Mangalagiri and Kaza pillar inscriptions (1515–1518)

These two pillar inscriptions record a grant by Salva-Timma, “the prime-minister of king Krishnaraya of Vijayanagara”.¹ They describe his capture of Kondavidu, which Luders dated to “Saturday, the 23rd June, A.D. 1515”.¹² Most of the text lists the gifts of his nephews Appa and Gopa.²³

Two pillars, one text

H. Luders edited both inscriptions in 1901, from inked estampages (ink copies on paper) sent to him by E. Hultzsch.⁴ “The first is engraved on the four faces of a pillar lying on the ground near the steps leading to the temple on the hill at Mangalagiri”.⁴ Mangalagiri is “12 miles north-east of Guntur in the Kistna district”.⁴ The pillar “contains 257 lines of writing.”⁴

At the top of the fourth face is a picture of the sun and the moon.⁴ The alphabet is Telugu, and Luders described it in detail.⁴ “The language is Sanskrit, and the whole text is in verse”.¹ Only the opening and closing words and a few explanatory remarks are in Telugu.¹

The second inscription is also in Telugu letters.⁵ It “is engraved on the four faces of a pillar lying in the temple of Kodandaramasvamin at Kaza, 9 miles north-east of Guntur”.⁵ It has 258 lines.⁵ Luders wrote that “with the exception of the last verse … the whole text of the inscription is identical with that of the Mangalagiri inscription. Only the order of the verses differs.”⁵ See Mangalagiri.

Saluva Timma and the fall of Kondavidu

In Luders’s words, “The proper object of the inscription is to record a grant by Salva-Timma, the prime-minister of king Krishnaraya of Vijayanagara.”¹ It opens with prayers to Vishnu, among them to Vishnu as lord of Kakula, which Luders took for Srikakulam in the Krishna (then Kistna) district.¹ Then come verses on the king.¹ These contain “no historical information besides the statement that ‘king Krishna’s pillar of victory is shining in the court of Kalinga,’”.¹ Luders called this “an allusion to his conquest of the eastern coast”.¹

The minister is then praised.¹ He was of the Kaundinya gotra (clan), son of the minister Racha and grandson of the minister Vema.¹ His wife was named Lakshmi.¹ Two verses describe his conquest of Kondaviti, that is Kondavidu.¹

One verse says that he captured “the swan-like kings appointed by Gajapati in Kondaviti”.⁶ From this, Luders concluded that Kondavidu was then governed by chiefs under the Gajapatis of Orissa.⁶ See Saluva Timma, Kondavidu and the Gajapatis.

Luders compared the inscription with the Portuguese chronicle of Nuniz.⁶ In Nuniz, Krishnaraya besieged Kondavidu and defeated the king of Orissa on the bank of a great river.⁶ He took the fortress after two months, and made Saluva Timma its governor.⁶ Luders judged that the chronicle “has the appearance of being, on the whole, perfectly reliable”.⁶ He thought the inscription gives the credit to Saluva Timma alone “only because he was the general in command of the Vijayanagara forces”.⁶

J. A. C. Boswell had reported a local tradition about the capture.² In it, Krishnaraya took the fort by having a Brahman lure the seventy-two Reddi chiefs into a temple and throw them one by one into a well.² Luders rejected this: “the story, as it stands, is incompatible with the historical facts”.² He added that “local traditions and local chronicles, by themselves, have no historical value, even when they refer to events of comparatively modern times.”²

The date of the capture “is given several times, expressed in words, letters and figures.”² In Luders’s words, “It took place on Saturday, the Harivasara of the bright half of the month Ashadha in the Saka year 1437”.² Using F. Kielhorn’s calculation, Luders equated this with “Saturday, the 23rd June, A.D. 1515”.² The Amaravati inscription of Krishnaraya gives the same day for the king’s tulapurusha gift at Amaravati (a gift of his own weight in gold).⁷ See the Amaravati inscription and the Kondavidu fort.

Nadindla Appa and Gopa

The rest of the text belongs to two brothers, Appa and Gopa.² They were sons of the minister Timma of the Nadindla family and of Krishnamba, the sister of Saluva Timma.²

One verse lists what Nadindla Appa received from the king and the minister:⁸

• a palanquin, two chauris (fly-whisks) and a parasol⁸
• the command of an army⁸
• the charge “of Vinikonda, Gutti and Amaravati”⁸
• the sole governorship of the kingdom⁸

Other verses give Gopa the governorship of the town and country of Kondaviti.⁸ Luders explained the difference by supposing that Appa was placed at Kondavidu straight after its capture.⁸ Later, when Saluva Timma settled the province, Gopa took Kondavidu and Appa received Vinukonda, Gooty and Amaravati.⁸ See the Kondavidu pillar inscription of 1520, which shows Gopa still governing Kondavidu.

Appa’s gifts fill the longest section.³ Of nineteen grants, “six were made in Saka 1438, ten in Saka 1439, one in Saka 1440, whereas one … lies as far back as Saka 1414”.³ Luders thought this last date open to grave doubt.³ The villages lie in the old Vinukonda, Narasaraopet, Guntur, Bapatla, Vijayawada (then Bezwada), Ongole and perhaps Palnad taluks.³

In Saka 1438 (1516–17; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), Appa made gifts to the temple of Hari, the lord of Mangalasaila.⁹ He gave it “a solid temple (prasada), adorned with nine golden pinnacles (kumbha), and a beautiful large hall (mantapa)”.⁹ He “gave also the village of Mangalasaila to the temple of Nrisimha.”⁹ Luders added: “Mangalasaila is, of course, identical with Mangalagiri, where the inscription was found.”⁹

In Saka 1440 (1518–19), Appa built a large hall for the temple of Agastya-Mahesvara at Kranja, “the modern Kaza, 9 miles north-east of Guntur”.¹⁰ He did this for the merit of Saluva Timma and his wife Lakshmi.¹⁰ The last verse of the Mangalagiri text records that Saluva Timma himself gave the village of Kondakavuri, 8 miles south of Narasaraopet, to a temple.⁵

Footnotes

1. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 109 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

2. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 111 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 113 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. H. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions of the time of Krishnaraya of Vijayanagara”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 108 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 116 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 110 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. H. Luders, “Amaravati Inscription of Krishnaraya of Vijayanagara; Saka-Samvat 1437”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

8. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 112 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

9. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. Luders, “Two Pillar Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 114 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²