Srirangam inscription of Prataparudra

What it is

The inscription is on the south wall of the Chandana-mandapa in the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam, in the old Tiruchirappalli (then Trichinopoly) district.¹ It is damaged.¹ Lines 17 and 18, which held the details of the gift, are lost for good.¹ The rest was recovered after the lime plaster left by centuries of whitewashing was carefully removed.¹ The soft granite tends to flake.¹

The record matters because it shows the Kakatiya king Prataparudra taking part in a war in the Tamil country.¹ The editor called it the second war of Pandya succession.¹

Language and date

The language is Telugu, but the script is Grantha, the script better known in that region.¹ The date is Saka 1239 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the cyclic year Pingala, the fourteenth tithi (lunar day) of Chaitra, a Monday, with an eclipse of the moon.¹ The editor, V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, gave the equivalent as Monday, 28 March 1317.¹

A seven-line duplicate of part of the text is in the Jambukesvara temple at Tiruvanaikkaval, close to Srirangam.¹ E. Hultzsch had already noted, in 1892, a fragment of Prataparudra’s time in the Jambukesvara temple.² It is on the west wall of the second enclosure, in the Telugu language and the Grantha script.²

Contents

The record opens while the mahamandalesvara (great provincial lord) Kakatiya Prataparudradeva-Maharaja was ruling from his capital Orugallu (Warangal).³ Devari-nayaka, the king’s chief, was the son of Machaya-nayaka.¹ He carried the titles Kakataraya-sthapanacharya and Svamidrohara-ganda.⁴ The editor read the first title as showing that Devari-nayaka was known as the rescuer of the Kakatiya kingdom.⁴

Devari-nayaka led an expedition against the “five Pandyas” (Pancha-Pandya) in the south.³ At the battlefield of Tiruvadikunram he faced their elephants and routed Vira-Pandya and Malaiyala Tiruvadi Kulasekhara.¹³ He seized their elephants and wealth and installed Sundara-Pandya at Viradhavalam.³ To mark the victory he gave land, or perhaps a village, as a tax-free gift to last as long as the moon and the sun.¹³ The gift was evidently to the Ranganatha temple.¹³

Interpretation

Venkatasubba Ayyar identified the two Pandyas with Jatavarman Vira-Pandya and Jatavarman Sundara-Pandya, half-brothers who had fallen out. The Muslim historians Wassaf and Amir Khusrau also describe their rivalry.¹ The record is dated 1317.⁵¹ So, he argued, Malik Kafur’s raid of 1310 was a general plundering campaign, not a move in the Pandya quarrel.⁵¹

He identified the Kerala king with Ravivarman Kulasekhara of Quilon.⁶⁴ This king had crowned himself in the Pandya country, and after this defeat he is not heard of again.⁶⁴

In Venkatasubba Ayyar’s reading, Prataparudra took the chance to restore Kakatiya power in the south, which had been lost after Ganapati’s time.⁶ He sent the generals Muppidi-nayaka and Devari-nayaka.⁶ Another inscription, at Mallam in the Nellore district, records that Muppidi-nayaka conquered the Pandya king.⁶ It adds that he passed through Nellore on his way back to Orugallu.⁶ After the Kakatiya army withdrew, Vira-Pandya seems to have recovered, for his rule was accepted near Kanchipuram in 1318.⁷

The donor

Devari-nayaka’s father Machaya-nayaka was an important officer of the Kakatiya court.⁴ He held the post of gajasahini (master of the elephants).⁴ Devari-nayaka himself governed the country around Macherla (Mahadevicherla) in Saka 1237. An inscription at Darsi in the Nellore district praises him.⁴ He is recorded again in Saka 1241, at Durgi, making a gift in Prataparudra’s reign.⁴ In the editor’s account, Prataparudra ruled at Warangal from Saka 1215 to 1248, and Kakatiya power reached its height under him.⁴

Footnotes

1. V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra; Saka 1239”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 304 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

2. E. Hultzsch, “Ekamranatha Inscription of Ganapati”, Indian Antiquary XXI (1892), p. 200 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra” (1956), p. 312, text and translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra” (1956), p. 310 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

5. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra” (1956), p. 305 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

6. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra” (1956), p. 308 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Srirangam Inscription of Kakatiya Prataparudra” (1956), p. 307 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩