Vijayanagara & the Qutb Shahis

Vijayanagara Empire

c. 1336–1646 CE

The South Indian empire founded about 1336 by the brothers Harihara and Bukka on the Tungabhadra. The Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva and Aravidu dynasties ruled it in turn. It held Rayalaseema and the Nellore country from the fourteenth century. It fought the Reddis, the Velamas, the Bahmanis and the Gajapatis of Orissa for the Telugu coast, and under Krishnadeva Raya it took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli and marched to Simhachalam. Its court made Telugu a language of high poetry. After the defeat of 1565 its kings ruled from Penukonda and Chandragiri, until Golconda took the last of the Telugu districts in the 1640s.

Bahmanis

1347–1527 CE

Sultans of the Deccan (1347–1527) who ruled from Gulbarga and, from the 1420s, from Bidar. Their founder won his throne with troops sent by the ruler of Warangal. His successors took Kaulas, Bhongir and Golconda from the Telugu chiefs, sacked Warangal (in 1422, 1424 or 1425, by different accounts) and held western Telangana as the province of Bidar. They fought the Musunuri and Recherla nayakas, the Reddis, Vijayanagara and the Gajapatis of Orissa, and held the coast from Rajahmundry to Kondapalli and Kondavidu in the 1470s. Mahmud Gawan split the province of Telingana between Rajahmundry and Warangal. Its last governor, Sultan Quli, founded the Qutb Shahi kingdom of Golconda.

Gajapatis of Orissa

c. 1434–1541 CE

The Suryavamsi kings of Orissa, 'lords of elephants', who ruled from Cuttack from 1434–35 to about 1541. Kapilendra (Kapilesvara) took the throne of the last Eastern Ganga king. He conquered the Reddi kingdoms of Rajahmundry and Kondavidu, and sent his son Hamvira and his nephew Raghudeva into Telangana, where they took Warangal in 1460. He carried his arms down the coast towards the Kaveri. His son Purushottama lost the Godavari–Krishna country to the Bahmanis and won it back. Prataparudra lost everything south of the Godavari or the Krishna to Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara in 1513–19, and the coastal districts fell to Golconda in the following decades.

Adil Shahis of Bijapur

c. 1489–1686 CE

Sultans of Bijapur (about 1489–1686), founded by Yusuf Adil Khan, a governor who broke away from the Bahmanis. They fought Vijayanagara for a century over Raichur and Mudgal, and joined the league that defeated it in 1565. Then they advanced south of the Tungabhadra: they took Adoni in 1568, Kurnool early in the seventeenth century and Penukonda in 1652. In the 1630s–50s they overran the Karnatak and divided it with Golconda. They held the western Telugu uplands through Abyssinian governors, such as Siddi Masud of Adoni, and through tributary poligars, until Aurangzeb took Bijapur in 1686.

Shitab Khan of Warangal

c. 1504–1516 CE

Short-lived Telugu principality of the chief Shitab Khan, or Sitapati, between the fall of the Bahmani power and the rise of Golconda. He was a former officer of the Bahmanis. By his pillar inscription, he took Warangal fort from the Muslims on 21 January 1504. He held it with Khammam, Bellamkonda and other hill forts, and restored the Kakatiya family goddess and a Krishna image to their temples. The Kistna manual thought him a vassal of the Gajapatis of Orissa, with whose prince he fought at Palanchinur. Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda took his forts. The sources date the conquest of Warangal anywhere from 1512 to 1525.

Qutb Shahis

c. 1518–1687 CE

Sultans of Golconda (1518–1687) who ruled Telangana and, from the 1520s, the coast between the Krishna and the Godavari. Later they ruled the northern coast and the Guntur country, and in the 17th century much of the Karnatak to the south. The founder, Sultan Quli, had governed Telingana for the Bahmanis. Ibrahim joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565, and Muhammad Quli founded Hyderabad about 1589–91. From 1636 the kings paid tribute to the Mughals, and in 1687 Aurangzeb took Golconda by treachery after an eight months' siege. Persian nobles held the high offices, but Telugu soldiers held the forts and Brahmin accountants kept the revenue. Under the last king two Brahmin brothers, Madanna and Akkanna, ran the state.

Dutch East India Company

c. 1613–1825 CE

The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) traded on the Telugu coast from the early seventeenth century until 1825. Its factories at Masulipatam, Palakollu (from 1652), Draksharama, Jagannathapuram (Cocanada), Narasapur and Bimlipatam bought and dyed cotton cloth for its trade in the Indonesian islands. It coined money at Bimlipatam and Jagannathapuram. The Dutch seized Masulipatam from the King of Golconda for a time in 1686. But their settlements were trading stations held under farmans (royal orders) and the grants of the Raja of Vizianagaram, not territories. The English took them in 1781 and 1795 and handed them back in 1785 and 1818. They passed finally to the English East India Company on 1 June 1825.

Mughals in the Telugu country

1636–1724 CE

The Mughal emperors were overlords of Golconda from 1636, when Abdullah Qutb Shah accepted Shah Jahan as his suzerain. They ruled the whole Telugu country from 1687, when Aurangzeb took Golconda and made the kingdom the subah of Haidarabad. The province was governed through a subahdar at Hyderabad, faujdars in the districts and the old Telugu revenue officers, the deshmukhs and deshpandes. The coast formed the Northern Sarkars and the south the Haidarabadi Karnatak. Maratha raids, a prince's rebellion at Hyderabad in 1708–09 and the rising of the toddy-seller Pap Rai marked the years of decline. In 1724 Nizam-ul-Mulk defeated and killed the subahdar Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda and founded the Asaf Jahi state.

Marathas and the Telugu country

1677–1818 CE

The Maratha kings, and after them the Peshwas of Poona, entered Telugu history from the west and south. Shahji served Bijapur in the Karnatak. In 1677 his son Shivaji allied himself with Golconda, was received at Hyderabad by Abul Hasan Qutb Shah and his ministers Madanna and Akkanna, went on pilgrimage to Srisailam, and marched past Kurnool and through Cuddapah to Jinji. Bijapur's rights over the Bellary and Anantapur country were made over to him in 1680. From 1719 the Marathas claimed chauth and sardeshmukhi from the Deccan provinces, including Hyderabad. The Peshwas fought the Nizams at Palkhed (1728), Udgir (1760), Rakshasbhuvan (1763) and Kharda (1795). The Bhonsles of Nagpur raided the Carnatic and the Northern Circars, and in Rayalaseema the Marathas held Gurramkonda, Punganur and Penukonda at times between 1743 and 1774. Their power in the region ended with the Mysore treaties of 1792 and 1799, the British treaties of 1802–04 and the fall of the Peshwa in 1818.

Purushottama (Gajapati)

c. 1470–1497 CE

Gajapati king of Orissa from 1469–70 to 1496–97, son of Kapilendra. Early in his reign the Bahmanis took Rajahmundry and Kondapalli or Kondavidu, after a disputed succession in which he may have bought their help. His attempt to recover the Godavari country in the 1470s ended with Muhammad Shah III's invasion of Orissa. But by 1489 his grants and inscriptions reach the Krishna and the Ongole country again. Orissan tradition credits him with an expedition to Kanchi and a romantic marriage.

Mahmud Shah Bahmani

1482–1518 CE

Fourteenth Bahmani sultan (1482–1518). He came to the throne at twelve and spent his reign as the puppet of his ministers, while the governors became kings. Telangana stayed loyal longest. He campaigned at Warangal in 1486 and gave the province to Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk in the 1490s. Bahmani mosques of his reign stand at Rachakonda (1484) and Golconda (1518), the latter still naming him as sovereign.

Saluva Narasimha

c. 1485–1492 CE

Chief of the Saluva family of Chandragiri. He drove the Gajapatis of Orissa back up the coast towards Rajahmundry and faced the Bahmani sultan there in the 1470s. In 1485–86 he took the throne of Vijayanagara from the last Sangama king and founded the second, Saluva, dynasty. He died in 1492–93 and left his young sons in the charge of his general Narasa Nayaka. Whether he recovered Udayagiri from Orissa is disputed.

Prataparudra (Gajapati)

c. 1497–1540 CE

Gajapati king of Orissa from 1496–97 to about 1540, son of Purushottama, and the last great king of the Suryavamsi line. At his accession his empire reached from Bengal to the Guntur and Nellore country. In 1512–19 the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli, captured his son Virabhadra, marched to Simhachalam and married his daughter. The Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda then took the Godavari–Krishna country. The legal digest Sarasvativilasa bears his name. He was a disciple of Chaitanya.

Shitab Khan (Sitapati) of Warangal

c. 1504–1516 CE

A Telugu chief of humble birth who held Warangal, Khammam and Bellamkonda in the early sixteenth century. Hirananda Sastri identified him with an officer who had fled the Bahmani Sultan Humayun Shah about 1461, and with the Sitapati of the Golconda chronicle. His pillar inscription in Warangal fort records that he took the fort from the Muslims on 21 January 1504. He put back the images of Krishna and of the Kakatiya family goddess. He supported Telugu poets and called himself king of the Bhogi family. Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda defeated him. He took shelter with the Gajapati prince at Kondapalli and fought on the losing side at Palanchinur. The Kistna manual thought he was a vassal of Orissa.

Krishnadeva Raya

1509–1529 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529, of the Tuluva dynasty, and the most famous ruler of the empire. In 1512–16 he took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli from the Gajapati Prataparudra. He marched to Simhachalam and married the Gajapati's daughter. In 1520 he defeated the Adil Shah at Raichur. He wrote the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada, in which the god says Telugu is the best of the languages of the land. His court, with Allasani Peddana and Nandi Timmana, began the age of the Telugu prabandha (long narrative poem).

Ismail Adil Shah

1510–1534 CE

Second Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1510–1534), the son of Yusuf Adil Khan. The fortresses of Raichur and Mudgal changed hands with Vijayanagara in his reign. In 1520 Krishnadevaraya besieged Raichur and routed his army on the Krishna. After Krishnadevaraya's death, Ismail took both forts back.

Achyuta Raya

1529–1542 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1529 or 1530 to 1542, half-brother and successor of Krishnadeva Raya. He was crowned at Tirupati after years of confinement at Chandragiri. He lost Raichur and Mudkal to Bijapur, while Sultan Quli of Golconda attacked Kondavidu. His court poem credits him with a southern campaign and a victory at Raichur. Nuniz, who lived at his capital, called him a tyrant ruled by his two brothers-in-law, the Salakam Tirumalas, whose regency after his death led to civil war.

Ibrahim Qutb Shah

1530–1580 CE

Fourth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1550–1580), a younger son of Sultan Quli. He spent seven years as an exile at Vijayanagara under Rama Raya. He came back to take the throne with the help of the Telugu foot soldiers who held the forts. He joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara at Talikota in 1565, and he conquered Rajahmundry, the northern coast and Kondavidu. Telugu poets dedicated works to him and to his officers, and Telugu records call him Ibharama. A Sanskrit copper-plate grant from Nellore calls him Malikibharama.

Ibrahim Adil Shah I

c. 1535–1558 CE

Fourth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1535–1558), a younger son of Ismail Adil Shah. Invited by Bhoj Tirmal of Vijayanagara, he entered the Vijayanagara capital in 1535. His general Asad Khan then besieged Adoni, the first Bijapur attack on the fortress, which Ferishta says ended in a negotiated peace. In 1551–52 he lost Raichur and Mudgal to Aliya Rama Raya.

Aliya Rama Raya

1542–1565 CE

Chief of the Aravidu family and son-in-law (aliya) of Krishnadeva Raya. After Achyuta Raya's death, he and his brothers Tirumala and Venkatadri overthrew the regent Salakam Timma. He placed Sadasiva on the throne in 1542 and ruled the empire in his name until 1565. His family's lands lay around Kurnool, Adoni and Gooty, and his governors held Kondavidu. He played the Deccan sultans against each other until they joined against him. He was captured and beheaded in the battle of January 1565.

Ali Adil Shah I

c. 1558–1580 CE

Fifth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1558–1580). He was first an ally of Aliya Rama Raya, but then joined the league of Deccan sultans that defeated and killed Rama Raya in January 1565. Afterwards he won back Raichur and Mudgal, took Adoni in 1568 and turned south against the Aravidu kings, besieging Penukonda. The date and details of that siege are disputed. He was the husband of Chand Bibi.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

1566–1612 CE

Fifth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1580–1612), third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. He founded the city of Bhagnagar, later Hyderabad, on the Musi river around 1589–91, and built the Charminar, the Jami Masjid and the Dar-ush-Shifa hospital there. Ferishta says he named the city after a singer, Bhagmati. The sources differ on who she was and on how the city got its later name. He wrote poetry in Persian and the old Urdu of the Deccan.

Tirumala (Aravidu)

c. 1569–1572 CE

Brother of Aliya Rama Raya and the first king of the fourth, Aravidu, dynasty of Vijayanagara. He commanded a wing of the army in the battle of 1565 and lost an eye there. He fled with King Sadasiva and the treasury to Penukonda, which became the capital. He took the throne about 1569–70 and divided the empire into three viceroyalties, the Telugu one under his son Sriranga at Udayagiri and Penukonda. The Telugu poem Vasucharitramu was dedicated to him. Heras dates his death to 1572, Sewell to 1578.

Ibrahim Adil Shah II

1580–1627 CE

Sixth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1580–1627), nephew and successor of Ali Adil Shah I, called Jagat Guru. He was the patron of the historian Ferishta and the builder of the Ibrahim Rauza. In his reign Bijapur held Adoni against a siege of 1595–96. Early in the seventeenth century it took Kurnool from the last Hindu chief of the town. Heras places Ferishta's account of a failed Bijapur siege of Penukonda in these years.

Venkatapati II (Vijayanagara)

1586–1614 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1586 to 1614, the youngest son of Tirumala and the last strong ruler of the empire. He was chosen king over his young nephews. He ruled first from Penukonda, then from Chandragiri, and from 1606 from Vellore. He fought Golconda for the Telugu country, and the Telugu Ramarajiyamu says peace was made with the Krishna as the boundary. Jesuit missionaries lived at his court, and Tenali Ramakrishna and Tarigoppula Mallana are counted among his poets. His death at Chandragiri in 1614 was followed by a war of succession.

Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah

1593–1626 CE

Sixth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1611/12–1626), nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad Quli. He was a scholarly and peaceful king. He founded the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, began a new town called Sultannagar, sheltered the rebel Mughal prince Khurram (Shah Jahan) and had the first history of his dynasty written. His queen, Hayat Bakhsh Begum, was the mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah.

Abdullah Qutb Shah

1614–1672 CE

Seventh Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1626–1672). He was crowned as a boy and left the government to his mother Hayat Bakhsh Begum and his ministers. In 1636 he accepted the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as his overlord. His minister Mir Jumla conquered the Karnatak and its diamond mines. In 1656 Mir Jumla's quarrel with him brought Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. An inscription in Persian and Telugu records the siege. He died without a son in 1672.

Muhammad Adil Shah

1627–1656 CE

Seventh Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1627–1656), called Mahmud in some histories, and the builder of the Gol Gumbaz. He made peace with Shah Jahan in 1636 and then sent his armies into the Karnatak, with Shahji Bhonsle among the commanders. Bijapur took Jinji and Vellore, Penukonda (1652, by a Mackenzie manuscript) and the uplands of the Bellary and Anantapur country. It divided the Karnatak with Golconda's minister Mir Jumla.

Shivaji

c. 1627–1680 CE

Founder of the Maratha kingdom (died 1680), crowned at Raigarh in 1674. In the Telugu country he is remembered for his Karnatak expedition of 1677. He made an alliance with Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda, and the king and his ministers Madanna and Akkanna received him at Hyderabad with great ceremony. He made a pilgrimage to Srisailam, crossed the Krishna near Kurnool and sent his army south through the Cuddapah country to Jinji. On the way home he took the fort of Bellary. In 1680 Bijapur gave him its rights over the Bellary and Anantapur country.

Ali Adil Shah II

1656–1672 CE

Eighth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1656–1672). Aurangzeb invaded the kingdom when he came to the throne, claiming that he was not Muhammad Adil Shah's son. His reign saw the rise of Shivaji and the rebellion of Siddi Jauhar, the Abyssinian governor of Kurnool. Royal campaigns brought the Kurnool province and the Raichur country back under control, before the Mughal treaties of 1666–68 cut down the kingdom.

Aurangzeb (Alamgir)

1658–1707 CE

Sixth Mughal emperor (1658–1707). As his father's viceroy of the Deccan, he made Golconda pay its unpaid tribute. With Mir Jumla's help he besieged Abdullah Qutb Shah in Golconda in 1656, and won the handover of Ramgir and the Karnatak. As emperor he took Golconda in 1687 after an eight months' siege. He made the kingdom the Mughal province (subah) of Haidarabad and stayed near the fort until January 1688 to settle it. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Siddi Masud Khan

c. 1662–1688 CE

Abyssinian noble of Bijapur. By the Bellary gazetteer's count he was governor and jagirdar (land-grant holder) of Adoni from 1662 to 1687. From 1678 he was regent of the kingdom for the boy-king Sikandar Adil Shah. He built the Jama Masjid of Adoni, which its inscriptions date to AH 1079 (1666–67). Driven from the capital, he held Adoni as the last Bijapur stronghold in the Telugu country. He surrendered it to the Mughals, in 1688 according to Sarkar.

Abul Hasan Tana Shah

c. 1672–1699 CE

Abul Hasan, called Tana Shah, was the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1672–1687). He was a kinsman and son-in-law of Abdullah Qutb Shah. He left the government to the Brahmin brothers Madanna and Akkanna, who allied the kingdom with the Marathas. Aurangzeb made this a charge against him and took Hyderabad in 1685. In 1687 Aurangzeb besieged Golconda for eight months, until a gate was opened by treachery. Abul Hasan died a state prisoner at Daulatabad.

Sikandar Adil Shah

1672–1686 CE

Ninth and last Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1672–1686). He came to the throne as a small boy and reigned under regents: Khawas Khan, Bahlol Khan, and the Abyssinian Siddi Masud, jagirdar (land-grant holder) of Adoni. In his reign Shivaji marched through the Kurnool country to take Bijapur's Karnatak forts (1677), and the Raichur doab was ceded to the Marathas. Aurangzeb took Bijapur on 12 September 1686. Sikandar died a prisoner in 1700.

Abdul Wahab Khan

before 1618 CE

Abyssinian general of Bijapur who took Kurnool from Gopala Raja, a grandson of Aliya Rama Raya, early in the seventeenth century. He governed it for about sixteen years as the first Bijapur governor of the town. He died in AH 1028 (1618) and is buried in the two-domed tomb on the bank of the Handri at Kurnool.

Addanki Gangadhara

Telugu poet of the 16th century who dedicated his Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu, the story of King Samvarana and Tapati, to Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted it, with Ponnikanti Telaganarya's Yayaticharitramu, among the only Telugu kavyas dedicated to a Muslim ruler. Its opening praises Ibrahim's conquests in the Telugu country.

Akkanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin, brother of the minister Madanna, who commanded the army of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda in the 1670s and 1680s. With his brother he received Shivaji at Hyderabad in 1677. The Mughal peace terms of 1685 demanded his dismissal with his brother's, and the two were murdered together at Golconda in March 1686.

Allasani Peddana

Chief Telugu poet of Krishnadeva Raya's court and first of the Ashtadiggajas (the eight court poets), called Andhrakavitapitamaha, 'grandfather of Telugu poetry'. His Svarochisha Manucharitramu, a story from the Markandeya Purana retold with rich description and dedicated to the king, became the model of the Telugu prabandha (long narrative poem). The king honoured him with the anklet of the champion poet and the village of Kokata, and Peddana mourned him in a famous verse.

Asad Khan Lari

before 1549 CE

Turkish officer of Bijapur (died 1549), born Khusrau Aqa. He held Belgaum as a jagir (land grant) and was the chief minister and army commander of Ismail and Ibrahim I Adil Shah. In 1535–37 he led the first Bijapur attack on Adoni. He besieged the fort and surprised the camp of Venkatadri, Rama Raya's brother, who had come to relieve it.

Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu

Telugu poet of Ontimitta in Kadapa district, counted among the eight poets of Krishnadeva Raya's court. The king asked him to write the Sakalakathasara Sangrahamu, a collection of Puranic stories, but died before it was finished; Ramabhadra later dedicated his Ramabhyudayamu, a poem on Rama, to Gobburi Narasaraja. He was nicknamed Pillala Ramabhadrayya for his many children.

Chemakura Venkatakavi

Telugu poet of the 17th century at the court of Raghunatha Nayaka of Thanjavur. He wrote the Vijayavilasamu, on Arjuna's three marriages, and the Sarangadhara Charitramu, a tragic tale of a prince falsely accused. His style was so admired that it was named after him, 'Chemakura paka', and some count the Vijayavilasamu among the five great Telugu poems.

Dhurjati

Telugu Shaiva poet of Srikalahasti, counted among the eight poets (Ashtadiggajas) of Krishnadeva Raya's court. He wrote the Kalahasti Mahatmyamu, a poem on the holy place of Srikalahasti, and the Kalahastisvara Satakamu, a set of devotional verses to its god. Stories about his loose living go back to a verse about the king's question on the sweetness of his style.

Jamshid Quli Qutb Shah

before 1550 CE

Second Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1543–1550), the third son of Sultan Quli. The Golconda chronicle says he had his father killed at prayer and blinded the heir, his brother Qutb-ud-din. His reign was spent in wars with Bidar and Bijapur, and his younger brother Ibrahim fled to Vijayanagara. He died of a long illness in 1550.

Kancherla Gopanna (Bhakta Ramadas)

A Telugu devotee of Rama, remembered as Ramadas. He was a revenue officer who spent government money on the Rama temple at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari and was imprisoned for it. In the legend, he was freed when Rama and Lakshmana paid his debt to the king. He is credited with the Dasarathi Sataka and with devotional songs. Writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make him a nephew of Madanna and an officer of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 places him about 1725 under the Nizams.

Kshetrayya

Telugu poet and composer of padams, love songs on Radha and Krishna, sung by dancers and musicians across South India. K. Sitaramaiya and P. T. Raju place him in the 17th century, at the time of Vijayaraghava Nayaka of Thanjavur. C. R. Day in 1891 called him the most popular composer of padams.

Madanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin who became chief minister (wazir) of Abul Hasan, the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda, about 1673, with the title Surya Prakash Rao. With his brother Akkanna he ran the kingdom for some twelve years. He allied it with the Marathas against the Mughals and kept an office at Bezwada. Aurangzeb made the employment of the two Brahmin brothers a charge against the king. They were murdered at Golconda in March 1686.

Madayyagari Mallana

Telugu Shaiva poet of Kondavidu, counted among the eight poets of Krishnadeva Raya's court. His Rajasekhara Charitramu, a story-poem, is dedicated to Nadindla Appa, nephew and son-in-law of the king's minister Saluva Timma, and its opening traces the minister's family. The Rayavachakamu places him with the king after the victory over the sultans.

Mir Jumla (Mir Muhammad Said Ardastani)

before 1663 CE

A Persian merchant who became chief minister and army commander of Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda. He is known by the title of his office, Mir Jumla. He conquered the Karnatak south of the Krishna, including Gandikota and the diamond country of Cuddapah, and he leased the diamond mines. His quarrel with the king in 1655–56 brought the Mughal prince Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. He then joined Mughal service as Mu'azzam Khan and died in 1663 after an expedition to Assam.

Mohanangi

Daughter of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara, remembered in Telugu tradition as a poet and a judge of poetry. She is said to have written the Marichi Parinayamu, a love poem now lost. Court stories make her the princess who bought Sankusala Nrisimha's verses in the market and brought him to the king's notice, and the target of a joke by Tenali Ramakrishna. All that is known of her comes from these stories.

Molla

Telugu woman poet of the potter caste, author of the Molla Ramayanamu, a short verse retelling of the Ramayana. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao placed her in Krishnadeva Raya's reign (1509–30) and called hers the most widely read of all the Telugu Ramayanas; C. P. Brown described the poem in 1852 as 'an imitation of Valmiki'.

Nandi Timmana

Telugu poet of Krishnadeva Raya's court and one of the Ashtadiggajas (the eight great poets), popularly called Mukku Timmana. He was a Niyogi Brahman and a Saiva, and a nephew of the poet Malayamaruta. He wrote the Parijatapaharanamu, dedicated to the king, the story of Krishna bringing the parijata tree from heaven for Satyabhama. Its introduction is a source for the careers of Narasa Nayaka and Krishnadeva Raya. Tradition says it was written to reconcile the king with a queen.

Pillalamarri Pinaveerabhadrudu

Telugu poet of the later 15th century at the court of Saluva Narasimha, who became the first king of Vijayanagara's second dynasty. His Jaimini Bharatamu, dedicated to that king, opens with an account of the Saluva family's wars. Many stories grew up around him: that he silenced Srinatha as a boy, and that the goddess Sarasvati wrote his poem in one night.

Pingali Ellanarya

Telugu poet of about 1602, author of the Tobhya Charitramu, also called the Sarvesvara Mahatmyamu, a poem in four cantos on a Christian subject. He wrote it for Tumma Rayapa Reddi, a minor chief in the Kondavidu country. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao say it was based on an account of the life of St Thomas kept in the patron's family.

Pingali Surana

Telugu poet of the mid-16th century at the courts of Akavidu and Nandyal in Kurnool district. He wrote the Raghavapandaviyamu, in which every verse tells the stories of both Rama and the Pandavas, and two story-poems: the Kalapurnodayamu, a plot of his own invention, and the Prabhavati Pradyumnamu. Tradition counts him among Krishnadeva Raya's eight court poets, but Subramiah Pantulu and P. T. Raju put him a generation later.

Ponnikanti Telaganarya

Telugu poet of the 16th century, author of the Yayaticharitramu, the story of King Yayati in five cantos written in 'pure Telugu', avoiding Sanskrit words. He dedicated it to Amin Khan, a general of Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda, and its opening praises Amin Khan's family as servants of the sultan.

Raghunatha Nayaka of Thanjavur

Telugu Nayaka ruler of Thanjavur (then Tanjore) in the early 17th century, himself a poet in Telugu and Sanskrit and a writer on music. His court began the 'Southern school' of Telugu literature: his own Valmiki Charitramu was an early Telugu prose work, and Chemakura Venkatakavi wrote the Vijayavilasamu there. Poems by his son, his minister and a woman poet of his court describe his wars for the Vijayanagara throne.

Ramarajabhushana (Bhattumurti)

Telugu poet of the later 16th century, author of the Vasucharitramu, the story of King Vasu's marriage told in verse full of double meanings, which became the model for later poets. His title means 'ornament of Rama Raja's court'; his own name was Bhattumurti. He dedicated the Vasucharitramu to Tirumala Raya and a book on poetics, the Narasabhupaliyamu, to Rama Raya's nephew. Scholars long argued whether the two names belong to one poet.

Saluva Timma (Timmarasu)

Chief minister of Vira Narasimha and of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara, known in Telugu tradition as Timmarasu and Appaji, 'father'. Nuniz says he saved Krishnaraya from being blinded and made him king. He managed the campaign against Orissa, took Kondavidu in 1515 and governed it through his family, the Nadindla brothers. Nuniz says the king later blinded and imprisoned him, suspecting him of poisoning the young prince. Telugu tradition makes the king and his minister the heroes of many tales.

Sarangu Timmana

Telugu poet of the late 16th century, author of the Vaijayanti Vilasamu, also called the Vipranarayana Charitramu, the story of a Vaishnava devotee tempted by two courtesan sisters. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu wrote in 1898 that Timmana called himself the karanam (accountant) of Golconda. C. P. Brown noted that it was printed with a commentary in 1849.

Shahji Bhonsle

before 1664 CE

Maratha captain of hired soldiers and father of Shivaji. He served the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, and from 1636 the Adil Shahs of Bijapur. As second in command to Randaula Khan, he took part in Bijapur's conquest of the Karnatak. He was given a jagir (land grant) round Bangalore and Kolar, a country taken from the forebears of the Telugu poligars of Punganur. He kept a court at Bangalore and died in 1664. His son Vyankoji inherited his Karnatak jagir.

Siddi Jauhar (Salabat Khan)

before 1662 CE

Abyssinian officer of Bijapur who held Kurnool as his government and jagir (land grant) under Ali Adil Shah II. Given the title Salabat Khan, he besieged Shivaji in Panhala in 1660. Suspected of letting him escape, he withdrew to Kurnool, rose against the king in 1662 and was killed by his own followers. His son-in-law was Siddi Masud of Adoni.

Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk

before 1543 CE

Persian-born officer of the Bahmani sultanate who governed Telingana from Golconda. He conquered much of Telangana and the Krishna–Godavari coast, and founded the Qutb Shahi dynasty. He was assassinated in 1543. According to the Golconda chronicle, he was killed at prayer in the mosque of Golconda fort. According to Ferishta, a slave killed him while he was examining jewels.

Tallapaka Annamacharya

Telugu composer of devotional songs (sankirtanas) to the god Venkatesvara of Tirupati, the first of the Tallapaka family of temple poets. The Tirupati temple dated him 1408–1503 when it printed his songs in 1941. Temple records of 1530–1558, studied by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, show his son Tirumalai Aiyangar as the temple's appointed singer, and his grandson setting up his image as a teacher.

Tarigoppula Mallana

Telugu poet of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, author of the Chandrabhanu Charitramu, the story of the marriage of Krishna's son Chandrabhanu. He belonged to the circle of the Vijayanagara king Venkatapati Raya at Chandragiri, where his elder brother Datta Mantri was a minister.

Tenali Ramakrishna

Telugu poet, author of the Panduranga Mahatmyamu. Tradition counts him among the Ashtadiggajas of Krishnadeva Raya's court, and he is famous throughout the Telugu country as a jester. The record is thin. He first wrote as Tenali Ramalinga, a Saiva, before turning Vaishnava. The evidence of his patrons and contemporaries places him in the later sixteenth century, at the court of the Aravidu kings, rather than under Krishnadeva Raya. The jests told of him are folklore.

Vemana

Telugu poet of short moral, religious and satirical verses, each ending with the refrain 'Viswad abhi rama vinara Vema'. His verses were the moral schoolbook of the Telugu country. Nothing certain is known of his life: C. P. Brown, who collected and translated the verses from 1824, heard that he lived about 1600, while Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao preferred the early 15th century.

Vijayaraghava Nayaka of Thanjavur

Telugu Nayaka ruler of Thanjavur (then Tanjore), son of Raghunatha Nayaka, and himself an author of Telugu plays, among them a Raghunathabhyudayamu in praise of his father. K. Sitaramaiya and P. T. Raju name him as the patron of the song-composer Kshetrayya. A Telugu chronicle of the Thanjavur kings tells how he refused a marriage alliance with the Nayaka of Madurai and died fighting when Madurai's army stormed Thanjavur.

Adoni

Hill-fort town in the Kurnool district. It was a Vijayanagara stronghold, which Bijapur besieged in 1535–37 and took in 1568. Its Bijapur governor Siddi Masud Khan built the Jama Masjid in 1666–67. He held the last Bijapur stronghold in the western Telugu country, and gave it up to Aurangzeb's army after Bijapur fell. The Mughals renamed it Imtiyazgarh, 'Distinction Fort'. Under Farrukhsiyar and his successors it was a Mughal mint for small gold coins of the southern pattern. From 1756 it was the jagir (land grant) of Basalat Jang, the Nizam's brother. Tipu Sultan besieged it in 1786, took its guns when the garrison left, destroyed its walls, and gave it back at the peace of 1787. In 1800 the Nizam ceded it to the East India Company in exchange for his districts north of the Tungabhadra.

Ahobilam

Village and temple of Narasimha on the Nallamalai hills in the Kurnool district, 'the most sacred Vaishnava shrine' of the district. Reddi records credit Prolaya Vema with a flight of steps there. Kataya Vema gave it villages named after Kumaragiri in 1410, and Errapragada dedicated his Narasimha Purana to its god.

Anantapur

Town in Rayalaseema below a great tank that, by tradition, was built under the Vijayanagara king Bukka I. It was the seat of the Hande poligars (local chiefs). Later it was the seat of Thomas Munro as Principal Collector of the Ceded Districts (1800–07), and of the Bellary Collectorate until 1840. It became a municipality in 1869. In 1882 it became the headquarters of the new Anantapur District, formed from the southern taluks of Bellary.

Bhadrachalam

Temple town on the Godavari, held to be a place where Rama lived after the abduction of Sita. Its temple of Rama is linked with Kancherla Gopanna, remembered as Ramadas, who is said to have spent the revenue on the shrine and to have been imprisoned for it. The Kistna manual (1883) makes him a nephew of Madanna under the last Qutb Shahi king. The Godavari gazetteer (1907) places him about 1725, as an official of the Nizam.

Bijapur (Vijayapura)

City on the dry plateau between the Bhima and the Krishna, about 240 miles south-east of Bombay. It was the capital of the Adil Shahi sultans from about 1489 to 1686. An inscription of 1074–75 calls it Vijayapura. Yusuf Adil Khan was its Bahmani governor when he declared his independence in 1489. Its walls were completed in 1565 with the plunder of Vijayanagara, and its great buildings include the Ibrahim Rauza and the Gol Gumbaz. Aurangzeb took it on 12 September 1686.

Bukkarayasamudram

Village at the eastern end of the great tank of Anantapur, named 'king Bukka's sea' after Bukka I of Vijayanagara. A Kanarese inscription of 1364 says that his minister Anantarasa dug the tank. The Anantapur chronicle names the builder Chikkappa Wadeyar, and makes Anantapur, at the western end, the village named after his wife. In the sixteenth century it became a seat of the Hande poligars (local chiefs) of Anantapur.

Chandragiri

Town on the Swarnamukhi below a granite hill fort, seven miles from Tirupati in the old North Arcot (later Chittoor) district. Krishnadeva Raya kept his brothers and nephew in its fortress. After 1565 it became the residence of the Aravidu kings, who are said to have moved there from Penukonda. From here Sriranga granted the English the site of Fort St. George in 1639. Golconda took it in 1646. Its palace, the Raja Mahal, survives.

Eluru (Ellore)

Town in the West Godavari district, the seat of the Ellore sarkar (district), one of the five Northern Circars of the Qutb Shahi and Mughal coast. Its carpet weaving was famous in the seventeenth century. Under the Mughals it had a qazi's court, a kotwal (police chief) and a market officer. Its assessment of about 5.6 lakhs of rupees stood on the imperial records until the French took the Circars in 1753.

Gandikota

Village and hill fort five miles west of Jammalamadugu in the Cuddapah district, above the gorge that the Penner cuts through sandstone cliffs. Its name means 'gorge fort'. Its temple legend credits a Kaka Maharaju with the fort about 1290, and 'Harihara Bukkarayalu' with the temple of Madhavasvami. Under Vijayanagara it was the head of the Gandikota sima (district). Golconda took it in the late sixteenth century, and Mir Jumla held it.

Golconda

Fortress and old royal town five miles west of Hyderabad. It was a Warangal frontier fort ceded to the Bahmanis in the 14th century, and then the first capital of the Qutb Shahi sultans. The court moved to Hyderabad in the 1590s, but the fortress remained their stronghold until 1687.

Gooty

Town inside a ring of rocky hills in the Anantapur district, crowned by the hill fortress of Gutti, 2,105 feet above the sea. Western Chalukya records of 1121–23 are cut on its summit rock, beside a Sanskrit verse in praise of king Bukka of Vijayanagara. Vijayanagara held it as the head of a province until after 1565, and it later fell to Golconda and to the Maratha Morari Rao. Haidar Ali took it in 1776 (1775 in the Anantapur gazetteer). Tipu Sultan named it Faiz Hisar and struck copper coins there. After his death it went to the Nizam in 1799, and to the Company with the Ceded Districts in 1800.

Guntur (Murtazanagar)

Town south of the Krishna that gave its name to the Guntur or Murtazanagar sarkar (district), the southernmost of the five Northern Circars of the Qutb Shahi and Mughal coast. Its standard assessment of about 11.7 lakhs of rupees, more than half of it crown land, was entered on the Mughal records after 1687. The Mughals counted the coast south of it as the Haidarabadi Karnatak. It passed to the East India Company only in 1788.

Gurramkonda

Hill fort in the uplands of the old Cuddapah district (later Chittoor), the seat of a Muslim governorship from Golconda times. The Nawab of Cuddapah ceded it to the Marathas, apparently after his defeat by Balwant Rao in 1757. In 1767 the Maratha Peshwa gave it to Haidar Ali's brother-in-law Mir Sahib, who handed it to Haidar. The Marathas took it back by siege in 1771 and kept it by the treaty of 1772, and Tipu recovered it in 1773–74. It held out against the Nizam's army for a year in 1791–92, and passed to the Nizam by the treaty of 1792.

Hampi (Vijayanagara)

Hamlet on the Tungabhadra in the Hospet taluk of the old Bellary district, now in Karnataka. It lies among the ruins of Vijayanagara, 'the city of victory', the capital of the empire from about 1336 to 1565. The ruins cover about nine square miles of granite hills. The Muslim allies sacked the city after the battle of 1565, and the court fled to Penukonda. Hampi is outside the Telugu country. It is included here as the capital of the empire that ruled Rayalaseema and, for a time, the Telugu coast.

Hayathnagar

Village about nine miles east of Hyderabad on the old road to Masulipatam. Hayat Bakhsh Begum, mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah, founded it in AH 1035 (1625–26) as Hayatabad. Its great Qutb Shahi mosque stands inside a walled caravanserai (travellers' inn) of several hundred rooms. Tavernier's 'Jatenagar', the first stage on his road from Golconda to the Kollur diamond mine, has been identified with it.

Hyderabad

City on the Musi founded by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah around 1589–91 as Bhagnagar. It was the Qutb Shahi capital until 1687, then a Mughal provincial seat. From the 1720s it was the capital of the Asaf Jahi Nizams.

Kadapa (Cuddapah)

Town near the Penner river and headquarters of the district to which it gave its name. A Golconda officer is thought to have built its fort about 1570. In the early eighteenth century it became the capital of the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah. Haidar Ali took it in 1779 and gave the country to his brother-in-law Mir Sahib. Tipu Sultan ceded the Cuddapah districts to the Nizam in 1792, and the Nizam ceded them to the East India Company in 1800. The town became the district headquarters in 1817.

Kollur

Deserted diamond-mining site on the Krishna, in the west of the old Sattenapalle taluk (Guntur). Tavernier visited its 'Gani' or 'Coulour' mine under the Qutb Shahis, and his editor V. Ball identified that mine with Kollur. Tavernier found close on 60,000 people working there. He was told that the great diamond Mir Jumla gave the Mughal emperor came from it. By 1883 only ruins of extensive habitations remained.

Kondapalli

Town and hill fortress on the north side of the Krishna, about ten miles north-west of Vijayawada. The fort is said to have been built by the Reddi kings of Kondavidu in the 14th century. It passed to the Gajapatis, was ceded to the Bahmanis in 1470, and was taken by Krishnadeva Raya about 1515 and by Golconda in 1531. It was later the seat of the Kondapalli or Mustafanagar Circar.

Kondavidu

Village and hill fortress in Guntur district. It was the capital of the Reddi kings in the 14th and early 15th centuries, a prize fought over by Orissa, Vijayanagara and Golconda in the 16th, and the seat of the Murtazanagar or Kondavidu Circar.

Kurnool

Walled town where the Handri meets the Tungabhadra, the headquarters of the Kurnool district. Tradition says its fort was built in Achyuta Raya's time. Early in the seventeenth century the Bijapur general Abdul Wahab took it from Gopala Raja, a grandson of Aliya Rama Raya. It was then governed from Bijapur until the Mughal conquest of 1686–88. The two-domed tomb of Abdul Wahab (1618) is its chief old building. From the Mughal conquest until 1839 Kurnool was the seat of the Pathan Nawabs of Kurnool. The French stormed the fort in 1751. In 1839 the last Nawab gave it up to a British commission, and the town became the headquarters of a British district. From 1 October 1953 Kurnool was the capital of the new Andhra State, and its Legislative Assembly met there. In November 1953 the Assembly debated moving the capital, but the resolution was lost. Andhra Pradesh, formed on 1 November 1956, had Hyderabad as its capital.

Lepakshi

Village nine miles east of Hindupur in the Anantapur district. It is known for the Virabhadra temple on the low Kurmasaila hill and for the colossal stone bull near it. Virupanna of Penukonda built the temple in the reign of Achyuta Raya. The temple's inscriptions of 1533–1538 place Lepakshi in Rodda-nadu, a subdivision of the Penukonda province.

Machilipatnam

Port near the mouth of the Krishna, known to Europeans as Masulipatam and locally as Bandar. It was the main sea outlet of the Golconda kingdom, where the English, Dutch and French traded from the 17th century. Later it was the chief town of the Northern Circars and of Kistna district.

Madanur

Village about ten miles from Ongole. The copper plates of the Maliyapundi grant of the Eastern Chalukya king Amma II (945–970) were found in its Ramalingesvara temple. The temple also has a stone inscription recording a gift of the village in the Vijayanagara period.

Mangalagiri

Town at the foot of a hill twelve miles north-east of Guntur, with a temple of Narasimha on a rock-cut platform up the hill and a deep square reservoir in the town. A four-sided pillar near the steps of the hill temple records that Saluva Timma, minister of Krishnadeva Raya, captured Kondavidu on 23 June 1515. It also records the gifts of his nephew Nadindla Appa, among them a temple with nine golden pinnacles for the god of Mangalasaila.

Nizampatnam

Old port on the Guntur coast south of the Krishna mouths. The Fifth Report's tables identify it with the Pettipolee or Pettapoli of the English records. Here the Globe landed English merchants on 20 August 1611, the first English trade on the eastern coast of India. It was a minor factory (trading post) of the Company in the seventeenth century. It gave its name to the Nizampatam Circar, granted to the French in 1751 and to the English by Salabat Jang's treaty of 1759.

Penukonda

Town at the foot of a fortified hill over 3,000 feet high in the Anantapur district. It was the seat of a Vijayanagara prince from 1354, the refuge of the court after the defeat of 1565, and the capital of the Aravidu kings until they moved to Chandragiri. An inscription says its fort was built in 1354, and Channappa Nayudu repaired it for Tirumala. The Gagan Mahal palace, the Rama and Isvara temples and the Sher Khan mosque stand within it. Bijapur took it about 1652.

Potnuru

Village on the Chittivalasa river north of Visakhapatnam, near Simhachalam. According to his court poets and the Telugu chronicles, the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya set up a pillar of victory here over the Gajapati Prataparudra about 1515–16. The pillar had disappeared by 1907. Later in the seventeenth century the ancestors of the Rajas of Vizianagaram lived here.

Punganur

Town and seat of a zamindari (landed estate) on the Mysore plateau, in the north-west of the old North Arcot district. It was part of Cuddapah until 1858. Its Telugu poligar family held Kolar until Bijapur took it in 1639, and then held Punganur under Golconda, the Mughals and the Nawabs of Cuddapah. When the Marathas killed the Nawab of Cuddapah in 1757, Punganur passed to them. After about twenty years of contest it went to Haidar Ali, who took it in 1774. After Tipu's fall in 1799 the whole estate was transferred to the East India Company.

Rajahmundry

Town on the left bank of the Godavari, the ancient Rajamahendravaram. It was the eastern capital of the Reddis, and a frontier fortress fought over by Orissa, the Bahmanis, Vijayanagara and Golconda. It was Bussy's headquarters in the 1750s, and in the 1920s the home of the Andhra Historical Research Society.

Siddhavatam (Sidhout)

Fortified town on the Penner below Cuddapah, called Dakshina Kasi, 'the southern Benares'. The Matla chiefs of Chitvel built the first fort. Under the Nawabs of Cuddapah it was the jagir (land grant) of a branch of their family, and a state prison. The last Nawab, Abd-ul-Halim Khan, surrendered to Haidar Ali there on 27 May 1779 (local and later accounts give 1778 and 1780). Tipu's diwan of Cuddapah stored lead there. The taluk went to the Nizam in 1792 and to the Company in 1800, and Sidhout was for a time the Collector's residence after 1807.

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.

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.

Srikalahasti

Temple town on the right bank of the Swarnamukhi at the end of the Nagari hills, in the old North Arcot (later Chittoor) district. It was the seat of the Kalahasti zamindars. Its Siva temple of the wind linga was extended by the Cholas. By an inscription of 1516, it received a hundred-pillared hall and its great gopura (gateway tower) from Krishnadeva Raya. The North Arcot manual took the zamindars to have begun as officers of the Vijayanagara kings.

Srisailam

Temple town of Siva as Mallikarjuna, on the northernmost plateau of the Nallamalai hills, above the gorge of the Krishna in the Kurnool district. The Reddi kings of Kondavidu claimed the country 'from Srisailam to the eastern sea'. Their inscriptions credit Prolaya Vema with a flight of steps from the Patalaganga to the shrine, and Anavema built a hall there in 1378. Shivaji spent about ten days at the shrine in March 1677, on his way from Hyderabad to the Karnatak.

Tadpatri

Town on the south bank of the Penner in the Anantapur district. It was founded under Vijayanagara by Ramalinga Nayudu, whose family built its two richly carved temples of Ramalingesvara and Chintala Venkataramana. It passed to Muslim governors after 1565, to Morari Rao of Gooty and then to Haidar Ali. A Mughal-style pagoda (gold coin) was struck there. By the treaty of 1792 Tipu Sultan ceded the taluks of Tadpatri and Tadimarri to the Nizam, who ceded them to the East India Company in 1800.

Talikota

Small fortified town about 25 miles north of the Krishna, in the old Bijapur district, now in Karnataka. The allied armies of four Deccan sultans gathered here in December 1564, before the battle of January 1565 that broke the power of Vijayanagara. The battle is named after the town, though it was fought south of the Krishna. Sewell placed it near Bayapur on the road to Mudkal. H. Heras placed it near the villages of Raksasji and Tagdiji, and so called it the battle of Raksas-Tagdi.

Tirupati and Tirumala

Pilgrim town at the foot of the Tirumala hills in the old North Arcot (later Chittoor) district, and the hill town of Tirumala above it. Tirumala has the temple of Venkatesvara, which James Fergusson's revisers called the most sacred in the Madras Presidency. Krishnadeva Raya visited it after his eastern wars, gave it jewels and set up copper statues of himself and his queens. The later Aravidu kings made their grants before its god and lived at Chandragiri, in sight of the hill.

Udayagiri (Nellore)

Town in the west of the Nellore district below the Udayagiri Droog, an isolated hill of 3,079 feet once fortified with thirteen strongholds. It was the seat of a Vijayanagara province in the fourteenth century. The Gajapatis of Orissa held it in the later fifteenth century, and Krishnadeva Raya took it from Prataparudra after a long siege in 1512–13. Later it was a seat of Golconda and of the jagirdars (land-grant holders) of the Nawabs of Arcot.

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.

Kondavidu fort

c. 1150 CE

Hill fortress on a small range of hills west of Guntur. It was the capital of the Reddi kings from the time of Anavema (after 1361) to the 1420s. The Imperial Gazetteer dates the fortress to the 12th century, and local chronicles credit Prolaya Vema with rebuilding its inner fort. Its walls run for miles along the tops of the hills. Orissa, Vijayanagara and Golconda fought over it until 1579.

Penukonda fort and Gagan Mahal

1354 CE

The hill fort of Penukonda, its half-circle of walls on the plain, the Gagan Mahal palace and the Rama and Isvara temples inside it. An inscription at the north gate dates the building of the fort to 25 March 1354, under Bukka I's son Virupanna. Another, of 1576–77, records that Channappa Nayudu built an inner fort, gates and bastions for Tirumala. The Gagan Mahal and its pavilion are in the arched 'Indo-Saracenic' style of the palace buildings at Hampi, and the two temples carry Ramayana and Purana reliefs.

Kondapalli fort

c. 1360 CE

Hill fortress north-west of Vijayawada, said to have been built by the Reddi kings of Kondavidu about 1360. It has lines of fortifications with bastions, a lower fort guarding the main approach, and a palace on the hill. Muslim governors rebuilt the palace and called the place Mustafanagar.

Kalahastisvara temple, Srikalahasti

1516 CE

Siva temple of the wind linga at the foot of the southern hill of Srikalahasti. It has Chola inscriptions, and a hundred-pillared hall and great gopura (gate tower) that a Telugu inscription of 1516 credits to Krishnadeva Raya. The North Arcot manual says the Chola kings and Krishnadeva Rayalu extended it. Fergusson's revisers list its wind linga among the Pancha-lingams, the five notable symbols of Siva in southern India.

Virabhadra temple, Lepakshi

1538 CE

Temple of Virabhadra on a low rocky hill at Lepakshi in the Anantapur district. It has a double enclosure with a pillared cloister, an unfinished kalyana-mandapa (wedding hall) and a great hall of some sixty carved pillars, whose ceiling is covered with paintings of the epics and Puranas. An inscription by the main entrance dates its building to 1538. Its records of 1533–1538, in the reign of Achyuta Raya, name its builder Virupanna of Penukonda. Local tradition makes him a treasurer of Krishnadeva Raya who blinded himself at the king's order. A colossal bull carved from one stone lies near it.

Qutb Shahi Tombs

c. 1543–1674 CE

Royal burial ground half a mile north of Golconda Fort. It holds the domed tombs of seven Qutb Shahi kings and members of their families, with mosques and a mortuary bath, built between the 1540s and the 1670s.

Husain Sagar

c. 1562 CE

Large artificial lake between Hyderabad and Secunderabad, formed by a dam that the Golconda chronicle counts among the works of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to about 1575. Bilgrami gives AH 970 (1562) and credits it to Husain Shah Wali, the king's son-in-law, after whom it is named. A tradition printed by Hastings Fraser in 1865 tells how the tank stood empty until Neknam Khan cut a channel from the Musi.

Purana Pul

c. 1578 CE

The 'old bridge' of stone across the Musi at the western end of old Hyderabad, on the road to Golconda. Bilgrami (1927) dates it by two chronograms to AH 986 (1578), under Ibrahim Qutb Shah, fourteen years before the city. He gives its Qutb Shahi name as Pul-i Narva, from the Telugu word for a causeway. The Imperial Gazetteer and Campbell date it to 1593 under Muhammad Quli. Tavernier compared it with the Pont Neuf. Its only inscription records the rebuilding after the flood of 1820.

Charminar

c. 1591 CE

Gateway monument with four minarets at the centre of old Hyderabad. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built it when he founded the city. The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to 1591, and Bilgrami to AH 999–1000 (1590–91).

Badshahi Ashurkhana

c. 1593 CE

The royal hall of Muharram mourning in Hyderabad, built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. The Imperial Gazetteer (1909) and Campbell (1898) date it to 1594. Bilgrami (1927) read a date of AH 1001 (1592–93) in the enamelled-tile inscription over the central niche, and dated the tile work to the last year of the king's reign. Abdullah Qutb Shah's name is also in the tiles, and the outer halls were added under Nizam Ali Khan.

Jami Masjid, Hyderabad

1597 CE

Congregational (Friday) mosque of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, a short way north-east of the Charminar, built under the minister Aminu-l-Mulk. The chronogram over its door gives AH 1006 (1597). The Imperial Gazetteer dates it to 1596, and Campbell and Rocco to 1598. It is a double hall of seven arches on a paved courtyard. It once had a school, a monastery and a Turkish bath attached, and by 1898 houses and shops crowded round it.

Khairatabad Mosque

c. 1612–1626 CE

Small three-arched Qutb Shahi mosque at Khairatabad, Hyderabad, with an empty domed tomb beside it, after which the suburb is named. Neither building has an inscription. Bilgrami (1927), from a sanad (deed) of Aurangzeb's 37th year, says that Khairiyat-un-Nisa Begum, daughter of Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah, built the mosque for her tutor Mulla Abdul Malik. He dates it between 1612 and 1626. Campbell (1898), Rocco (1929) and Syed Hossein Bilgrami (1905) make its builder Khairat-un-Nisa, a daughter of Ibrahim Qutb Shah.

Mecca Masjid

c. 1617–1693 CE

Great stone mosque near the Charminar in Hyderabad. Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah began it in 1617, his successors continued it, and it was completed under Aurangzeb in the 1690s. The Asaf Jahi Nizams from Nizam Ali Khan onwards are buried in its courtyard.

Tomb of Abdul Wahab, Kurnool

1618 CE

Two-domed tomb on the bank of the Handri at Kurnool. It was built for Abdul Wahab Khan, the Abyssinian general who took Kurnool for Bijapur early in the seventeenth century and was its first Bijapur governor. The Kurnool district manual and the Imperial Gazetteer date it to AH 1028 (1618), the year of his death.

Dutch tombs, Machilipatnam

1624–1743 CE

Carved granite gravestones of officers and families of the Dutch East India Company at Machilipatnam (Masulipatam), the oldest European monuments of the Telugu coast. The earliest is the tomb of Jacob Dedel, chief of the Company on the Coromandel coast, who died in 1624. A walled burial ground behind the Collector's office, at the place still called Valandupalem, holds slabs dated from 1662 to 1743, with coats of arms and verse epitaphs in Dutch.

Hayat Bakhshi Mosque, Hayathnagar

c. 1626 CE

Large Qutb Shahi mosque of five double arches between two tall minarets. It stands on a terrace inside a vast walled caravanserai (travellers' inn) at Hayathnagar, about nine miles east of Hyderabad. The village was founded in AH 1035 (1625–26) by Hayat Bakhsh Begum, daughter of Muhammad Quli, queen of Sultan Muhammad and mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah. The mosque has no inscription. Bilgrami dated the village to 1626 and the mosque to Abdullah's reign.

Taramati Baradari and Premamati Mosque

c. 1662 CE

A pavilion (baradari) on three terraces south of the Osman Sagar road near Golconda, and an unfinished mosque on a rock north of the road. Tradition links them with Tara Mati and Pema Mati, Hindu consorts of the Qutb Shahi kings. Neither building has an inscription. The only dated record of either woman is the grave of Pemmati at the Qutb Shahi tombs, AH 1073 (1662). The sources disagree on which kings the two women belonged to.

Jama Masjid, Adoni

1667 CE

The congregational (Friday) mosque of Adoni, built by the Bijapur governor Siddi Masud Khan. Persian verses on black stone slabs in its front give the date of completion as AH 1079 (1666–67). The Bellary gazetteer called it the finest piece of Muhammadan architecture in the district. Local tradition says that its pillars were taken from a Chalukyan temple, and that Masud surrendered Adoni to the Mughals to save it from their guns.

Toli Masjid

1671 CE

Qutb Shahi mosque on the old road from the Purana Pul to Golconda. Musa Khan, chamberlain and general of Abdullah Qutb Shah, built it. The inscription in its prayer niche gives the chronogram year AH 1082 (1671). G. Yazdani described it in 1918 as typical of the Qutb Shahi style, with Hindu motifs such as pot-shaped bases, elephant-tusk brackets and temple niches. Campbell (1898) dated it to 1604 under Muhammad Quli, but the inscription does not support that date.

Chandragiri fort and Raja Mahal

The hill fort of Chandragiri near Tirupati, with its walled enclosure on the plain and the two palaces inside it, the three-storeyed Raja Mahal (King's Palace) and the smaller Rani Mahal. Local tradition makes the fort as old as 1000, and says that Venkatapati enlarged it and built a palace when he moved from Penukonda. The architect R. F. Chisholm judged the King's Palace seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century work. The Archaeological Department in 1920 dated fort and palaces by their style to the seventeenth century.

Dar-ush-Shifa

Two-storeyed Qutb Shahi hospital and medical college round a square courtyard in the old city of Hyderabad, with a mosque opposite its entrance. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built it, and a caravanserai (travellers' inn) and bath were attached. The Golconda chronicle says the king built hospitals and paid their attendants. By 1909 it was a barrack, and in 1927 Bilgrami found it ruinous.

Gandikota fort

Fortifications crowning the cliffs on the south bank of the Penner gorge at Gandikota in the Cuddapah (Kadapa) district. Inside are the temple of Madhavasvami, a granary, a mosque and wells lined with stone. The temple legend credits a Kaka Maharaju with the fort about 1290 and 'Harihara Bukkarayalu' with the temple. Ferishta, as the Imperial Gazetteer reports him, dates the fort to 1589. Mir Jumla of Golconda strengthened the walls, and the granary is ascribed to him or his successors.

Golconda Fort

Walled hill fortress five miles west of Hyderabad. The Bahmani sultans received it from the ruler of Warangal in the 14th century. It became the seat of the Qutb Shahi sultans and was rebuilt in stone under Ibrahim Qutb Shah. It fell to Aurangzeb in 1687 after a siege of more than eight months.

Gooty fort

Hill fortress on a ring of rocky hills at Gooty in the Anantapur district. An outer rampart runs round the town, and a citadel stands on a steep rock 2,105 feet above the sea, reached by a winding paved path through fourteen gateways. Western Chalukya inscriptions of 1121–23 and a verse praising king Bukka of Vijayanagara are cut on its summit. Local belief credited Krishnadeva Raya with building it, which the Anantapur gazetteer rejected. Morari Rao, Haidar Ali and the Company held it in turn.

Narasimha temples, Ahobilam

The temples of Narasimha at Lower (Diguva) and Upper Ahobilam, in the Nallamalai hills of the Kurnool district. Lower Ahobilam has a large unfinished mandapa (pillared hall). Fergusson's revisers compared its plan with the Vitthala temple at Vijayanagara but its style with Nayak work, and rejected a local tradition that gave it to Prataparudra about 1300. Inscriptions of Achyuta Raya, Sadasiva, Sriranga I and Venkatapati record halls, a pillar of victory and a Garuda pillar. They also record how the temple was recovered after the Golconda king had occupied it for seven years.

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.

Venkatesvara temple, Tirumala

Temple of Venkatesvara (Srinivasa-Perumal) on the Tirumala hill above Tirupati. Its walls carry inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya of 1514 and of his queens of 1512–13. It keeps copper statues of the king and his queens Chinnadevi and Tirumaladevi, which the Telugu Rayavachakamu says he set up before the god, and a labelled copper statue of Venkatapati. Fergusson's revisers thought the temple itself 'a fair specimen of a Dravidian temple of the second class'.

Penukonda fort inscription (1354)

1354 CE

A Kanarese (Kannada) inscription on a bastion of the north gate of Penukonda fort. It is dated Saka 1276, Jaya, which E. Hultzsch equated with 25 March 1354. It records that the minister Anantarasa built the fort while Bukka I ruled and his son Virupanna governed the province of Penugonde. It is the earliest dated record of the town, and it shows that a prince of the first Vijayanagara dynasty lived there.

Gooty rock inscription of Bukka I

c. 1355 CE

A single Sanskrit verse cut on a rock near the top of the Gooty fort in the Anantapur district. It praises 'Gutti-durga, the king of forts' as the centre of the wheel of king Bukka's rule over the earth. It compares the rock to Vishnu's conch with right-turning whorls. E. Hultzsch, who edited it in 1890, took the king to be Bukka I of Vijayanagara. Sewell's lists of 1882 had suggested an officer of Krishnadeva Raya.

Bitragunta grant of Sangama II (1356)

1356 CE

Five copper plates kept in the Collector's office at Nellore, edited by H. Krishna Sastri in 1895. They record a gift to Brahmans by Sangama II, son of Kampa, in Saka 1278 (1356). He gave the village of Bitragunta near Kavali, renamed Srikanthapura, and Simkesari near Pushpagiri in the Cuddapah country. The grant names all five sons of Sangama I, and it makes Kampa, not Bukka, the successor of Harihara I. Krishna Sastri concluded that Sangama II held parts of the Nellore and Cuddapah districts without accepting his uncle Bukka I as overlord.

Bukkarayasamudram tank inscription (1364)

1364 CE

A Kanarese (Kannada) inscription on a stone at Bukkarayasamudram, the great tank at Anantapur. It is dated Saka 1286, Krodhin (1364), in the reign of Bukka Raya of Vijayanagar. As V. Rangacharya summarised it in 1919, it records that the minister Anantarasa Udayar dug the tank and built a temple of Sankara on its banks. The Telugu chronicle translated by C. P. Brown as 'The Wars of the Rajas' gives the same year but names the builder Chikkappa Wadeyar.

Gajapati inscriptions at Srikurmam (1452–1503)

1452–1503 CE

Short Telugu records on the black stone pillars of the Srikurmam temple. They are dated in the reigns of the Gajapati kings Kapilendra (1452, 1455, 1460), Purushottama (1470–1495) and Prataparudra (1503), and record gifts of land, lamps, images and silver vessels. They were copied in 1896 and printed in South-Indian Inscriptions V (1925). Monmohan Chakravarti and R. D. Banerji used them to fix the regnal years of the kings, and V. Rangacharya used them to argue that the kings came to the throne earlier.

Potavaram grant of Purushottama (1489)

1489 CE

A copper-plate grant known only from lithographs (printed copies) and a translation by Ram Raz, published in Madras in 1827, and edited again by L. D. Barnett in 1916. By it the Gajapati Purushottama gave the village of Potavaram, in the district of Ammanabrolu, to the god Siva of Chadaluvada, in the present Ongole country. The gift was made in Kartika of Saka 1412 (1489). Barnett read it as evidence that by 1489 Purushottama had won back much of the Telugu country lost to the Bahmani sultan Muhammad Shah.

Velicherla grant of Prataparudra Gajapati (1510 or 1511)

c. 1510 CE

Three copper plates, registered in 1920–21 when the District Munsiff of Kavali sent them to the epigraphist, and edited by G. Ramadas in 1958. They record a gift by the Gajapati Prataparudra to a Brahmin, made while he held court in the great fort of Undrakonda. He gave the village of Velicherla, east of the fort of Udayagiri in the Jaladanki country of Pakanadu. The grant is dated Saka 1432 in a chronogram (a date hidden in words). Its first editor read the date as 4 October 1510, and Ramadas as 24 October 1511. It shows the Gajapati still master of the Nellore country just before Krishnadeva Raya's campaigns.

Tirumala inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya and his queens (1513–1514)

1513–1514 CE

Telugu, Kannada and Tamil inscriptions on the walls of the first and second enclosures of the Venkatesvara temple on the Tirumala hill. Two of Saka 1434 (1512–13) record gifts by Krishnadeva Raya's queens Chimnaji Amma and Tirumalamma. Four of Saka 1436 (1514–15) are in three languages, and one of them mentions his attack on Prataparudra Gajapati, his pursuit of him to Kondavidu and his capture of Udayagiri. The temple also keeps the copper statues of the king and his two queens, which the Telugu Rayavachakamu says he set up before the god.

Amaravati inscription of Krishnadeva Raya (1515)

1515 CE

A Sanskrit verse inscription in Telugu letters on a slab in the Amaresvara temple at Amaravati, edited by H. Luders in 1903. It praises Krishnadeva Raya as the conqueror of Sivanasamudram, Udayagiri, Vinukonda and Bellamkonda, who took Kondavidu after capturing the Gajapati's son Virabhadra alive. It records that in Saka 1437 (1515) the king performed the tulapurusha gift (giving away his weight in gold) and gave agraharas (Brahmin villages) before the god Amaresa on the bank of the Krishna. It was the first inscription found to describe his eastern campaign.

Mangalagiri and Kaza pillar inscriptions (1515–1518)

1515–1518 CE

Two four-sided pillars in the Guntur country, one lying near the steps of the hill temple at Mangalagiri and the other in the Kodandaramasvamin temple at Kaza. They carry almost the same Sanskrit text of about 257 lines. H. Luders edited them in 1901. They record that Saluva Timma, minister of Krishnadeva Raya, took Kondavidu from the Gajapati's governors on 23 June 1515. They also list the gifts that his nephews Nadindla Appa and Gopa made as governors of Vinukonda and Kondavidu between 1516 and 1518.

Simhachalam inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya (1516–1519)

1516–1519 CE

Three Telugu inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya in the Varaha-Narasimha temple at Simhachalam near Visakhapatnam. They are on the base of the asthana-mandapa (audience hall) and on a round pillar of the verandah round the central shrine. They are dated Saka 1438 (1516) and 1441 (1519). They record that the king, after subduing Udayagiri, Kondavidu, Kondapalli and Rajahmundry on his 'first campaign', came to Simhadri. For the merit of his parents he gave the god a necklace of 991 pearls and other jewels. His queens Chinnadevi and Tirumaladevi also made gifts, and later the king gave several villages.

Srikalahasti inscription of Krishnadeva Raya (1516)

1516 CE

A Telugu inscription on the west wall of the second enclosure of the Kalahastisvara temple at Srikalahasti. It is dated Saka 1438, Dhatri (1516), in the reign of Krishnadeva Raya. As V. Rangacharya summarised it in 1919, it refers to the king's conquests, his visit to Kalahasti and his building of the hundred-pillared mandapa (hall) and the big gopura (gate tower) of the temple. The Telugu Rayavachakamu instead dates the king's grants at Kalahasti to the cyclic year Srimukha.

Jami Masjid inscription, Golconda fort

1518 CE

An inscription of AH 924 (1518) over the doorway of the congregational mosque (Masjid Safa) in Golconda fort. It records that Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk built the mosque in the reign of the Bahmani king Mahmud Shah, son of Muhammad Shah. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami used it to argue that Sultan Quli stayed loyal to the Bahmanis until 1518, and became independent only after Mahmud Shah's death.

Kondavidu pillar inscription of Nadindla Gopa (1520)

1520 CE

A four-sided pillar near the agrahara (Brahmin village) at Kondavidu, inscribed in Sanskrit and Telugu. H. Luders edited it with H. Krishna Sastri in 1901. It is dated at a lunar eclipse on 2 May 1520. It records that Nadindla Gopa, governor of Kondavidu and nephew of Saluva Timma, rebuilt the temple of Raghunayaka at Kondavidu. He gave the temple the customs on goods on every road of the Kondavidu country, with a list of rates for some fifty articles. The record curses Odda, Telugu and Turuka kings who might break the grant.

Lepakshi temple inscriptions of Achyuta Raya's reign (1533–1538)

1533–1538 CE

Some fifteen Sanskrit and Kannada inscriptions on the walls of the Virabhadra temple at Lepakshi in the Anantapur district. They were copied in 1912 and are dated between Saka 1455 and 1460 (1533–1538), in the reign of Achyuta Raya. They record gifts of villages, tolls and lands to the shrines of Virabhadra (Viresvara), Papavinasa and Raghunatha. The givers were Virupanna (Virappannayya) of Penukonda and his brother Virana Nayaka, sons of Nandi Lakkisetti of Lepakshi, and the king himself. Local tradition makes Virupanna a treasurer of Krishnadeva Raya.

Epitaph of Sultan Quli, Golconda (1543)

1543 CE

Inscriptions in three bands on the black basalt tomb-chest of Sultan Quli, in the Qutb Shahi burial ground at Golconda. An epitaph at its foot calls him 'the Martyr' and 'Bara Malik'. It dates his death to Monday, 2 Jumada II AH 950 (3 September 1543 in T. W. Haig's conversion). Haig noted that the epitaph gives him no royal title. Bilgrami read the word 'Martyr' as confirming that he was murdered at prayer.

Kanuma grant of Sadasiva (1548)

1548 CE

Five copper plates with a boar seal, held by the Collector of Anantapur and edited by S. V. Viswanatha in 1918. They record a gift by the Vijayanagara king Sadasiva in Saka 1470 (1548). He gave the village of Kanuma, in Mundimadugu sima of Gutti valita, to the god Chennakesava and thirty shares of Brahmans. The gift was made at the request of the chief Appalaraja, in the presence of the god Vitthalesvara on the Tungabhadra. Its editor called it the earliest copper-plate grant of Sadasiva then known.

Makka Darwaza inscription, Golconda (1559)

1559 CE

An inscription in Naskh script, more than 46 feet long, across the front of the Makka Darwaza (Mecca Gate) of Golconda fort. It records that the gate was built in AH 967 (1559), in the reign of Ibrahim Qutb Shah, who is named only as 'the namesake of the Friend of God'. It was built by the efforts of his minister Kamaluddin Husain, entitled Mustafa Khan, and the inscription was written by Muhammad of Isfahan.

Penukonda inscription of Channappa Nayudu (1577)

c. 1577 CE

An inscription on the south wall of the Anjaneya temple at the north gate of Penukonda fort. It is dated Saka 1499, Dhatri (1576–77), in the reign of Sriranga I. It records that Channappa Nayudu, an officer of Tirumala, built an inner fort, gates, bastions and trenches at Penukonda for Tirumala. He beat off Muslim generals in 1566–67, 1568–69 and 1576–77. The record ends by calling Penukonda a city built by a god, whose walls no man could boast of conquering. H. Krishna Sastri read it as proof that Tirumala held Penukonda before the battle of 1565.

Ahobilam inscription of Sriranga I (1584)

1584 CE

A Telugu inscription on a slab at the Narasimha temple in Lower Ahobilam, Kurnool district. It is dated Saka 1506 (1584), in the reign of Sriranga I, 'ruling at Penugonda'. V. Rangacharya summarised it in 1919. It grants rights in the temple to the chief Venkataraja, because his grandfather had driven out 'Vibhuramu', the Golconda king Ibrahim. Ibrahim had occupied the temple for seven years, in alliance with the Hande chiefs. A companion slab of 1585, of Venkatapati, records the same chief's gift to the temple.

Jami Masjid inscription, Hyderabad

1597 CE

A Persian verse inscription of AH 1006 (1597) over the door of the Jami Masjid near the Charminar. The mosque was built in the reign of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah under the minister Aminu-l-Mulk, and the inscription is signed by the calligrapher Baba Khan.

Epitaph of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Golconda (1612)

1612 CE

A Persian epitaph in Naskh script on the black basalt sarcophagus (stone coffin) of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, founder of Hyderabad, in the Qutb Shahi necropolis at Golconda. It dates his death to Saturday, 17 Zi'l-Qa'da AH 1020, and gives his age as 49 years and his reign as 31 years. Bilgrami converted the date to 11 January 1612, and T. W. Haig to 24 January 1612.

Ma Saheba tank inscriptions (1625)

c. 1625 CE

Two nearly identical Persian inscriptions in Naskh script on black stone tablets. They are in the towers at either end of the dam of the Ma Saheba tank, on the old road from Khairatabad to Golconda. They record that the tank was built by Khanum Agha, daughter of Mir Maqsud Ali Tabataba, wife of Prince Mirza Muhammad Amin and mother of Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah. In AH 1034 (1624–25) the king granted the tank to Shah Khundkar.

Musa Burj inscription, Golconda fort (1666–67)

1666–1667 CE

A Persian inscription on the Musa Burj bastion of Golconda fort, with a version in Telugu on another wall. It records the Mughal siege of 1656. Aurangzeb's commander Mir Miran was killed by a gunshot in his trench, and peace followed three days later. Abdullah Qutb Shah's commander Musa Khan then built the great bastion, finished in AH 1077 by the architect Dharmachar. The Telugu text, read by H. Krishna Sastri, dates the siege to Saka 1578 (23 January 1656) and the completion to Saka 1589 (1667).

Toli Masjid inscription (1671)

1671 CE

A Persian verse inscription in the prayer niche of the Toli Masjid, Hyderabad. It records that Musa Khan built the mosque and that it was completed in the reign of Abdullah Qutb Shah. Its chronogram (a phrase whose letters give the date) gives AH 1082 (1671). G. Yazdani edited it in 1921, in Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica for 1917–18, and Bilgrami again in 1927. A second slab in the courtyard, of AH 1043 (1633), belongs to another mosque.

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.

Famines, floods and cyclones

The disasters that the old records describe in the Telugu country before 1914: the famine of 1791–1792 in the Circars, the Guntur famine of 1832–1833, the Great Famine of 1876–1878, the famines of 1896–1900 in the Agency and the Nizam's state, the sea floods and cyclones of 1787, 1839 and 1864, and the floods of the Godavari, the Krishna and the Musi. Every figure is given as its source gives it.

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.