Rachakonda inscriptions of Anapota (1365)

What they are

Three short Telugu inscriptions at Rachakonda record the building works of Anapota Nayaka.¹² He was the Recherla chief who made the hill fort his capital, and all three records are of the same day in August 1365.¹² They are the earliest dated records of the family’s rule at Rachakonda, four years before the Inavolu inscription of 1369.¹³

Their texts were printed in 1910, in the appendix to the family chronicle of the Velugoti Rajas of Venkatagiri.⁴⁵ They were edited again in the volume of inscriptions of the Nalgonda district published in 1992, which Epigraphia Telanganica summarises.¹ See Rachakonda Fort and the Recherla Velamas.

Where they are

The two editions place the stones differently.⁴⁵¹³ The 1910 appendix places them like this:⁴⁵

• one at the place called Bhairavagandi, south-east of Rachakonda⁴⁵
• one at the northern foot of the Rachakonda hill, near an image of Bhairava at the corner of a tank bund⁴⁵
• one on the hill east of the Ramaswami temple, near an image of Anjaneya⁴⁵

Epigraphia Telanganica places the first of its three on the wall near the entrance of the fort.¹³ It places the second near another gate, and the third perhaps near a Bhairava temple.¹³

Date

The records are dated in Saka 1287 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the year Visvavasu, in the dark half of the month Sravana.⁴⁵ The 1910 text of the third adds that the day was a Sunday.⁴⁵ Epigraphia Telanganica converts the date to 10 August 1365.¹

Contents

Each record opens with the same list of titles:⁴⁵¹

• Mahamandalesvara
• Andhradesadhisvara (lord of the Andhra country)
• Gajadala-vibhala (destroyer of elephant troops)
• Raya-gaya-gopala
• Pancha-Pandya-dala-vibhala (destroyer of the armies of the five Pandyas)
• Pratigandabhairava
• Bhujabala-Bhima
• Khadga-Narayana
• Kakati-rajya-sthapanacharya (establisher of the Kakatiya kingdom)
• Ashta-dikku-raya-manobhayankara (terror of the kings of the eight quarters)
• Somakula-Parasurama⁴⁵¹

The records name him as the son of Singama-nayaka and grandson of Dachi-nayaka (Eradachi-nayaka in one copy) of the Recherla family.⁴⁵¹ They say that he lived at Rajagiri and ruled the whole earth.⁴⁵¹

The fullest record lists Anapota’s works.⁵¹ He built stone fortifications and wells on the hill of Rajukonda, to the south of the tank Anapota-samudram.⁵¹ He did the same on Naganayanikonda, to the north of the tank, and raised earthen walls to the west.⁵¹ He dug the tank between the two hills for the good of all beings, and named it with his title.⁵¹

A second record repeats the account of the fortifications and adds an entrance gate.¹ The third records that Anapota set up an image of the god Pratigandabhairava in the tank Anapota-samudram, for the good of all beings.⁴³ He named the god after his own title.⁴³

All three end with the name of their writer, Chilamaraju Tippana.⁴⁵¹ He was the karanam (clerk) of Raya-gaya-gopala, that is, of the king himself.⁴⁵¹

Related records

The same appendix prints two more records of Anapota from Rachakonda.⁶⁷ One is near the image of Gannerla Bhairava on the eastern side of the town.⁶⁷ It is dated Saka 1302, the year Raudri (1380), and records a tank called Rayasamudram and another image of Pratigandabhairava.⁶⁷ The other is near an image of Ganesa by the Bhuvanagiri pass to the north.⁶⁷ It is dated Saka 1300, the year Kalayukti (1378), and breaks off after the date.⁶⁷

Alladi Jagannatha Sastri wrote a family history in 1922.⁸⁵ It dates the tank and the Pratigandabhairava temple on its bund to 1368.⁸⁵ This year does not agree with the inscriptions as printed in 1910.⁸⁵

Footnotes

1. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 17, Nos. 1–2. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

2. V. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), p. 64 and note 126. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

3. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), pp. 17–18, No. 3. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, p. 27, inscription No. 6 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

5. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, pp. 28–29, inscriptions Nos. 7 and 8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

6. Vellala Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, p. 26, inscription No. 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

7. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, p. 30, inscription No. 9 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Alladi Jagannatha Sastri, A Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas (1922), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³