Tripurantakam inscription of Ambadeva

What it is

The inscription is on a slab set up north of the dark room (Chikati-middi) in the Tripurantakesvara temple at Tripurantakam.¹ The place was then in the Markapur taluk of the Kurnool district.¹ The slab was copied in 1905 (No. 268 of 1905) and printed as No. 465 in South Indian Inscriptions X.¹

Its donor is Gandapendara Ambadeva-Maharaja.¹ According to the SII X abstract, he belonged to the Kayastha caste and had his capital at Khandikota.¹ The editor took Khandikota to be Gandikota.¹ The front of the slab is in Sanskrit verse, and from line 98 the record continues in Telugu.²

Date

The Sanskrit part gives the date in a word-numeral phrase (numbers written as words).² The date is Saka 1212 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the cyclic year Vikriti, on the fifteenth day of the dark half of Bhadrapada, a Tuesday, at a solar eclipse.² SII X gives only the Saka year and the cyclic year.¹ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dates the record to 1290.³

A shorter Telugu record of the same chief in the same temple is No. 464, also of Saka 1212, Vikriti.⁴ It is dated in the same month at a solar eclipse.⁴ It records that he set up a service of worship for Tripurantaka-Mahadeva between the morning and midday services.⁴

Contents

According to the SII X abstract, the inscription gives Ambadeva’s family line and a long list of his deeds and titles.¹ It says he cut off the heads of no fewer than 75 kings in battle.¹ It says he defeated, among others, a king Ganapatideva, Eruva Mallideva, Kesava and Mallikarjuna.¹ It also says he restored Manumaganda Gopala to the throne of Vikramasimhapura (Nellore).¹

Ambadeva confirmed all the villages and kanukas (dues) given earlier to the temple of Tripurantakesvara, and made them tax-free.¹ The temple authorities then gave the village of Gangavaram to one Nanda Sivulu, who had done most to obtain this confirmation.¹ His titles in the text include destroyer of Kadavaraya (Kadavaraya-vidhvamsana). He is described as one whose friendship was fed by the elephants and horses the Pandya kings sent him.²³

The rebellion of Ambadeva

Parabrahma Sastry read this inscription as a declaration of independence. In his account, Ambadeva’s elder brothers Jannigadeva and Tripurari had been loyal subordinates of Rudramadevi. Ambadeva succeeded them about 1272.³ He set out to carve out a state of his own, and his records never name an overlord.³

Parabrahma Sastry identified the “Ganapati” of the inscription not with the Kakatiya king but with Sripati Ganapati of Gurindala (Gurajala).³ This Ganapati was a vassal of the queen, and Ambadeva defeated him about 1273.³ Parabrahma Sastry took the boast of beheading 75 kings to refer to the queen’s nayakas (military chiefs).³

He then traced Ambadeva’s wars against the Kalukada chiefs Kesavadeva and Somideva.³⁵ Ambadeva took back the Kayastha capital Vallurupattana from them and fortified Gandikota.³⁵ He went on to kill Manu-Mallideva of Eruva.³⁵ After Vijaya Gandagopala’s death, he restored Manuma Gandagopala at Nellore.³⁵ On the way he apparently killed the Pandya ally Kopperunjinga (Kadavaraya).³⁵

On this reading, Rudramadevi’s authority south of the Krishna was overshadowed for a time.⁵⁶ The Tripurantakam inscription claims sovereignty much as the Hanamkonda inscription of 1163 had done for Rudradeva.⁵⁶

Parabrahma Sastry went further and linked the record with the Chandupatla inscription.⁶ That inscription shows that Rudramadevi and her general Mallikarjuna-nayaka had died by late November 1289.⁶ He noted that the Tripurantakam inscription boasts that Ambadeva won the kingdom of all the Andhra rulers in battle.⁷ He also noted its boast that Ambadeva destroyed the “seven limbs” of a certain Mallikarjuna.⁷ He argued that Rudramadevi, though about eighty, may have led her army against Ambadeva and died with her general.⁷

This is his inference. The SII X abstract says only that Ambadeva claimed to have defeated a Mallikarjuna.¹ An incomplete record of the next year is No. 466, of Saka 1213, Khara.⁸ It gives Ambadeva the title of destroyer of the seven limbs of Mallikarjuna (Mallikarjuna-saptanga-samharana).⁸ It also gives him titles recording gifts sent to him by the Pandya and Devagiri kings.⁸

Ambadeva’s other records

SII X prints several other records of the chief:

• One at Poli in the Rajampet taluk, of Saka 1212, refers to him as ruling with Valluru as his capital (No. 463).⁴
• No. 466, of Saka 1213, mentions him and a subordinate whose name SII X reads doubtfully as Khadeva.⁸
• No. 470, also of Saka 1213 and incomplete, seems to refer to him.⁹

Footnotes

1. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 249, No. 465 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 251, No. 465, text lines 77–107 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas and Their Times (PhD thesis, Karnatak University, 1975), pp. 172–173. Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. J. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 248, Nos. 463–464 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas and Their Times (1975), pp. 174–175. Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

6. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas and Their Times (1975), p. 175. Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas and Their Times (1975), pp. 176–177. Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 252, No. 466 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 253, No. 470 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩