A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Bezwada inscription of Kulottunga I

Tamil inscription of the 41st year of the Chola king Kulottunga I on a pillar in the verandah of the Mallesvara temple at Bezwada (Vijayawada), the same pillar that carries the Telugu verse inscription of the Eastern Chalukya Yuddhamalla. It gives Rajendra-Cholapuram as another name of Bezwada.

This short Tamil inscription at Vijayawada (then Bezwada) is dated in the 41st year of the Chola king Kulottunga I.1 It is known for one detail: it gives Rajendra-Cholapuram as another name of Vijayawada.1

The record

The Mallesvara temple at Vijayawada has a pillar in its verandah that carries several inscriptions.1 V. Rangacharya’s list of 1919 gives first the Telugu record of the Eastern Chalukya Yuddhamalla, then a record of Saka 1087 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).1 Next comes this record, No. 325 of the collection of 1892.1 He described it as “a record in the forty-first year of the Chola king Kulottunga-Choladeva (I)”.1 Its text was printed in South-Indian Inscriptions IV in 1923 as No. 779.2 See Vijayawada and the Bezwada pillar inscription of Yuddhamalla.

Bezwada under the Cholas

Kulottunga I was himself called Rajendra-Choda before he became Chola king.3 Vijayawada had been a Chola battlefield a generation earlier.4 E. Hultzsch summed up the Manimangalam inscription of Virarajendra: his army defeated the enemy “close to Visaiyavadai”, that is at Vijayawada on the Krishna.4 The Kistna District Manual (1883) calls Vijayawada “a constant halting place for all the armies”.5 It dates Chola rule there from 1028.5 See the Cholas of Tanjore.

Footnotes

  1. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 882, Kistna Nos. 75–77 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. H. Krishna Sastri (ed.), South-Indian Inscriptions (Texts), Vol. IV (1923), p. 256, No. 779 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, pt. I (1899), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 219 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (5)
  1. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 882. [Public domain]
  2. H. Krishna Sastri (ed.), South-Indian Inscriptions (Texts), Vol. IV (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras / Archaeological Survey of India, 1923, pp. 256. South-Indian Inscriptions (Texts) IV (1923), No. 779. [Public domain]
  3. E. Hultzsch (ed. and tr.); introduction to the volume by H. Krishna Sastri (1929), South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, Parts I and II: Miscellaneous Inscriptions from the Tamil Country (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras (scan of the Archaeological Survey of India facsimile reprint, 1987), 1903, pp. 65. E. Hultzsch (1899): the Manimangalam inscription of Virarajendra. [Public domain]
  4. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 219. [Public domain]
  5. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I: Tamil and Sanskrit Inscriptions (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1890, pp. 51. [Public domain]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: