Kakatiyas

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.

Chalukyas of Mudigonda

c. 890–1218 CE

A family of Chalukya chiefs named after Mudigonda (Mudugondu) near Khammam. They held the Manchikonda district and the Koravi (Kuravi) country, between Vengi and Vemulavada, from the late 9th century to about 1200. They served the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi, later the Chalukyas of Kalyani, and lost their lands to the Kakatiyas. They are known from two copper-plate grants (the Mogalcheruvula grant of Kusumayudha IV and the Kukkunur plates of Kusumaditya), a stone inscription at Koravi and passing references in other dynasties' records.

Western Chalukyas of Kalyani

c. 973–1189 CE

A dynasty of the western Deccan that overthrew the Rashtrakutas in 973 and ruled from Kalyana (Kalyani) until about 1189. Telangana was part of their kingdom. Kannada inscriptions of their reigns run from Korapolu in the Medak district (973) to Alampur, Gangapuram, Kolanupaka and Hanamkonda, where the early Kakatiya chiefs, the Polavasa chiefs and the Kandur Chodas served them as feudatories. They fought the Cholas for Vengi for a century, and Vikramaditya VI was recognised as king there from 1118 to about 1126. After the Kalachuris took over in the 1150s, the Kakatiyas declared their own sovereignty in 1163.

Cholas of Tanjore

c. 985–1268 CE

The imperial Chola dynasty of Tanjore (Thanjavur) and Gangaikondacholapuram in the Tamil country, overlords of much of the Telugu country from about 1000 to the 12th century. Rajaraja I restored the Eastern Chalukya Saktivarman I in Vengi about 999 and married his daughter to Saktivarman's brother Vimaladitya. Rajendra I waited on the Godavari while his general marched to the Ganges, and Virarajendra fought the Western Chalukyas at Bezwada. In 1070 the Eastern Chalukya heir became the Chola emperor Kulottunga I, whose sons governed Vengi until 1118. After a Western Chalukya occupation, Vikrama-Chola recovered the coast, but by the mid-12th century Chola rule north of the Krishna was nominal. In the south, the Telugu Choda chiefs of Nellore and Pottappi acknowledged the Chola king until the dynasty ended in the 1260s.

Kandur Chodas

c. 1060–1282 CE

Telugu Choda chiefs of the Kandurunadu country, in the present Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts of Telangana. They called themselves lords of Kodur, of the solar race and of the lineage of Karikala. Feudatories of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani from about 1060, they governed the Kollipake province in 1088 and held Panugallu near Nalgonda. Their quarrels in the 1120s–1150s drew in the Kakatiyas Prola II and Rudradeva, who put Udaya Choda on the Panugallu throne, drove out his kinsman Bhima and annexed the country. The family lived on as Kakatiya subordinates, and its last known record is of 1282.

Haihayas of Kona and Palnadu

c. 1073–1364 CE

Two families of chiefs in the Telugu country who claimed descent from the legendary Haihaya king Kartavirya. The Kona chiefs ruled Konamandala, the Godavari delta, from the late 11th century to the 14th, under the Chola–Chalukya kings and the Velanati Chodas. They joined in the war in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed. In the Palnadu, Haihaya chiefs of the Chagi family appear as feudatories of the Western Chalukyas from 1111. The Palnadu chiefs are the kings of the Telugu heroic ballad of the Palnati Viralu, whose war, fought out at Karempudi, has been dated anywhere from 1080 to 1386.

Velanati Chodas

c. 1076–1209 CE

A family of chiefs of Velanadu, the Chandavolu (Tsandavolu) country in the western Krishna delta. They rose as officers of the Eastern Chalukya and Chola kings and governed the Vengi country for the Chola emperors from the reign of Kulottunga I. Their records run from 1076 at Chebrolu to 1206. Gonka II claimed rule from Kalahasti to the Mahendra mountain, and Rajendra Choda II was the chief power on the coast in the 1170s. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva defeated the last of them, Prithvisvara, and had annexed Velanadu by 1209.

Kotas of Dharanikota

c. 1100–1276 CE

A family of chiefs of Amaravati–Dharanikota on the south bank of the Krishna, lords of the 'Six-thousand' country (Konnatavadi). Robert Sewell traced their line from about 1100, and their inscriptions run to the 1270s. Keta II, who probably came to power in 1182, still gave lamps and villages to the Buddha at Amaravati. Related by marriage to the Velanati Chodas and the Kakatiyas, they were brought under Kakatiya rule about 1185. Kota Beta married Ganapamba, daughter of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, and she ruled the family's lands as a widow in the 1250s.

Telugu Chodas of Pottapi and Nellore

c. 1120–1316 CE

A family of Telugu chiefs who called themselves Madhurantaka Pottapi-Cholas and Ganda-Gopalas and claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala. They ruled the Pakanadu country of Nellore and southern Kadapa (Cuddapah) from Pottapi and then Nellore, from the early 12th century to about 1316. First vassals of the Cholas, they took Kanchi under Tikka I and his successors. They then passed under the Kakatiyas, who restored Manumasiddhi II, the patron of the poet Tikkana. A related branch ruled Konidena in the Guntur country.

Kakatiyas

c. 1163–1323 CE

Dynasty of Anumakonda (Hanamkonda) and Orugallu (Warangal). The Kakatiyas were Rashtrakuta and then Western Chalukya feudatories from the tenth century. They declared their sovereignty under Rudradeva in 1163, and under Ganapatideva they ruled the Telugu country from Telangana to the coast. Rudramadevi reigned as king under the name Rudradeva, and her grandson Prataparudra fell to the Delhi Sultanate in the 1320s. Their rule rested on allied chiefs, nayaka commanders holding land for military service, and village assemblies. It is remembered for its tanks, its temples, the Motupalli sea-trade edict and its court literature.

Hoysalas

c. 1173–1343 CE

Dynasty of Dorasamudra (Halebid) in the Mysore country, at first vassals of the Western Chalukyas and independent from the time of Vishnuvardhana in the 12th century. Ballala II took Nolambavadi; his inscriptions are at Parigi (1178) and Hemavati (1205–06) in the Anantapur district, and he claimed Gooty. His successors fought the Seunas, the Pandyas and the Telugu Chodas for the Chola country, and in the later 13th century held the Rayachoti country. Ballala III lost Dorasamudra to Malik Kafur in 1311 but still ruled parts of Anantapur to 1340; a Kakatiya general defeated him at Kanchi. He was killed fighting the Sultan of Madurai in 1342.

Pandyas

c. 1251–1311 CE

Ancient Tamil dynasty of Madurai whose second empire, in the 13th century, reached the Telugu country. About 1260–63 Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I defeated the Telugus, their Telugu Choda allies and the Kakatiya Ganapati at Mudugur (Muttukuru in P. V. Parabrahma Sastry's account), drove them to the Krishna, and had himself anointed at Nellore and Kanchi. A later Sundara Pandya, crowned at Nellore, endowed a hall in its Ranganayaka temple, and Pandya princes held Nandalur in the Cuddapah country from 1286 to 1293. The Kakatiyas recovered Nellore, and in 1317 a Kakatiya general restored a Sundara Pandya to his throne. Marco Polo's 'Sonder Bandi Davar' of Ma'bar was identified by Henry Yule and Robert Caldwell with a Sundara Pandya.

Delhi Sultanate in the Telugu country

c. 1303–1344 CE

The Khalji and Tughluq sultans of Delhi sent five armies against the Kakatiya capital Warangal between 1303 and 1323. Malik Kafur's siege of 1309–10 and Khusrau Khan's of 1318 ended in tribute. Ulugh Khan, the future Muhammad bin Tughluq, took the city at his second attempt, sent Prataparudra towards Delhi and renamed Warangal Sultanpur. For a little over a decade Telingana (Tilang) was a province of the sultanate, governed for a time by the Telugu convert Malik Maqbul. Then a rising under Kapaya Nayaka, called Kanya Naik by Barani, drove the Delhi officers out.

Beta I

c. 996–1051 CE

Early Kakatiya chief (c. 996–1051), also called Garuda Beta. As a boy he lost his father in war, and later he won back the family's position. His one known record, an inscription of 1051 at Sanigaram, is the oldest Kakatiya record after the Mangallu grant.

Prola I

c. 1052–1076 CE

Kakatiya chief (c. 1052–1076), son of Beta I. He fought for the Western Chalukya king Trailokyamalla (Someshvara I), who gave him the district of Anumakonda as a permanent fief (land held from a king). He bore the title ari-gaja-kesari, and the family's boar emblem was later credited to him.

Beta II

c. 1076–1108 CE

Kakatiya chief (c. 1076–1108) who took the name Tribhuvanamalla from his overlord, the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. He held Anumakonda as a Chalukya feudatory (subordinate ruler) and won the Sabbi-nadu district through his minister. He gave lands to the Kalamukha Shaiva teacher Rameshvara Pandita.

Bhima Choda III of Kandur

c. 1105–1157 CE

Kandur Choda chief, second son of Tondaya II and Mailamba, for whose welfare his mother founded an agrahara at Panugallu in 1124. The Kakatiya inscription of 1163 accuses a Bhima of killing his brother Gokarna and seizing power after the death of a king Tailapa, and tells how Rudradeva burned his city and drove him into the forest. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dated his records from 1105 to about 1157.

Durgaraja

c. 1108–1116 CE

Elder son of the Kakatiya chief Beta II. He is known from a single inscription of 1098 at Kazipet. He may have ruled briefly between about 1108 and 1116, before his younger brother Prola II took power.

Prola II

c. 1116–1157 CE

Kakatiya chief (r. c. 1116–1157), son of Beta II and father of Rudradeva. As a Western Chalukya feudatory (subordinate ruler) he defeated the rival chiefs around Anumakonda. He was killed in battle with chiefs of the coastal Andhra country.

Udaya Choda II of Kandur

c. 1136–1176 CE

Kandur Choda chief, son of Gokarna. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry identified him with the 'king Udaya' to whom the Kakatiya Prola II gave back a kingdom after capturing Govindaraja. His records run from 1136 to 1176. The Kakatiya Rudradeva married his daughter and left him his fief (land held from a king). An inscription of 1162 at Jedcherla shows his customs officers granting coins called Gokarna-Singa rukas to the god of Kodur.

Taila III

c. 1150–1162 CE

Western Chalukya king, called Trailokyamalla, who reigned from 1150. His Kalachuri general Bijjala took over the kingdom between 1156 and 1162. He was dead by January 1163, when the Kakatiya Rudradeva's inscription at Anumakonda mentions his death. J. F. Fleet identified him with the 'Tailapadeva' whom Rudradeva's father Prola II captured and released. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry argued that Prola's captive was the prince Kumara Tailapa instead.

Mallideva of Kona

c. 1155–1195 CE

Haihaya chief of Konamandala, the Godavari delta. He ruled jointly with Manma-Satya II, a great-grandson of his uncle Satya I. In 1195 the two gave the village of Odiyuru to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. Their inscription traces the family from the legendary Kartavirya and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry held that Mallideva and a Satya of the Kona family took part in the battle in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed.

Rudradeva

c. 1158–1195 CE

Kakatiya ruler (c. 1158–1195) who defeated the rival chiefs of Telangana. He proclaimed his family's independence in the Thousand Pillar Temple inscription of 1163, and began the fortified capital at Orugallu (Warangal).

Rajendra Choda II (Velanati)

c. 1163–1181 CE

Velanati chief, son of Gonka II, who ruled from about 1163 to 1181. His copper plates of 1169, issued at Chandavolu, call him a general of the Chola king Rajaraja II. They say he killed Bhima of Kolanu and received the Andhra country between the eastern sea, Kalahasti, the Mahendra mountain and Srisailam. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry made him the master of the coast from Darsi to Simhachalam after 1172; his death in 1181 opened the way for the Kakatiyas.

Ballala II (Hoysala)

1173–1220 CE

Hoysala king, crowned at Dorasamudra on 22 July 1173, who defeated the Seuna army at Soratur, took the Pandya fortress of Uchchangi and pushed his frontier to the Bhima river. He took Nolambavadi: his records in the Anantapur country are at Parigi (Saka 1100, 1178) and Hemavati (1205–06), and an inscription at Harihar claims that he took Gooty. B. Lewis Rice dates his reign 1173–1220.

Kulottunga III (Chola)

1178–1216 CE

Chola king (1178–1216), the last strong ruler of the dynasty. The Telugu Choda chiefs of Pottappi and Nellore, among them Nallasiddha, Tammusiddhi and Tikka, dated their records in his reign, and inscriptions of his years are found at Nellore, in the Gudur country and at Kalahasti, whose temple he renewed. The Cuddapah gazetteer credits him with restoring Chola power in the Paka-nadu in 1196, while the Kakatiyas took over the old Chola lands north of the Krishna.

Kota Keta II

c. 1182–1209 CE

Chief of Amaravati–Dharanikota, the Mahamandalesvara Kota Ketaraja, lord of the Six-thousand country south of the Krishna. His long inscription on a pillar of the Amaresvara temple is dated in Saka 1104, probably the day he came to the throne (about 1182–83). It records grants to Brahmans, and lamps and villages for the Buddha at Amaravati. His mother was a sister of a Gonka of Velanandu. His records run to about 1209.

Prithvisvara

c. 1186–1206 CE

Last ruler of the Velanati Chodas, son of Gonka III and Jayambika. In his reign his mother's grant of 1186 to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram was engraved. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva drove him from the Krishna country, and Ganapatideva's general took the island of Divi about 1203. He held out north of the Godavari; his last record is of 1206, and he was killed in battle soon afterwards.

Mahadeva

c. 1195–1199 CE

Kakatiya king (r. c. 1195–1199), younger brother of Rudradeva and father of Ganapatideva. He was killed in a night battle while attacking the capital of the Yadava (Seuna) kings.

Recherla Rudra

c. 1195–1213 CE

General of the Kakatiya kings Rudradeva, Mahadeva and Ganapatideva, of the Recherla family. He held the kingdom together after Mahadeva's death at Devagiri, and he drove out the Mudigonda chief Nagati. In 1213 he founded the Rudreshvara (Ramappa) temple and its lake at Palampet.

Ganapatideva

c. 1199–1262 CE

Kakatiya king (r. 1199–c. 1262) whose sixty-year reign carried Kakatiya power from Telangana to the coast and the far south. He moved the capital to Orugallu (Warangal). His reign produced the Motupalli sea-trade edict and the Ramappa and Ganapesvaram temples.

Tammusiddhi

c. 1205–1208 CE

Telugu Choda king of the Pottapi and Nellore family, and a vassal of the Chola king Kulottunga III. He was anointed at Nellore in 1205–06 and made grants at Kanchipuram, Tiruvalangadu, Tiruppasur, Tiruvorriyur, Nellore and Kavali. His inscriptions give the fullest early family tree of the family, but they disagree about who his brother or uncle Nallasiddhi was.

Jaya (Jayapa)

c. 1209–1253 CE

General and minister of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, of the Ayya family of Divi. Ganapati married his two sisters and made him commander of the elephant troops and governor of Velanadu. He built the Ganapesvara temple on Divi in 1231 and wrote the Nritta Ratnavali, a Sanskrit treatise on dance.

Tikka I (Telugu Choda of Nellore)

c. 1209–1248 CE

Telugu Choda king of Nellore, also called Tirukalatti and Ganda-Gopala, who ruled from about 1209 to 1248 or 1250. He was a loyal vassal of the Chola Rajaraja III, fought the Hoysalas and held Kanchi. In one modern account he owed his throne at Nellore to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva. He was the father of Manumasiddhi II.

Gangaya Sahini

c. 1239–1257 CE

Kayastha chief and cavalry commander of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. The king made him head of the seventy-two branches of administration (bahattara-niyogadhipati) and gave him a great fief from Panugallu to the Cuddapah country, which he ruled from Valluru. His nephews Jannigadeva, Tripurari and Ambadeva succeeded him, and the last rebelled against Rudramadevi.

Rajendra III (Chola)

c. 1246–1267 CE

The last Chola king (1246 to about 1267). His regnal years were still used by the Telugu Choda rulers of Nellore, among them Manumasiddhi, the patron of the poet Tikkana, and a Tamil record dated in his reign survives in the Gudur country of Nellore as late as 1263–64. An inscription of 1260–61 at Tripurantakam claims victories for him over two Pandya kings, which V. Rangacharya took for a real campaign and Robert Sewell did not. The Cuddapah gazetteer dates his death, and the end of the Cholas, to 1268.

Manumasiddhi II

c. 1248 CE

Telugu Choda king of Nellore from about 1248 or 1250, son of Tikka I and patron of the poet Tikkana Somayaji. He was driven out of Nellore early in his reign. The Kakatiya king Ganapatideva restored him after Tikkana went to the Kakatiya court as his envoy, and he later fought for Ganapati against Kalinga on the Godavari. Whether he was the same king as Vijaya-Gandagopala of Kanchi is disputed.

Ganapamba

c. 1250–1257 CE

Kakatiya princess, daughter of Ganapatideva, married to the Kota chief Beta of Amaravati–Dharanikota. After Beta's death she ruled his lands as a Mahamandalesvara with the male titles of his family. She gilded the Amaresvara temple at Amaravati, and built temples named Betesvara and Ganapesvara after her husband and her father. Her Yenamadala pillar inscription is the main record of the Kota family.

Kota Beta

c. 1250–1257 CE

Chief of Amaravati–Dharanikota, grandson of Kota Keta II, who married Ganapamba, daughter of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. He was alive in 1251, when he founded a temple at Yenamadala, and dead by 1257. His widow built temples in his memory and ruled his lands with the masculine titles of the family.

Narasimha I (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1250–1268 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga and Orissa in the mid-13th century, son of Anangabhima. The Vizagapatam gazetteer credits him with building the central shrine, the halls and the enclosing verandah of the Simhachalam temple in black stone in 1267–68. His feudatories and ministers left records at Srikurmam. The Orissa temple chronicle remembers him as Languliya Narsinh, builder of the Sun temple at Konarak. His dates differ widely between the sources.

Vishveshvara Shambhu

c. 1250–1261 CE

Shaiva teacher of the Pashupata Golaki monastery, and preceptor (teacher) of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva and of Rudramadevi. Rudramadevi granted him the village of Mandadam on the Krishna in 1261. There he founded a monastery with a college, a feeding house and a maternity and health home. He also founded monasteries and temples elsewhere in the Telugu country.

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I

c. 1251–1268 CE

Pandya king of Madurai who came to the throne in 1251 and led the second Pandya empire to its height. His records claim the defeat of the Hoysala Somesvara, the capture of Kopperunjinga's fortress, the occupation of Kanchi after killing Gandagopala, and a victory over the Telugus and their allies at Mudugur, from which he drove them to the Krishna. He was anointed as conqueror at Nellore. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dates the battle at Muttukuru to 1263 and adds that he struck coins with the Kakatiya boar. Robert Sewell doubted the northern march.

Malyala Gunda

c. 1259–1276 CE

General (dandanatha) of the Malyala family under the Kakatiya rulers Ganapatideva and Rudramadevi, known from his inscriptions of 1259 and 1272 at Bothpur in the Mahbubnagar district. They are elaborate Sanskrit poems by the scholar Isvara-suri, and they state that the Kakatiyas were born in the fourth varna. He had died by 1276–77, when his widow Kuppamamba, daughter of Gona Buddhaya, built a temple for his merit.

Rudramadevi

c. 1262–1289 CE

Daughter and successor of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. She ruled from Orugallu (Warangal) under the masculine title Rudradeva Maharaja from about 1260. She faced rebels, the Yadavas, the Eastern Gangas and the revolt of the Kayastha Ambadeva, and died in 1289 according to the Chandupatla inscription (1294–95 in older accounts). Henry Yule and E. Hultzsch identified her with the just and beloved queen praised, without a name, by Marco Polo.

Ambadeva (Kayastha)

c. 1272–1294 CE

Kayastha chief (r. 1272–c. 1294) of Valluru in the Cuddapah country, and nephew of Gangaya Sahini. He threw off the authority of the Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi and built an independent state south-west of the Krishna with Yadava and Pandya support. He proclaimed his victories at Tripurantakam in 1290. Prataparudra's armies drove him from Tripurantakam in 1291.

Induluri Annaya

c. 1289–1323 CE

Brahman minister and general of the Induluri family, son-in-law of Queen Rudramadevi and a chief minister (mahapradhana) of Prataparudra. In 1291 he led the Kakatiya army that won back Tripurantakam from the Kayastha chief Ambadeva. He later governed the Vengi country.

Prataparudra

c. 1289–1323 CE

Last Kakatiya king (r. 1289–c. 1323; 1295–1323 in older accounts) and grandson of Rudramadevi. He crushed the Kayastha revolt, reorganised the nayankara military system, and paid tribute to Delhi after the sieges of 1310 and 1318. He was captured when Ulugh Khan took Warangal in the 1320s. Later warrior families remembered him as the king who raised them to rank.

Vidyanatha

c. 1289–1323 CE

Court poet of the last Kakatiya king Prataparudra. He wrote the Prataparudriya (Prataparudra-yashobhushana), a Sanskrit book on the theory of poetry whose example verses all praise the king. Its model play, the Prataparudra-kalyana, is one of the few literary sources from the time for the Kakatiya court.

Ballala III (Hoysala)

1292–1342 CE

The last great Hoysala king, crowned on 31 January 1292, who united the two halves of the kingdom. Malik Kafur took his capital Dorasamudra in 1311; the city was rebuilt by 1316 and destroyed again by a Tughluq army, after which he lived at Tiruvannamalai. His inscriptions in the Anantapur district run from 1317 to 1340, and in 1328 his minister ruled at Penukonda. A Kakatiya general defeated him at Kanchi. He was killed fighting the Sultan of Madurai on 8 September 1342.

Malik Kafur

c. 1309–1313 CE

Slave general of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji, called Malik Naib. He besieged Warangal in 1309–10 and forced the Kakatiya king Prataparudra to give up his treasure and pay yearly tribute. Then he crossed the Telugu country on his way to the far south, and he collected its tribute from Devagiri. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Muhammad bin Tughluq

1325–1351 CE

Sultan of Delhi (1325–1351). As Prince Ulugh Khan he besieged Warangal twice in the early 1320s, captured the Kakatiya king Prataparudra and renamed the city Sultanpur. As sultan he held Telingana as a province until a Telugu rising, after his visit of 1335, took Warangal from his governor. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Atharvana

Telugu grammarian of the Kakatiya period, author of the Trilinga Sabdanusasanamu, a grammar of Telugu written in Sanskrit. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called him the only Jain writer in surviving Telugu literature, dated him about 1240 and thought his real name was Nallanna. A legend that Nannaya burnt his Telugu Mahabharata out of jealousy was rejected by them, because the two did not live at the same time.

Baddena

Telugu Choda chief of the Kakatiya period, author of the Nitisastra Muktavali, a verse handbook on the duties of kings. Tradition also makes him the author of the Sumati Satakam, the book of moral verses taught in Telugu village schools, but the sources disagree on who wrote it and when.

Brahma Nayudu

Hero of the Telugu ballad cycle of the Palnati Viralu (Heroes of Palnadu): the minister who led one side in the Palnadu war, fought out at Karempudi, and who is still honoured there as a form of Vishnu. He is known only from the ballads and the cult. No inscription names him, and the dates proposed for his war range from 1080 to 1386.

Gona Budda Reddi

Chief of the Gona family in the Kakatiya period, named in its colophons as the author of the Ranganatha Ramayana, the Telugu Ramayana in the native dvipada metre. His sons completed it with the Uttara Ramayana. His daughter Kuppamamba was the wife of Ganapatideva's general Malyala Gunda.

Hullaki Bhaskara

Telugu poet of the Kakatiya period, chief author of the Bhaskara Ramayanamu, a Ramayana in mixed verse and prose written with his son and pupils. He dedicated it to Sahinimara, a cavalry commander. A well-known story explains this unusual dedication, but Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called it 'a later invention'.

Kusumaditya (Chalukya of Mudigonda)

Chief of the Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas, son of Bottu-Beta, known from the Kukkunur copper plates found near Bhadrachalam. They tell how a disaster struck in the first year of his rule, and his ministers Indaparaju and Remaraju carried him into exile for twelve years. They brought him back to rule the Visuru-nadu, and he rewarded them with an agrahara (village grant) on the Godavari. Its editor dated the letters to about 1200; P. V. Parabrahma Sastry placed Kusumaditya and his brother Nagati about 1218.

Mailamba

Kakatiya princess, daughter of Mahadeva and sister of Ganapatideva, married to the Natavadi chief Rudra. She built the tank at Bayyaram, a village named after her mother Bayyamamba. Its inscription, found in 1966, is the main source for the early genealogy of the Kakatiyas.

Marana

Telugu poet of the late Kakatiya period, a pupil of Tikkana, who wrote the Markandeya Puranamu and dedicated it to Nagaya Gannaya, an officer of the last Kakatiya king, Prataparudra. Its story of the birth of Svarochisha Manu later became the basis of Allasani Peddana's Manucharitramu. The poem's mention of Prataparudra's officers makes it a source for Kakatiya history.

Mulaghatika Ketana

Telugu poet and scholar of the 13th century, a younger contemporary of Tikkana. He put Dandin's Sanskrit romance Dasakumaracharita into Telugu and dedicated it to Tikkana, wrote an early Telugu grammar, the Andhra Bhasha Bhushanamu, and turned the Mitakshara law code into Telugu.

Nannechoda

Telugu Choda prince of Pakanadu and author of the Kumarasambhavamu, a long Telugu poem on the birth of the war-god Kumara. The poem was found and printed only in the early 20th century, and scholars still argue over its date: its editor placed it before Nannaya, while Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao put the poet about 1150.

Palkuriki Somanatha

Telugu Shaiva poet from Palakurthi near Warangal. He wrote the Basava Purana and the Panditaradhya Charitra in the dvipada metre, the founding works of Telugu Virashaiva literature. Historians disagree over whether he lived in the late twelfth century or under Prataparudra, the last Kakatiya king.

Tikkana Somayaji

Telugu poet of the 13th century at the court of the Telugu Choda king Manumasiddhi II of Nellore. He translated fifteen books of the Mahabharata into Telugu, completing the work Nannaya had begun two centuries earlier, and wrote the Nirvachanottara Ramayana. He went as his patron's envoy to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva, whose help restored Manumasiddhi to Nellore.

Vemulavada Bhimakavi

Telugu poet known mostly from legend, linked by tradition with Vemulavada in Karimnagar district and with Draksharama. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called him 'a poet of mystery': he has been placed in every century from the 12th to the 16th, and no work can be given to him with certainty. Later poets remembered him for 'words of power', and one tradition makes him the first to write verse with two meanings.

Amaravati & Dharanikota

Neighbouring sites on the south bank of the Krishna. The ramparts of Dharanikota are usually identified with ancient Dhanyakataka. The town of Amaravati is the site of the great Buddhist stupa and the Amaresvara temple.

Bayyaram

Village in the old Yellandu taluk. Its great tank, the Dharmakirti-samudra, was built by Ganapatideva's sister Mailama. Her pillar inscription there gives the fullest Kakatiya genealogy (family history).

Bothpur

Village in the Mahbubnagar district, the Budhapura of the inscriptions. The Kakatiya general Malyala Gunda and his wife Kuppambika held court here. They left three inscriptions of 1259, 1272 and 1277 recording tanks, temples and gifts to learned Brahmins.

Chandavolu (Chandole)

Village in the western Krishna delta, the old Tsandavolu of the Repalle taluk. E. Hultzsch identified it with Sanadavrolu, the capital of the Velanati Chodas. Gordon Mackenzie (1883) described it as a place of great antiquity, with temple inscriptions of the 1150s–1170s, finds of gold and the foundations of extensive buildings. It appears in the ballad of the Palnadu heroes.

Chandupatla

Village near Nalgonda. Its small Telugu inscription of November 1289 records that the Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi and her general Mallikarjuna-nayaka had died.

Chebrolu

Old town on a sandstone ridge nine miles south-east of Guntur, called Tamrapuri or the 'city of Shanmukha' in its inscriptions, after its temple of Kumarasvamin. Its records run from 1006. They include gifts of the Velanadu chiefs, and a long inscription of 1213 by Jaya, the Kakatiya king Ganapati's general, who received the town and rebuilt its temples and walls. M. Rama Rao attributed its Bhimesvara temple to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I.

Dharmasagar

Village near Hanamkonda with an undated pillar inscription of Ganapatideva's minister Malla, which divides an endowment among temple musicians, dancers and priests.

Draksharama

Temple town in the Godavari delta, four miles south of Ramachandrapuram. It is famous as the 'Southern Benares' for its temple of Bhimesvara, whose walls carry hundreds of inscriptions from the 11th century onwards. Tradition derives its name from Daksharama, the garden of Daksha. It counts the temple's linga among the five Pancharama shrines.

Durgi

Village in the Palnadu country (old Palnad taluk, Guntur district), the Dugyapattana of a 1251 inscription. That record names the temple of Vankesvara founded under Ganapatideva's governor Gangaya-sahini.

Ganapavaram (Huzurnagar)

Village in the old Huzurnagar taluk where a broken pillar of January 1214 records the founding of the town of Ganapatipura and its Rudreshvara temple by Devapala, a servant of the Kakatiyas who had been brought up by the prince Jagaddeva.

Ganapesvaram

Hamlet near Talagada-Divi on Divi island in the Krishna delta. It is named after the Ganapeshvara temple that the Kakatiya general Jaya built there in 1231 in honour of his king Ganapatideva.

Ghanpur (Mulug)

Village north-east of Palampet with the Kota Gullu, a walled group of twenty-two Kakatiya-period shrines, and the Ghanpur tank.

Gudimallam

Village near Renigunta in the Kalahasti country of the old Chittoor district, called Tiruvippirambedu (Sanskrit Viprapitha) in its inscriptions. Its Parasuramesvara temple holds the earliest records of the Bana chiefs, dated under the Pallava and Ganga-Pallava kings and in Saka 820 and 827 (898 and 905), and a copper-plate grant of the Bana king Vikramaditya II was found there. Later Tamil inscriptions of the Chola kings include a record of Vikrama-Chola's ninth year on the building of the temple.

Gudur (Jangaon)

Village in the old Jangaon taluk. A pillar here carries Telugu verses telling how the Viriyala chief Erra and the lady Kamasani restored the young Kakatiya chief Beta. Beside them are Kannada records of the Viriyala chief Malla and of the Chalukya prince Someshvara (1124).

Gurazala

Town in the Palnadu, west of Dachepalle. An inscription of 1129 calls it Madhavipattana; in it Beta Birudankarudra, a Haihaya feudatory (subordinate chief) of the Western Chalukyas, gave land to a temple there. In the ballad of the Palnadu heroes it is the capital of King Alugu Bhupati and of Nayakuralu, from which Brahma Nayudu broke away.

Halebidu

Village in the Belur taluk of Hassan district, Mysore (now Karnataka), the site of Dorasamudra (Dvarasamudra), capital of the Hoysala kings from the 12th century until it was sacked by Malik Kafur's army in 1311 and destroyed by a Tughluq army later. Its unfinished double temple of Hoysalesvara, with friezes of elephants, lions, horsemen and scenes from the Ramayana, and the lost Kedaresvara temple were described by James Fergusson and James Burgess.

Hanamkonda

Anumakonda, the first Kakatiya capital beside Warangal. It has the Thousand Pillar Temple, the Padmakshi hill shrine and the Kakatiya inscriptions that record the dynasty's rise.

Inugurti

Village in the old Mahbubabad taluk, the town of Ganapatideva's sister Mailama and her husband the Natavadi chief Rudra, with their inscriptions and temples.

Karempudi

Town on the Nagileru river in the Palnadu, west of Guntur. It is remembered as the battlefield of the Palnadu heroes and the seat of their cult. Its temple of the heroes, described by Robert Sewell in 1879, has inscriptions of 1324 and 1333. A minister of the Velanati chief Gonka II built a temple of Suresvara there in 1154.

Karimnagar

District town in northern Telangana. A pillar here of January 1171 records, in Telugu verse, the foundations of Gangadhara, minister of the Kakatiya chiefs Prola II and Rudradeva.

Katakshapur

Forest village on the Warangal–Mulug road beside the Katachpur tank, with two ruined temples on the tank bund dated by style to the Kakatiya period.

Kavali

Town in the north of Nellore district. A stone by its tank records the agrahara (village granted to Brahmins) Sripura, founded in 1207–08 by the Telugu Choda king Tammusiddhi. A record of 1228–29 near by is dated in the reign of Gandagopala Tirukaladeva Choda. Robert Sewell's table of the family gives these names to Tikka I.

Kazipet

Town in the old Warangal taluk. A pillar now in the Dargah of Syed Shah Afzal Biyabani carries the Kakatiya inscription of 1090 and 1098, the main source for the earliest Kakatiya chiefs.

Kondaparti

Village near Warangal with two Kakatiya pillar inscriptions of the Malyala generals. They are Chaunda's Chaundeshvara temple record of 1203 and Kata's record of 1241.

Kotagiri

Town in Nizamabad district. The Viryala chief Sura lived at a Kotagiri when he made his copper-plate grant of 1273 in Rudramadevi's reign. A Delhi army besieged a fort of that name in the 1320s.

Kukunoor

Village on the Godavari near Bhadrachalam, in the old Khammam district. It was transferred to Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and is now in the Eluru district. It is the findspot of the Kukkunur copper plates of Kusumaditya of the Mudigonda Chalukyas, and their editor thought it was the village of Krichchaka granted in them.

Kuravi (Koravi)

Village in the Mahabubabad country of Telangana, the Koravi of medieval inscriptions. The Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas held it as Koravipura, the seat of their Koravi country. A stone inscription there tells how a Mudigonda chief recovered it from the Rashtrakutas in the time of the Eastern Chalukya Chalukya-Bhima I. The early Kakatiyas also held it for a time.

Laknavaram

Stream and large tank of the old Warangal district. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry counts the tank among the big tanks of the Kakatiya period.

Macherla

Town on the Chandravanka in the west of the Palnadu. A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of 1111 calls it Mahadevi-tataka and records the gift of the Haihaya chief Beta, of the Chagi family, to a temple there. The ballad of the Palnadu heroes makes it the city founded by Brahma Nayudu, and 19th-century writers called it the capital of the Palnadu heroes.

Malkapuram

Village in the old Guntur taluk, beside Mandadam, near the Krishna. It has the ruined Visvesvara temple and the great pillar inscription of 1261, which records Rudramadevi's gift to the royal preceptor (guru) Visvesvara Sambhu.

Matedu

Village on the Warangal–Khammam road with twin Shiva and Vishnu temples. Pillar inscriptions of 1120 there record temples built by Malle-nayaka, a soldier of Prola II. A record of 1310 records a levy given by the villagers in Prataparudra's reign.

Mellacheruvu

Village in the old Huzurnagar taluk. Its Svayambhudeva temple has a Telugu inscription of January 1312, in Prataparudra's reign. It records an endowment by the Velamas and people of the village under a nayamkara holder (a chief holding land for military service).

Motupalli

Coastal village, formerly in Guntur district, that was the main Kakatiya sea port. Ganapatideva set up his 1244 edict protecting sea traders here. Henry Yule identified it with a place Marco Polo called Mutfili.

Mudigonda

Village near Khammam in Telangana. It is identified with Mudugondu, the place that gave its name to the Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas in the copper-plate grant of Kusumayudha IV. Its inscriptions include a broken Kannada record of 999 and two Telugu records of 1294 for the temple of Gopinatha.

Nagulapadu

Village on the east bank of the Musi south of Suryapet, once a walled town, with ruined Kakatiya-period temples and inscriptions of Ganapatideva's and Prataparudra's reigns.

Nagunur

Village north-east of Karimnagar with the remains of many temples, among them a large three-shrined Shiva temple with an inscription of Rudradeva's reign.

Nellore

Town on the Penner near the east coast, called Vikramasimhapura in its medieval inscriptions. From about 1205 it was the capital of the Telugu Chodas, the Madhurantaka Pottapi-Cholas. Tammusiddhi was anointed there, and Tikka I and Manumasiddhi II ruled the Pakanadu from it. Kakatiya armies restored Manumasiddhi there, and the Pandya Sundara Pandya claimed to have been crowned there. In the eighteenth century it belonged to the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot). Their brother Najib-ullah held it and rebelled in 1757, and he beat off an assault by the Nawab's army and an English detachment. In 1801 it became the headquarters of a British district.

Pakhal

The Pakhal lake east of Warangal, the largest Kakatiya irrigation tank. Jagadala Mummadi built it in Ganapatideva's reign, and his pillar inscription stands on its bund (embankment).

Palampet

Village beside the Kakatiya-built Ramappa Lake. It is the site of the Rudreshvara (Ramappa) temple, founded by the general Recherla Rudra in 1213, and of several smaller Kakatiya temples.

Panugallu (Panagal)

Village on the eastern edge of Nalgonda town in Telangana. It was one of the capitals of the Kandur Choda chiefs, who held the Kandurunadu country under the Western Chalukya kings of Kalyani and later under the Kakatiyas. Its inscriptions include grants of the chief Gokarna Choda (1122) and of his mother Mailamba (1124). P. V. Parabrahma Sastry noted an old temple of the Chalukya period there.

Pillalamarri

Village near Suryapet, seat of a branch of the Recherla generals of the Kakatiyas. It has temples and inscriptions of Nami-reddi (1195 and 1202) and of his family, including the Nameshvara temple record.

Polasa (Polavasa)

Village in the Jagtial country of the old Karimnagar district of Telangana. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry identified it with Polavasa, the capital of the Jaina chief Medaraja and his family. They were feudatories (subordinate chiefs) of the Western Chalukyas, and their fief adjoined the Kakatiya country. The Kakatiya Rudradeva sacked Polavasa before 1163.

Pottapi

Village on the Cheyyeru river in the former Pullampet taluk of Kadapa district. It was the early seat of the Telugu Choda chiefs who called themselves Madhurantaka Pottapi-Cholas. They governed the Pakanadu for the Chola emperors from the 11th or 12th century until they moved to Nellore.

Raichur

Fort town, now in Karnataka, that was a district headquarters of the Nizam's Dominions in 1939. An inscription in the rampart records that Vithala-natha built its stone fort in 1294. He was an officer of Prataparudra's commander Gona Gannaya-reddi.

Rayaparti

Village south-east of Warangal on the Khammam road, with the ruins of a fort wall and a damaged Sanskrit inscription of 1247 whose persons its editors identify differently.

Simhachalam

Hill just north of Visakhapatnam with the temple of Narasimha, the richest and best-known shrine of the old Vizagapatam district. More than five hundred inscriptions on the temple record gifts from the Chola king Kulottunga I, the Eastern Ganga kings and their feudatories, the Reddis and the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya.

Srikurmam

Village and place of pilgrimage near Srikakulam, with the temple of Vishnu as the tortoise (Kurma). The temple's black stone pillars carry more than a hundred inscriptions. Many of them are of the Eastern Ganga kings, their ministers and feudatories (subordinate chiefs), and of the Gajapatis.

Srirangam

Temple town on the Kaveri in the old Trichinopoly district, Tamil Nadu. An inscription of 1317 in its Ranganatha temple records the victory of the Kakatiya general Devari-nayaka at Tiruvadikunram. It also records how he put Sundara-Pandya back on the throne.

Tripurantakam

Temple village in the Markapur country, in the old Kurnool district and the later Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, with the temple of Tripurantakesvara. Kannada inscriptions of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI stand there. One of them, of 1126, names his general Anantapala as ruler of the Vengi twelve-thousand. They mark the eastern reach of the kingdom of Kalyani.

Upparapalli

Village in Warangal district where a Telugu pillar inscription of 1236, from Ganapatideva's reign, records the temple endowments of Kataya, son of Recherla Rudra's minister Raje-nayaka.

Vijayawada (Bezwada)

Town on the north bank of the Krishna, where the river passes through a gap in the hills. Eastern Chalukya records call it Vijayavada, and the British called it Bezwada. Copper plates of Chalukya-Bhima I were found in a quarry chamber here in 1897. A pillar in its Mallesvara temple carries one of the earliest Telugu verse inscriptions, of the Eastern Chalukya Yuddhamalla.

Warangal

Orugallu, the fortified Kakatiya capital, founded beside Hanamkonda in the late twelfth century. Delhi armies besieged it three times and captured it in the 1320s.

Padmakshi Temple, Hanamkonda

1117 CE

A small, plain temple on the hill south of Hanamkonda, now worshipped as the goddess Padmakshi. The inscribed pillar in front of it records that in December 1117, in the reign of the Kakatiya Prola II, Mailama, wife of the minister Beta, built a Jaina temple, the Kadalalaya-basadi, on the hill. H. Krishna Sastri took the temple to be that basadi and called it the earliest known building of the Kakatiya period.

Thousand Pillar Temple

1163 CE

The triple-shrined Rudreshvara temple at Hanamkonda, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Surya. The Kakatiya ruler Rudradeva consecrated it in January 1163 and inscribed on it the record of his family's rise to power.

Temples of Nagunur

c. 1171 CE

Ruined temples at Nagunur, six miles north-east of Karimnagar. The chief one is a large triple-shrined Shiva temple of red stone and granite. Nagunur was the seat of Gangadhara, a minister of the Kakatiya king Rudradeva. According to P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, Gangadhara built Shiva temples there. An inscribed pillar said to come from Nagunur is dated 13 January 1171, in Rudradeva's time.

Temples of Pillalamarri

c. 1195 CE

Three twelfth- and thirteenth-century temples at Pillalamarri near Suryapet. Chiefs of the Recherla family, who served the Kakatiya kings, built them. A pillar inscription of 1195, in the reign of Rudradeva, records that Recherla Namireddi built three temples there. Another pillar, of 1208, stands beside the Somesvara temple. G. Yazdani surveyed them in 1926–27 and uncovered a painting of the churning of the ocean in one of them.

Choundesvara Temple, Kondaparti

1203 CE

A temple of Choundesvara and a tank, the Chaunda-samudra, at Kondaparti near Warangal. Both were built by Chaunda of the Malyala family, a general of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. His inscription there of 1203 records his part in Ganapatideva's conquest of the Divi island.

Ghanpur Temples (Kota Gullu)

c. 1213 CE

A walled group of twenty-two sandstone shrines at Ghanpur near Mulug, eight miles from Palampet. The main temple follows the plan of the Ramappa temple and has black-stone bracket figures like those at Palampet. Hyderabad's Archaeological Department made the group known in 1932–33. It found no inscription and dated it by its style to the time of the Palampet temples. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry gave it to the Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra.

Ramappa Lake

1213 CE

The large reservoir at Palampet beside which the Ramappa (Rudreshvara) temple stands. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, following the temple's inscription of 1213, gives it to the Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra, who probably built it together with the temple. Hyderabad's Archaeological Department counted it among the great tanks of the Kakatiya rulers.

Ramappa Temple

1213 CE

The Rudreshvara temple at Palampet, founded by the Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra in 1213 beside the Ramappa lake. It is famous for its bracket figures, carved dark-stone pillars and lightweight brick tower. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.

Temples of Nagulapadu

c. 1234 CE

Two richly carved temples in the deserted walled town of Nagulapadu on the Musi, south of Suryapet. Members of the Recherla family built them in the reign of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. Inscriptions in them are dated 1234 and 1258, and a pillar before them names Prataparudra in 1303.

Upparapalli Temple

c. 1236 CE

A ruined triple-shrined Shiva temple at Uparpalli (Upparapalli) in the old Karimnagar district. A square pillar in front of it carries a Telugu inscription of 24 January 1236, in the reign of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. It records lands given to the god by Kataya, son of a minister of the general Recherla Rudra. Henry Cousens thought the temple was of the same age as those at Hanamkonda and Palampet.

Bayyaram Tank

A large tank at Bayyaram in the old Khammam district, called Dharmakirti-samudra. It was built by Mailama (Mailamba), sister of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva and wife of Natavadi Rudra. The inscribed granite pillar that records it, found in 1965, gives the fullest genealogy (family history) of the Kakatiya family.

Bhimesvara temple, Chebrolu

Small two-storeyed Shiva temple on the old mound at Chebrolu, near Guntur, with the linga of Bhimesvara in a closed upper sanctum. M. Rama Rao (1964) gave it to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I, after whom he took the god to be named. The older surveys of Chebrolu do not mention it. They found the town's inscriptions at the Nagesvara temple, the former temple of Kumarasvamin, and E. Hultzsch could not identify the 'Chodabhimesvara' named in an inscription of 1213.

Bhimesvara temple, Draksharama

Two-storeyed Shiva temple at Draksharama in the Godavari delta, one of the five Pancharama shrines and the most famous temple of the coastal Telugu country. Its walls carry some 270 inscriptions dated from 1055. Popular tradition in 1907 gave it to an unknown Chola king. M. Rama Rao (1964) gave it to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I, after whom he took the god to be named.

Katakshapur Temples

Two ruined granite Shiva temples on the southern bund of the Katakshapur (Katachpur) tank, beside the Warangal–Mulug road. Hyderabad's Archaeological Department surveyed them in 1935–36. It found no inscription, but judged from their plan and workmanship that they were of the same age as the Palampet, Ghanpur and Thousand Pillar temples.

Kshiraramalingesvara temple, Palakollu

Shiva temple in the middle of Palakollu, in the western Godavari delta, one of the five Pancharama shrines under the name Kshirarama. M. Rama Rao (1964) gave its shrine to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I, and the foreword to his monograph counts it among the original Chalukya buildings. Its own inscriptions, more than forty, run from 1136 to 1640. They record gifts of the Velanadu chiefs, the Haihaya chiefs of Konamandala, the Chalukya chiefs of Nidadavolu and the Reddi kings.

Laknavaram Lake

A large reservoir in the forests of the old Warangal district. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry counts it among the big tanks of the Kakatiya period, fed, like the Pakhal and Bayyaram tanks, by streams from one plateau. No builder or inscription is recorded for it in the sources used here.

Mailaradeva Temple, Inavolu

The temple of Mailaradeva at Inavolu (Ainavolu) near Warangal, with a star-shaped pillared hall and stone gateways in its walled court. S. Gopalakrishna Murthy, in 1964, recorded the local tradition that the Kakatiya king Rudradeva built the main temple. He suggested that one of Ganapatideva's generals added the hall, and saw its gateways as forerunners of the great toranas (arched gateways) of Warangal fort.

Pakhal Lake

A great reservoir east of Narsampet, formed by a dam about a mile long across the Pakhal river and covering some 13 square miles when full. Local tradition recorded in 1900 gave it to Pratapa Rudra, or to a 'Raja Khaldya' sixteen centuries earlier. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, citing the inscription on the bund, gives it to Jagadalu Mummadi, son of a minister, in the reign of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva.

Simhachalam temple

Temple of Narasimha on the Simhachalam hill north of Visakhapatnam, described in 1907 as the most famous, richest and best carved shrine of the district. Its walls hold more than five hundred inscriptions, many of Eastern Ganga kings. The district gazetteer credits the Ganga king Narasimha I with building its central shrine, halls and enclosing verandah in black stone in 1267–68. Its records include a Tamil inscription of Kulottunga I, gifts of Reddi and Matsya chiefs, and the inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara.

Srikurmam temple

Temple of Vishnu in his tortoise incarnation at Srikurmam, near Srikakulam. Its granite verandas and black stone pillars carry more than a hundred inscriptions. Most of them belong to the Eastern Ganga kings who came after Anantavarman Chodaganga, to their ministers and feudatories, and later to the Gajapatis. An inscription of 1283 credits a Brahmin contemporary of a king Anangabhima with building an enclosure of black stone for the temple.

Warangal Fort

The fortified Kakatiya capital of Orugallu, a round city ringed by an earthen wall and a stone wall with moats. Its central Svayambhu temple survives as four carved stone gateways. The fort held out against Delhi armies from 1310 and finally fell to them in the 1320s.

Kazipet Dargah pillar inscription

1090–1098 CE

A damaged Sanskrit and Kannada pillar inscription, now in the Dargah at Kazipet near Hanamkonda. It records a Kakatiya grant of 1090 to a Kalamukha teacher of Srisailam. It also records that Beta II's son Dugga-Tribhuvanamalla set up the pillar in 1098. Its verses are the main source for the earliest Kakatiya chiefs, Beta I, Prola I and Beta II.

Matedu inscription of Vemabola Malle-nayaka

1120 CE

Telugu inscriptions of 1120 on a stone pillar at Matedu. They record temples built by Malle-nayaka of the Vemabola family, a soldier of the Kakatiya Prola II under the Chalukya Vikramaditya VI. Their verse family history of a 'Pulinda' family says that his father Reva helped establish the Kakatiya kings.

Gudur pillar inscriptions of the Viriyala family

c. 1124 CE

Undated Telugu verses on a pillar at Gudur near Jangaon, a pillar that also carries a Kannada record of 1124. They tell how the Viriyala chief Erra and the lady Kamasani restored the boy Beta, the Kakatiya chief, to his position. It is the only early account of the near-collapse of the Kakatiya family in the late tenth century.

Jedcherla inscription of Udayana Choda

1162 CE

Telugu inscription of 25 December 1162 at Jedcherla in the Mahbubnagar district, in which two customs officers of the Kandur Choda chief Udayana Choda grant the god of Kodur five Gokarna-Singa coins a month from the shop dues of the town.

Thousand Pillar Temple inscription of Rudradeva

1163 CE

A Telugu and Sanskrit inscription of January 1163 CE at the Thousand Pillar Temple in Hanamkonda. It records that Rudradeva consecrated the temple's three gods. It also tells of the wars by which he and his father Prola II made the Kakatiyas masters of Telangana.

Karimnagar inscription of Gangadhara

1171 CE

Telugu verse inscription of January 1171 on a pillar at Karimnagar. In it Gangadhara, a Brahmin from the Vengi country who served the Kakatiya chiefs Prola II and Rudradeva, lists the agrahara (Brahmin village), temples, tanks and gardens he founded. Among them are temples at Anumakonda and an image of Vishnu as the Buddha.

Mamillapalli inscription of Bhima and Gokarna

1178 CE

Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1100 (1178) on a pillar at Mamillapalli near Achampet in the Mahbubnagar district. It records gifts of two villages to the god Narasimha by the Kandur Choda brothers Bhima and Gokarna, sons of Udayaditya. It is the latest record of the family that P. V. Parabrahma Sastry used to date its chiefs.

Amaravati pillar inscription of Keta II

c. 1182 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription dated in Saka 1104 (probably 1182–83) on a pillar of the Amaresvara temple at Amaravati. It records the grants made by the Kota chief Keta II, probably on the day he came to the throne: villages and lamps for the Buddha, and villages for Brahmans. A second inscription on the same pillar, of 1234, records a lamp given to the Buddha by Kota Bayyalamahadevi.

Warangal fort inscription of Rudradeva

c. 1183 CE

A broken Sanskrit inscription of Saka 1105 (1183–84) found inside Warangal fort. It records King Rudradeva's gift of the village of Modapalli and repeats verses of his Thousand Pillar Temple inscription. A short Telugu record of his brother Mahadeva comes from the same fort.

Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara

1186 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1108 (1186) on the pillar at the entrance of the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. It records a village given to the temple by Jayambika, mother of the Velanati chief Prithvisvara. Its long family history in verse is the main source for the history of the Velanati Chodas.

Pithapuram inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II

1195 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1117 (1195) on the Kunti-Madhava pillar at Pithapuram. In it the Kona chiefs Mallideva and Manma-Satya II grant the village of Odiyuru, near Draksharama, to the temple. It gives the family tree of the Haihaya chiefs of Konamandala and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba.

Pillalamarri inscription of Recherla Nami-reddi

1202 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu pillar inscription of March 1202 at Pillalamarri near Suryapet, in the reign of Ganapatideva. It records the Nameshvara temple and the tanks and lands that the general Nami-reddi of the Recherla family gave to it. It also gives the family tree of the Pillalamarri branch of the Recherla generals.

Kondaparti inscription of Malyala Chaunda

1203 CE

A Sanskrit inscription of April 1203 on a pillar at Kondaparti near Warangal. It records the temple of Chaundeshvara and the gift of a village by Malyala Chaunda, commander-in-chief of the young Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. It gives the family line of the Malyala generals. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry read it as the record of the Kakatiya conquest of the Divi island.

Arulala-Perumal inscription of Tammusiddhi, 1205–06

1205 CE

A Sanskrit inscription in Grantha letters on the base of the platform called 'the mountain' in the Arulala-Perumal (Varadaraja) temple at Kanchipuram. It records that in Saka 1127 (1205–06) the Telugu Choda king Tammusiddhi, having been anointed at Nellore, gave the village of Muttiyampakka to the god. It names his father's surname, Ganda-Gopala, and the place of his anointment.

Gunupadu inscription of Nallasiddha

c. 1205 CE

Tamil inscription on a pillar of the mandapa of the Puttanathasvami temple at Gunupadu, in the Gudur taluk of the Nellore district, dated in the 27th year of a Chola emperor Kulottunga, probably Kulottunga III. It records the gift of the village of Velur to the god at Tiruvengadam by the Telugu Choda chief Madhurantaka-Pottapi-Chola, alias Nallasiddha. A photograph of part of it was published in 1905.

Inugurti pillar inscription of Natavadi Rudra

c. 1206 CE

Sanskrit pillar inscription in Nagari script at Inugurti, dated in a Saka year read as 1128 (about 1206), in which the Natavadi chief Rudra, husband of Ganapatideva's sister Mailama, records three Shiva temples named after himself and his parents; with two shorter records of Mailama at the same village.

Kavali inscription of Tammusiddhi, 1207–08

1207 CE

Stone by the tank at Kavali in the Nellore district, in Sanskrit verse in Telugu letters, with the boundaries in Telugu. It records that in Saka 1129 (1207–08) the Telugu Choda king Tammusiddhi founded an agrahara (Brahmin village) named Sripura after his mother Sridevi and gave it to a hundred Brahmana shareholders. It calls his brother Nalla Siddha the eldest son and anointed king, by whose favour Tammusiddhi ruled.

Bayyaram tank inscription of Mailama

c. 1209 CE

An undated Sanskrit pillar inscription of the reign of Ganapatideva, at the great Bayyaram tank. His sister Mailama (Dharmakirti), wife of Natavadi Rudra, set it up. Found in 1965–66, it gives the only long family history of the Kakatiyas, from Venna of Kakati to Ganapati, and it changed the history of the family's origins.

Chebrolu inscription of Jaya

1213 CE

Sanskrit and Telugu inscription on a pillar of the Nagesvara temple at Chebrolu. It records that the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva gave the town to his general Jaya in Saka 1135 (1213–14), the earliest proved date of his reign, and it lists the lands of the town's temples. It marks the Kakatiya takeover of Velanadu, the country of the Velanati Chodas.

Palampet pillar inscription of Recherla Rudra

1213 CE

A Sanskrit verse inscription of 31 March 1213 on a basalt pillar at the Ramappa temple. It praises the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva and records the temples, town and gifts of his general Recherla Rudra.

Ganapavaram inscription of Devapala

1214 CE

A damaged Sanskrit pillar inscription of January 1214 at Ganapavaram in the Huzurnagar taluk. It records how Devapala founded the town of Ganapatipura and its Rudreshvara temple. Devapala's father had served the Paramara prince Jagaddeva, and Devapala was then taken into the service of the Kakatiya Prola II.

Warangal toll inscription of Ganapatideva

1228 CE

A damaged Telugu pillar inscription of July 1228 near the entrance to Warangal fort. It lists the dues that native and foreign merchants paid to the god Virabhadreshvara on dozens of goods, from areca nuts and salt to camphor, musk, silk and pearls. It is the fullest early record of trade and units of measure in the Kakatiya capital.

Ganapesvaram inscription of Jaya

1231 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of April 1231 on Divi island in the Krishna delta. It records the Shiva temple that Ganapatideva's general Jaya (Jayapa) built and named Ganapeshvara after his king.

Upparapalli pillar inscription of Kataya

1236 CE

A Telugu verse and prose inscription of 24 January 1236 on a pillar at Upparapalli near Warangal. It records the temple gifts of Kataya, son of Recherla Rudra's Brahman minister Raje-nayaka, made with Ganapatideva's approval. It names Recherla Rudra's parents and Raje-nayaka's campaigns from Bhokkera to Daksharama.

Motupalli pillar inscription of Ganapatideva

1244 CE

Edict of Saka 1166 (1244–45 CE) set up at the port of Motupalli. In it the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva promised sea traders safety for wrecked cargoes and fixed the customs duty on their goods.

Pakhal lake inscription of Jagadala Mummadi

c. 1245 CE

Undated Sanskrit pillar inscription on the bund of the Pakhal lake, from the reign of Ganapatideva. It records that Jagadala Mummadi, son of the king's chief minister Bayyana-nayaka, built the great tank and a town called Ganapapura beside it. It also gives a solar family line of the Kakatiyas.

Rayaparti fragment of Saka 1169

1247 CE

A damaged Sanskrit verse inscription of Saka 1169 (1247) on a slab at Rayaparti, south-east of Warangal. It names a king Rudra who died, his successors Surya and Beta, a lady Suramba and a king Mahadeva. Its editors disagree about who these people were.

Ekamranatha temple inscription of Ganapati

1249 CE

A Sanskrit inscription in Grantha script of June 1249 on a wall of the Ekamranatha temple at Kanchipuram. It records a village given by Ganapati's minister and general Samanta-Bhoja, governor of Kanchi. It is evidence that the Kakatiya kingdom then reached the Tamil country.

Nayanapalle inscription of Ganapatideva

c. 1249 CE

An undated, damaged Telugu prose inscription of the 13th century at Nayanapalle, near Motupalli in the Bapatla country. It records that the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, on a southern campaign, killed Bayyana and Tikkana, who had burnt Nellore. He also won over the Chola Kulottunga Rajendra-Choda and received elephants from the ruler of Nellore. Its editor dated it about 1249 and linked it with the literary story of how Ganapati restored the Telugu Choda king Manumasiddhi II.

Yenamadala inscription of Ganapamba

c. 1250 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription on a pillar at Yenamadala in the Guntur taluk. It was set up by Ganapamba, daughter of the Kakatiya Ganapatideva and widow of the Kota chief Beta. It records her temples to Siva, named after her husband and her father, and her gifts at Amaravati, and it gives the Kakatiya and Kota family lines. The date, Saumya (Saka 1172, 1249–50), survives only in a 19th-century copy and has been questioned.

Durgi inscription of Gangaya-sahini

c. 1251 CE

An inscription of Saka 1173 (1251–52) in the Vankesvara temple at Durgi in Palnadu. It records the temple founded by an agent of Gangaya-sahini, who governed the country from Panugallu to Marjavadi for the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. It also records the village Gangaya-sahini gave the temple, and gives an account of the Kakatiya family.

Sarngapuram plates of Sarngadhara

1255 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of Saka 1176 (1254–55) from the Darsi division of the Nellore district. In 1926 it was the earliest Kakatiya copper-plate charter known. In it Sarngadhara, son of Ganapatideva's vassal Madhava of Addanki, gave the village of Sarngapuram to Brahmans for the merit of his master.

Bothpur tank inscription of Malyala Gunda

1259 CE

A Telugu and Sanskrit pillar inscription of 1259 at Bothpur in the Mahbubnagar district. It records the tanks, temples and Brahmin endowments of the general Malyala Gunda, who served Ganapatideva of Orugallu. The scholar-poet Ishvara-suri composed it. It is the record that places the Kakatiya dynasty in the fourth caste.

Garavapadu plates of Ganapatideva

1260 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of 12 April 1260. In it Tikka, a general and son of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva's minister Devaraja, gave the village of Garavapadu to fifty Brahmans. It traces the Kakatiyas to Karikala Chola and names Kakati as the place where the family began.

Malkapuram pillar inscription of Rudramadevi

1261 CE

A long Sanskrit inscription of 25 March 1261, cut on a huge pillar at Malkapuram near Amaravati. It records Rudramadevi's gift of Mandara to the royal teacher Visvesvara Sambhu of the Golaki matha. It also lists the temple, college, feeding-house, hospital and maternity home that he founded there.

Kotagiri plates of Viryala Sura

1273 CE

Three Sanskrit copper plates of 31 December 1273, found in a tank at Birkur in the Bodhan taluk. They record the gift of a new village, Vejjalapuri or Vainayakapuri, to Brahmans and a Vishnu temple by Sura of the Viryala family. Sura was a feudatory (subordinate ruler) in the reign of Rudramadevi, whom the plates call Ganapati's daughter.

Srikurmam inscriptions of the Chalukya chiefs

1273 CE

Four inscriptions of 1273 to 1318 on pillars of the Kurmesvara temple at Srikurmam. They were left by chiefs who claimed descent from the Eastern Chalukya kings Vimaladitya and Rajaraja Narendra, and who served the Eastern Ganga kings. The earliest calls the chief's father a minister of Narasimha I. It also says that Rajaraja Narendra, with scholars, translated the history of the Bharata race into Telugu. E. Hultzsch took this as a confirmation, from an inscription, of the tradition of Nannaya's Telugu Mahabharata.

Nellore inscription of Sundara Pandya

c. 1276 CE

Tamil inscription on the western wall of the Ranganayakaswami temple at Nellore, recording that 'the emperor of the three worlds, the unequalled among kings, Sundara Pandyadeva', at the request of Kalingarayar, gave the village of Mavadikundai in Mundanadu for offerings in a hall named after him and for the worship of the god Pallikondaperumal. The regnal year is lost. The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 identified the king with a Jatavarman Sundara Pandya who came to the throne in 1276 and was crowned at Nellore.

Kolanupaka inscription of Rudramadevi's reign

1279 CE

A Sanskrit pillar inscription of December 1279 in the Somanatha temple at Kolanupaka. It gives the Kakatiya line from Prola II to the reigning queen Rudradevi (Rudramadevi). It also records a canal and temple gifts made under her Chalukya relative Indushekhara, nephew of her husband Virabhadra.

Srikurmam inscription of Naraharitirtha

1281 CE

A Sanskrit inscription in Telugu letters on a black granite pillar of the Kurmesvara temple at Srikurmam, dated Saka 1203 (1281). It names the Madhva teachers Purushottama, Anandatirtha and Naraharitirtha. It says that Naraharitirtha defended Srikurmam against the Savaras and built a shrine of Yogananda-Narasimha there. It suggests that he governed the Kalinga country under the Eastern Ganga kings. H. Krishna Sastri used it and Naraharitirtha's other records to date the philosopher Madhva.

Chandupatla inscription

1289 CE

A short Telugu inscription of November 1289 from Chandupatla near Nalgonda. It records a gift for the merit of Rudramadevi and her general Mallikarjuna-nayaka after both had died. It is the main evidence for the year of the queen's death.

Panugallu inscription of Immadi Mallikarjuna-nayaka

1290 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu pillar inscription of May 1290 in the Chaya-Someshvara temple at Panugallu. The son of Rudramadevi's general Nissanka Mallikarjuna made it for the merit of the new king Kumara Rudradeva (Prataparudra). It calls the king the daughter's son of Ganapatideva's successor Rudradeva, that is, of Rudramadevi.

Tripurantakam inscription of Ambadeva

1290 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1212 (1290) at the Tripurantakesvara temple, Tripurantakam. In it the Kayastha chief Ambadeva confirms the temple's villages and lists his wars against Rudramadevi's nobles, without naming any overlord. It is the main record of the rebellion that troubled the end of her reign.

Raichur fort inscription of Gona Vithala

1294 CE

Inscription of November 1294 on a slab in the rampart of Raichur fort. It records that Vithala-natha, guardian of the realm of Prataparudra's commander Gona Gannaya-reddi, took Adoni, Tumbalam, Manvi and Haluva, entered Raichur and built its stone fort. It is among the earliest dated records of Prataparudra's reign.

Mellacheruvu inscription of Prataparudra's reign

1312 CE

A Telugu inscription of January 1312 at Mellacheruvu in the Huzurnagar taluk. In it the Velamas and all the people of the village, on the authority of the nayamkara holder of a royal officer, endowed the local Shiva temple. They gave land, and fixed levies on grain and on merchants, weavers and shepherds.

Srirangam inscription of Prataparudra

1317 CE

A Telugu inscription in Grantha script of 28 March 1317 in the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam. It records that Prataparudra's general Devari-nayaka defeated Vira-Pandya and the Kerala king Ravivarman Kulasekhara at Tiruvadikunram. He then put Sundara-Pandya back on his throne.

Dharmasagar inscription of the minister Malla

An undated Sanskrit and Telugu pillar inscription of Ganapatideva's reign at Dharmasagar near Hanamkonda. It records land given by the minister Malla to the god Prasanna-Vishveshvara of Elakurki. It also records how the land was shared among temple musicians, dancers and priests.

Hanamkonda inscription of Gangadhara

A broken, undated Sanskrit verse inscription from Hanamkonda. It records that Gangadhara, minister of the Kakatiya Rudradeva, built a temple of Prasanna-Keshava, tanks and shrines. It also describes the wars of Prola II and Rudradeva against Medaraja of Polavasa and other chiefs.

Kukkunur plates of Kusumaditya

Copper-plate grant in Telugu prose, with Sanskrit verses, of Kusumaditya of the Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas, found at Kukkunur near Bhadrachalam. It traces the family from Kariya-Gonaga, lord of Koravipura. It tells how Kusumaditya's ministers Indaparaju and Remaraju took him into twelve years of exile and brought him back to the Visuru-nadu, and it grants them the village of Krichchaka on the Godavari. Its editor called it the earliest copper-plate grant written entirely in Telugu prose. It is undated, and estimates range from the 11th century to about 1200.

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.

Crafts & textiles

Kalamkari, ikat weaving, Nirmal paintings, Kondapalli and Etikoppaka toys and other crafts.

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.

Daily life & festivals

Food, dress, homes and games; Sankranti, Ugadi, Bathukamma, Bonalu and other festivals.

Folk songs & oral traditions

Burrakatha, Oggu katha, Yakshaganam and the heroic ballads of Palnadu and Bobbili.

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.

Water works in Telugu history

How people in the Telugu country stored and led water: the tanks of the Kakatiya kings and their chiefs, which inscriptions counted among the seven lasting good deeds; the tanks and river dams of Vijayanagara in Rayalaseema; the great lakes of Golconda and Hyderabad; and the anicuts and canals of the nineteenth century on the Godavari, the Krishna, the Penna and the Tungabhadra.

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.