Durgi inscription of Gangaya-sahini

What it is

The inscription is on a slab set up in the temple of Vankesvarasvami at Durgi, in the Palnad taluk of the Guntur district. It was copied in 1909 (No. 571 of 1909).¹ It was printed as No. 334 in South Indian Inscriptions X, which dates it Saka 1173 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the cyclic year Virodhikrit.¹ Its text fills four pages of that volume.²³ It opens in Sanskrit verse and ends in Telugu prose that sets out the temple’s services and endowments.²³

Contents

The SII X abstract gives the main points.¹ Namadeva-Pandita, an agent of Gandapendaru Gangayya-sahini, consecrated an image of Vankesvara at Dugyapattana in Pallinadu.¹ He named it after his father Vayi-Pandita.¹ Gangayya-sahini endowed the temple with the village of Neypuru, east of Nagarjunakota.¹

At that time Gangayya-sahini was governing the country from Panungallu (Panugallu) to Marjavadi, in the reign of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva.¹ The record also mentions other gifts to the same temple.¹ It gives what the abstract calls a full account of the Kakatiya family.¹

Gangaya-sahini

Gangaya-sahini also appears at Tripurantakam. A record printed just before this one in SII X (No. 332) says that Gandapendaru Gangaya-sahini gave the lands of the villages of Boyalapalli and Redlapalli to the god Mulasthanadeva of Tripurantakam for the merit of Ganapatideva-Maharaja. The volume notes that the cyclic year given there, Sadharana, belongs to Saka 1172, not to the Saka year engraved.⁴⁵

M. Venkataramayya in 1958 listed him among the Kakatiya generals who bore the title Nayakanarayana.⁶⁷ He described him as a subordinate of Ganapati, named in inscriptions from 1250 onwards.⁶⁷ He also recorded that a chief called Paschimaraya-Damodara was one of his opponents.⁷ That chief, however, had not been identified.⁷

The Kakatiya genealogy

The opening verses, as printed in SII X, name Prola, his son Rudradeva, Rudradeva’s younger brother Mahadeva, and Mahadeva’s son Ganapati.² Then comes Gangaya-sahini, who is styled Gandapendara.² The donor Namadeva is described as born of the Kasyapa line and of a Kayastha family, the son of Vayi-pandita.² He is called the minister (sachiva) of Gangaya the mandalika (provincial lord).² The Telugu part provides for lamps, offerings, drummers and other musicians, an accountant and food for ascetics.³

Later history of the temple

The shrine of Vankesvara at Durgi remained a centre of patronage. In Prataparudra’s reign, in Saka 1241, the general Devari-nayaka is recorded at Durgi giving land to temples.⁸

Footnotes

1. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 171, No. 334 (text pp. 171–174) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 172, No. 334, text lines 1–46 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 174, No. 334, text lines 90–111 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. J. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 170, No. 332 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

5. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 171, note to No. 332 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

6. M. Venkataramayya, “Pushpagiri Inscription of the Time of Yadava Singhana”, Epigraphia Indica XXX (1958), p. 33, note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Venkataramayya, “Pushpagiri Inscription of the Time of Yadava Singhana” (1958), p. 35, note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra; Saka 1239”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 310 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩