Kandikonda inscription of Venna (1375)

What it is

This inscription was found on a stone lying in a field at Kandikonda, the Skandadri of the record.¹ The field lies between the fort and the earthen fort wall.¹ The record says that Venna, the ruler of Skandadri, built a temple of the god Janardana (Vishnu).¹ Venna was the son of Madhava and Tippamba, of the Recherla family.¹ He gave the temple vrittis, shares of land.¹

P. Sreenivasachar published its text in the Corpus of 1956, with photographs of its three faces.¹²³ See the Recherla Velamas.

Date

The Corpus prints the date as Saka 1207 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the year Rakshasa, the bright half of Sravana, a Thursday.¹ Its editor thought that the Saka year must be wrong.¹ Inscriptions of Venna’s father Madhava are dated in Saka 1298.¹ Those of a Dharmaraja, whom the editor took for Venna’s son, are dated in Saka 1382.¹

Epigraphia Telanganica reads the year as Saka 1297, Rakshasa, the fifth day of the bright half of Sravana.⁴ It converts the date to 2 August 1375.⁴

Contents

According to the Corpus, the record says that the Recherla family was equal to the dynasty of Raghu, though it was of the fourth caste.¹ Daca was born in this family, and he conquered the Pandya king.¹ Singa-bhupala’s wife was Singamamba.¹ They had two sons, Annavota and Madhava, and Madhava was the donor’s father.¹

Madhava is called Somakula-Parasurama.¹ Venna had been ruling in Devagiri (Devarakonda).¹ By Madhava’s order, he went to Skandagiri as its ruler.¹

Epigraphia Telanganica summarises the edition of 2016.⁴ It adds that the record calls the Recherla family the purest of the Sudra caste.⁴ The family sprang from the feet of Brahma, who was born from the lotus navel of Narayana.⁴ The record also says that Dacha married Pochambika.⁴ See Mada Nayaka and Devarakonda.

The second Kandikonda record

A second Sanskrit poem, undated, is cut on a slanting rock at the top of a small hill near the village.⁵⁶ It was published in 1974.⁵⁶ It records that Venna built a temple of the god Skandadrinatha with his consorts Uma and Ganga.⁵⁶ Its family tree begins with Singa and his two sons, Ananta and Madhava.⁵⁶ It says that Venna was given his name by a teacher, a Desika.⁵⁶

In its discussion, Epigraphia Telanganica compares the family trees of the Inavolu, Umamahesvaram and Kandikonda records with that of the Velugotivari Vamsavali.⁷⁸ It suggests that the Desika was the Vaishnava teacher Vedanta Desika.⁷⁸ The Inscriptions of Warangal District (2016), as summarised there, read the name of the family in this record as Rechadi, and the name of the teacher as Tata.⁹

Footnotes

1. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of Andhra Pradesh, Part III (1956), p. 5, No. Km. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Sreenivasachar (ed.), Corpus, Part III (1956), plate 6, faces I and II (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

3. Sreenivasachar (ed.), Corpus, Part III (1956), plate 7, face III (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 20, No. 7. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 28, No. 12. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 29, No. 12. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

7. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), pp. 29–30, No. 12. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

8. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 31, No. 12. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

9. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 32, No. 13. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩