hills, and the famines, floods and cyclones that the old records describe.

Rivers of the Telugu country

The Godavari, the Krishna and its tributaries the Tungabhadra and the Musi, the Penna (Pennar) and the Kolleru lake, as the gazetteers of about 1900 describe them: their courses through the Telugu country, their deltas, the holy places and towns on their banks, their floods and their crossings.

Old names of regions

The old country names of the Telugu lands and where the sources place them: Andhra and Telingana, Vengi between the two deltas, Kammanadu round Ongole, Velanadu in the western Krishna delta, Pakanadu between Ongole and Nellore, Renadu round Kadapa, the Kondapalli and Kondavidu countries, and the later names Circars and Ceded Districts. Names only: for how borders changed, see How the map changed.