People

Chandragupta Maurya

c. 322 BCE – 296 BCE

Founder of the Maurya empire (reigned c. 322–296 BCE). His empire probably did not reach the Telugu country, but Megasthenes, the Greek envoy at his court, described the Andhras and the Kalingas as powerful peoples with kings and armies of their own.

Bindusara

c. 296 BCE – 268 BCE

Second Maurya emperor (reigned c. 296–268 BCE), son of Chandragupta and father of Asoka. Later writers believed he carried Mauryan rule into the south. But no record says when the Telugu country came under the empire.

Asoka

c. 268 BCE – 226 BCE

Third Maurya emperor (3rd century BCE). His edicts at Erragudi and Rajula-Mandagiri in Kurnool district are among the oldest written records found in Andhra Pradesh. His Kalinga war reached the coast north of the Godavari, and his Rock Edict XIII names the Andhras.

Simuka

c. 220 BCE – 197 BCE

Founder of the Satavahana dynasty, named on a label over a carving at Nanaghat in the western Ghats. The Puranas call him the first Andhra king. A tradition of the Telugu country, recorded by James Burgess, gave a legendary founder a first capital at Srikakulam on the Krishna. Depending on the scholar, his dates range from the late 3rd to the 1st century BCE.

Sri Satakarni

c. 179 BCE – 169 BCE

Third Satavahana king and husband of Queen Nayanika of the Nanaghat inscriptions. He was probably the Satakarni whom Kharavela of Kalinga defied in the Hathigumpha inscription. Nothing of his is known from the Telugu country, but Kharavela's campaign is said to have reached the Krishna.

Gautamiputra Satakarni

c. 113–138 CE

Satavahana king of the early 2nd century CE. He overthrew the Kshaharata satrap Nahapana and won back the western Deccan. His deeds are known mainly from the Nasik cave inscription set up by his mother, Gautami Balasri. Whether he also ruled the Krishna valley is disputed.

Vasishthiputra Pulumavi

c. 138–170 CE

Son and successor of Gautamiputra Satakarni, and the earliest Satavahana king named in an inscription from the lower Krishna valley. He lost much of the western Deccan to the Saka satrap Rudradaman, who was probably his father-in-law. A King Pulumavi is also named in a rock inscription at Myakadoni in Bellary district.

Siva Sri Satakarni

c. 170–177 CE

Satavahana king of the later 2nd century CE. He is known almost only from lead coins found in the Krishna and Godavari districts, among them examples from Gudivada. He was probably a successor, perhaps a brother, of Vasishthiputra Pulumavi.

Yajna Sri Satakarni

c. 184–213 CE

Late Satavahana king of the later 2nd century CE, the last whose inscriptions and coins are found in both the western Deccan and the Krishna–Godavari country. His Chinna inscription, from the coast south of the Krishna, is dated in his 27th year. His silver coins bear what E. J. Rapson in 1908 called the only known coin-portrait of a Satavahana king.

Chandra Sri Satakarni

c. 219–229 CE

Satavahana king, called Vasishthiputra Chandra Sati on his lead coins from the Krishna and Godavari districts. A rock inscription at Kodavali near Pithapuram calls him Chandasati. Scholars disagree whether he reigned soon after Pulumavi or near the end of the dynasty, and whether two kings of the name are involved.

Vasishthiputra Chamtamula

c. 225–255 CE

First known king of the Ikshvakus of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda). His descendants' inscriptions remember him as a performer of the horse sacrifice and other Vedic rites, while the women of his family founded the Buddhist monuments of the Krishna valley. His reign ended before about 255; D. C. Sircar had dated it to about 223–240.

Sivaskandavarman (Pallava)

c. 250–275 CE

Earliest Pallava king known from his own charters. As crown prince he sent the Mayidavolu plates from Kanchipura to his officer at Dhannakada (Amaravati), granting a village in Andhrapatha, the Telugu country. As king he issued the Hirahadagalli plates and claimed the horse sacrifice. His date is disputed: from the early 3rd century to the middle of the 4th.

Virapurushadatta

c. 255–275 CE

Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (3rd century CE). In his reign the women of the royal family rebuilt the Great Stupa at Nagarjunakonda, and founded shrines and monasteries for Buddhist monks, including monks from Sri Lanka. His records run to his 20th regnal year, and one is dated in a cyclic year equated with 273–74. D. C. Sircar dated his reign to about 255–275.

Vijaya-Skandavarman (Pallava)

c. 275–340 CE

Pallava king in whose reign the queen Charudevi, wife of the crown prince Vijaya-Buddhavarman, granted land to a temple of Narayana. Her Prakrit grant was found near Guntur and is now in the British Museum. It is the only record of his reign. Scholars disagree whether he was the same man as Sivaskandavarman of the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli plates.

Ehuvula Chamtamula

c. 280–335 CE

Third known Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda), son of Virapurushadatta. His records run to his 24th regnal year. In his reign a prince and a noble built the earliest dated Shiva temples in the valley. Queens, bankers and lay Buddhists went on giving gifts to its monasteries. D. C. Sircar dated his reign to about 280–335.

Devavarman (Salankayana)

c. 320–345 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi. He is known from a Prakrit grant of his 13th year addressed to the villagers of Ellore, in which he calls himself a performer of the horse sacrifice and a devotee of Shiva. His place in the family is unknown. Scholars have made him a son of Hastivarman, an earlier king (perhaps Hastivarman's father), and a successor of Nandivarman I.

Vishnugopa of Kanchi

c. 325–350 CE

King of Kanchi named in the Allahabad pillar inscription of the Gupta emperor Samudragupta, among the southern kings whom he captured and released, about the middle of the 4th century. Most scholars take him for a Pallava. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil argued that the meeting took place near the Krishna, where Vishnugopa led an alliance of eastern kings, not at Kanchi.

Rudrapurushadatta

c. 335–346 CE

Fourth and last known Ikshvaku king of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda), son of Ehuvula Chamtamula. He was identified in 1955–56 from a memorial pillar of his 11th regnal year. D. C. Sircar thought his reign ended before about 350, when the Pallavas took the Krishna–Guntur region.

Hastivarman (Salankayana)

c. 345–370 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, the earliest king in the family list of his family's copper-plate grants, which praise him for victories in many battles. Since 1926 most scholars have identified him with the Hastivarman of Vengi whom the Gupta emperor Samudragupta claims to have captured and released in the mid-4th century. Older works took that king for a Pallava viceroy.

Nandivarman I (Salankayana)

c. 370–395 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, son of Hastivarman and father of Chandavarman and Hastivarman II. A Prakrit grant of his 14th year, found at Kanukollu and published in 1960, is the only record of his own. Its editor dated it to the close of the 3rd century, but D. C. Sircar placed it about the middle of the 4th.

Chandavarman (Salankayana)

c. 395–420 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, son of Nandivarman I and father of Nandivarman II. He is known only from his son's grants, which say that subordinate rulers bowed to his power. He has often been confused with Chandavarman, a 5th-century king of Kalinga who issued the Komarti plates.

Nandivarman II (Salankayana)

c. 420–445 CE

Salankayana king of Vengi, eldest son of Chandavarman, and the best-documented king of the dynasty. The Kolleru plates of his 7th year, the Peddavegi plates of his 10th and probably one of the Kanteru grants are his. He called himself a parama-bhagavata (devout worshipper of the Lord) and gave land to a temple of Vishnu. Most scholars date him to the first half or middle of the 5th century.

Kumaravishnu II (Pallava)

c. 425–450 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi known from the Chendalur plates. He issued them from Kanchipura in the second year of his reign, granting land in the village of Chendalura in Karmarashtra, in the present Prakasam district. Where he belongs in the Pallava line is disputed: before Simhavarman, according to Jouveau-Dubreuil, or between Simhavarman and Simhavishnu, according to Hultzsch.

Skandavarman II (Pallava)

c. 450–475 CE

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, known from the first Omgodu grant, issued from Tambrapa in the 33rd year of his reign. The grant gives his ancestors back to a Kumaravishnu, who performed the horse sacrifice. He was the father of the crown prince Vishnugopa and the grandfather of Simhavarman, whose grants come from the same region.

Vishnugopa (Pallava crown prince)

c. 475–500 CE

Pallava prince of the Nellore–Guntur line, son of Skandavarman II and father of Simhavarman. As crown prince (yuvamaharaja) he issued the Uruvupalli grant from Palakkada, dated in the 11th year of a king Simhavarman, giving land to a temple at Kandukura. Scholars disagree whether he ever reigned, and who the Simhavarman of his grant was.

Madhavavarman (Vishnukundin)

c. 535–585 CE

The most famous Vishnukundin king. His own and his descendants' grants credit him with eleven horse sacrifices and a thousand agnishtoma rites. He married into the Vakataka royal family. Whether he was also Madhavavarman Janashraya, the son of Govindavarman and donor of the first Ipur and the Polamuru plates, is disputed: D. C. Sircar and V. V. Mirashi thought so, while other scholars made Janashraya a later king, Madhavavarman III. His date is also disputed: Sircar placed him about 535–585, Mirashi about 510–560.

Dhananjaya (Telugu Chola)

c. 575 CE

Telugu Chola ruler of Renandu in the Kadapa country, whom his editors date to about 575. As Erikal-Muturaju Dhananjaya he is named in the Kalamalla pillar inscription, one of the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. As Dhananjayavarman, youngest son of Nandivarman, he heads the line of Punyakumara in the Malepadu plates.

Madhavavarman II (Vishnukundin)

c. 585–615 CE

Vishnukundin king, son of Devavarman and grandson of the great Madhavavarman. He is known from the second set of Ipur plates, issued from [Ama]rapura. The grant calls him lord of the Trikuta and Malaya mountains. Scholars have read this claim as an empty boast, as evidence of a western Vishnukundin realm, or as the name of a local hill. His place in the line and his date are disputed.

Mahendravarman I

c. 600–630 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi (about 600–630), son of Simhavishnu. In his reign the Chalukya Pulakesin II took Vengi and the Pallava provinces of the Guntur and Nellore country, though Mahendravarman defended Kanchi. Some of his surnames in his cave inscriptions in the Tamil country are Telugu. This led Jouveau-Dubreuil to argue that his family and his cave style came from the Telugu country.

Mahendravikrama (Telugu Chola)

c. 600 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu, son of Dhananjaya and father of Punyakumara, the first of his line to take the title Chola-Maharaja. His name copies that of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I, and his editors placed him about 600. Short Telugu stone records of a 'Chola-Maharaja' at Uruturu and Indukuru are assigned to him.

Pulakesin II

c. 609–642 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (609–642), the son of Kirtivarman I. His Aihole inscription of 634–35 says that he humbled the Kalingas and Kosalas, took the fortress of Pishtapura (Pithapuram), ravaged 'the water of Kunala' (taken to be the Kolleru lake) and drove the Pallava king behind the walls of Kanchi. He gave the conquered Vengi country to his younger brother Vishnuvardhana, the founder of the Eastern Chalukyas. His Kopparam plates of about 631 grant land in the Guntur country. He died when the Pallava Narasimhavarman I took Badami, probably in 642.

Kubja Vishnuvardhana

c. 615–633 CE

Younger brother of the Chalukya king Pulakesin II of Badami and founder of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty of Vengi. He served his brother as heir-apparent and governed the newly conquered east coast. He became an independent king there by 632 at the latest. His reign is usually dated 615–633, but scholars have put the start of his rule in Vengi anywhere from about 605 to after 631.

Indravarman (Vishnukundin)

c. 625–655 CE

Vishnukundin king, called Indrabhattarakavarman in his son's Chikkulla plates, who issued the Ramatirtham plates near Vizianagaram in his 27th year. His grants praise his victories with war elephants. Most scholars identify him with the Indrabhattaraka against whom a group of kings fought, according to the Godavari plates of Prithivimula. His date depends on the disputed Vishnukundin chronology: about 469–496, 535, 570–600 and 625–655 have all been proposed.

Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu and Hiranyarashtra, the best-documented ruler of the family. He is known from two sets of Sanskrit copper plates (Malepadu, fifth year; Dommara-Nandyala, tenth year) and from Telugu stone records at Tippaluru, Ramesvaram and Veludurti. His titles imitate those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I. Editors have dated him about 625, about 740 and near the end of the 8th century.

Narasimhavarman I

c. 630–668 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi (about 630–668), son of Mahendravarman I, called Mahamalla and Vatapikonda, 'conqueror of Vatapi'. He defeated the Chalukya Pulakesin II and took the Chalukya capital Badami (Vatapi). The Telugu provinces lost in his father's reign were not recovered, and the Chalukya Vikramaditya I, whose grants reach the Nellore country, fought him and his successors.

Jayasimha I

c. 633–663 CE

Second Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (about 633–663), the eldest son of Kubja Vishnuvardhana. Four copper-plate grants of his are known, issued from Udayapura and Asanapura and granting villages in the Krishna–Godavari country to Brahmins. Most later records give him a reign of 33 years, one gives 30, and the scholars who fixed the chronology disagreed over which to follow.

Vikramaditya I (Chalukya of Badami)

c. 655–680 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (about 655–680), a son of Pulakesin II. He restored the kingdom after the Pallavas took Badami, fought three Pallava kings and took Kanchi. His copper-plate grants come from the Telugu country: Amudalapadu and Gadwal in today's Telangana, the Kurnool district, Talamanchi near Nellore, and Hyderabad. His Amudalapadu plates of 660 record his initiation into the Shaiva faith. A queen of his installed a linga at Alampur.

Vikramendravarman II (Vishnukundin)

c. 655–670 CE

Vishnukundin king, eldest son of Indravarman, who issued the Chikkulla plates from Lendulura (Denduluru near Vengi) in his 10th year, giving a village on the Krishna to a Shiva temple. The plates say he took up the government as a child. Some scholars identify him with the Vikramahendra of the Polamuru plates, the grandfather of the last known Vishnukundin king; D. C. Sircar did not. Sircar dated him about 655–670, and the scheme printed by Sewell in 1932 about 496–521.

Vishnuvardhana II (Eastern Chalukya)

663–672 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (663–672), son of Indra-Bhattaraka and nephew of Jayasimha I, who may have adopted him. Two of his grants are the earliest Eastern Chalukya records whose dates can be worked out to the day. J. F. Fleet built the chronology of the whole dynasty on them. His son Mangi-yuvaraja followed him, and Mangi-yuvaraja's grant of 673 was found at Chendalur in the Ongole country.

Paramesvaravarman I

c. 670–690 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi in the later 7th century, son of Mahendravarman II and grandson of Narasimhavarman I. He fought the Chalukya Vikramaditya I, who took Kanchi in his reign and was later driven back. His Vunna Guravayapalem plates, issued from Kanchipura in his 19th year and dated by D. C. Sircar to December 687, grant a village in the Podili–Kandukur country of Nellore.

Mangi-yuvaraja

c. 672–696 CE

Fifth king of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (about 672–696), son of Vishnuvardhana II. His own grants call him Sarvalokasraya, 'asylum of all mankind', and his seal Vijayasiddhi. Only the later grants give the name Mangi-yuvaraja, and no source explains why the title yuvaraja stuck to it. Two of his grants survive; one of them, from Chendalur in the Ongole country, is dated 6 May 673. Three of his sons reigned after him: Jayasimha II, Kokkili and Vishnuvardhana III.

Narasimhavarman II

c. 690–715 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi about 700, son of Paramesvaravarman I, also called Rajasimha, builder of the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram. His Reyuru grant, kept in the archives of the Raja of Kalahasti, gives a village in Mel-Mundarashtra, which P. B. Desai placed in the Atmakur taluk of Nellore. Desai suggested that he or his father had won back part of the Nellore country from the Eastern Chalukyas.

Jayasimha II (Eastern Chalukya)

c. 696–709 CE

Sixth king of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (about 696–709), eldest son of Mangi-yuvaraja. The later grants give him a reign of thirteen years. His only known grant comes from Penukaparu in the Karma-rashtra district and calls him Sakalalokasraya Jayasimha-Vallabha. Its seal shows that he shared the surname Sarvasiddhi with Jayasimha I. After him the throne passed briefly to his half-brother Kokkili and then to his brother Vishnuvardhana III.

Vikramaditya II (Telugu Chola)

c. 700 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu, placed about 700 by his editors. He is known from stone records at Chilamakuru and Nallacheruvupalle, and from the Malepadu stone of his son Satyaditya. His queen Cholamahadevi ruled at Chilamakuru with their son Uttamaditya, who succeeded him. Whether 'Saktikumara' was his father or part of his own name is disputed.

Vishnuvardhana III (Eastern Chalukya)

709–746 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (709–746), son of Mangi-yuvaraja. He took the throne by expelling his younger half-brother Kokkili and reigned for 37 years. His grants name two queens, and one of them, a renewal of an older gift to a Jain temple at Bezwada, is the earliest mention of Jains in the dynasty's records. A Pallava record claims that a general of Nandivarman II drove an enemy out of his kingdom.

Nandivarman II Pallavamalla

c. 717–779 CE

Pallava king of Kanchi for more than sixty years in the 8th century. He came from a side branch of the family descended from Simhavishnu's brother Bhimavarman, and was chosen king as a boy after the death of Paramesvaravarman II. His general Udayachandra drove a Nishada chief out of the land of 'Vishnuraja', identified with the Eastern Chalukya Vishnuvardhana III. An inscription of his 15th year at Mallam in the Gudur taluk shows Pallava rule in southern Nellore.

Vijayaditya Chola (Telugu Chola)

c. 750 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu known from a single damaged stone at Chamaluru, dated in his 22nd year. He bore the supreme title Prithvivallabha, and a Bana king ruled Pambuliggi under him. His editors placed him about 750. They read the record as the family's recovery of Renandu from Bana chiefs who had served the Chalukyas of Badami.

Vinayaditya-Yuddhamalla I (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

c. 750–775 CE

Founder of the Chalukya family of Vemulavada in the 8th century. The family's records say that he ruled the Sapadalaksha country, bathed his elephants in tanks filled with oil at Podana (Bodhan) and took the fort of Chitrakuta. N. Venkataramanayya dated him to about 750–775, and thought he served the Rashtrakuta Dantidurga in his northern wars. His sons were Arikesari I, who conquered Vengi, and Biragriha, named in the Kuruvagatta inscription.

Dantidurga

c. 753–756 CE

Rashtrakuta king (about 753–756) who overthrew the Chalukyas of Badami and founded the Rashtrakuta supremacy of the Deccan. His Samangad grant of January 754 says that he won the sovereignty by conquering the Chalukya 'Vallabha'. An inscription at Ellora lists among the rulers he subdued those of Kalinga, Kosala and the Srisaila country, which J. F. Fleet took to be the Kurnool country.

Vishnuvardhana IV (Eastern Chalukya)

764–799 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (764–799), son of Vijayaditya I and father of Vijayaditya II. His reign saw the first recorded clashes with the Rashtrakutas of the western Deccan: a Rashtrakuta grant of 770–71 claims that Govinda II humbled the lord of Vengi, while a later record has Govinda II calling the king of Vengi to his aid. Historians read these records in different ways.

Govinda III (Rashtrakuta)

c. 793–814 CE

Rashtrakuta king (about 793–814), son of Dhruva, under whom the dynasty's power reached from the Vindhyas to the Tungabhadra. His Radhanpur plates of 808 say that the lord of Vengi, the Eastern Chalukya Vijayaditya II, came at his command and built an enclosure for him like a servant. An undated inscription at Kuruvagattu in the Mahbubnagar district names him as the friend of a Chalukya prince. A shrine of the Sun at Alampur was built for the prosperity of a king Prabhutavarsha who may be Govinda III.

Vijayaditya II Narendra-mrigaraja

c. 799–843 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (799–843 in Fleet's chronology), the first of the dynasty to use the full imperial titles. His family's records say he fought 108 battles against the Gangas and the Rashtrakutas over twelve years and founded 108 temples of Shiva. Rashtrakuta records say that Govinda III made the king of Vengi build the walls of his city. The later grants give his reign as 40, 41, 44 or 48 years.

Amoghavarsha I

c. 814–878 CE

Rashtrakuta king (814–about 878), son of Govinda III, who reigned for more than sixty years and made Manyakheta (Malkhed) the capital of the dynasty. His records claim the homage of the king of Vengi and a victory over the Eastern Chalukyas at Vingavalli. Kannada inscriptions of his reign have been found in the Medak and Warangal districts of Telangana.

Gunaga Vijayaditya III

c. 844–888 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (c. 844–888). His records claim victories over the Gangas, the Nolamba king Mangi, a chief Sankila of Dahala and the Rashtrakuta Krishna, and the burning of Kiranapura and Chakrakuta. Historians have seen him both as the man who sacked the Rashtrakuta capital and as a Rashtrakuta vassal. His general Pandaranga is praised in one of the earliest Telugu verse inscriptions.

Pandaranga

c. 844–888 CE

Army commander of the Eastern Chalukya king Gunaga Vijayaditya III in the second half of the 9th century, praised in the Telugu verse inscription at Addanki. Later grants credit him with burning Kiranapura, the home of the Rashtrakuta Krishna II and his ally Sankila. He was the executor of his king's grants, and his descendants held the office of Katakaraja under the later kings.

Baddega I Soladaganda (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

c. 850–895 CE

Chalukya king of Vemulavada in the later 9th century, a feudatory of the Rashtrakutas. Pampa and the Parbhani plates praise him as the hero of forty-two battles, called Soladaganda ('the undefeated hero'), who seized a king named Bhima 'as if catching a crocodile' in water. Historians identify Bhima with the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I. N. Venkataramanayya dated his reign to about 850–895.

Krishna II (Rashtrakuta)

c. 878–914 CE

Rashtrakuta king (about 878–914), son of Amoghavarsha I. The Eastern Chalukya Gunaga Vijayaditya III claimed to have frightened him and burnt his city, and a Rashtrakuta grant admits that his enemies once abandoned his capital. Later Eastern Chalukya records in turn admit that his army overran Vengi until Chalukya-Bhima I won it back. A Kannada record of 907 in his reign has been found at Velmajala in Telangana.

Mahendra I (Nolamba)

c. 878–904 CE

The most powerful king of the Nolamba-Pallavas, son of Polalchora Nolambadhiraja and the Ganga princess Jayabbe. His records run from Saka 800 (878–79), and a pillar at Kambaduru in Anantapur is dated in his reign in Saka 805 (883). He invaded Pulinadu, the country of the Banas round Punganur, and called himself 'destroyer of the Mahabali race'. After a quarrel with his Ganga overlords he was defeated by Butuga and killed by the Ganga prince Ereyappa, before about 904.

Ganda-Trinetra (Vaidumba)

c. 885 CE

Vaidumba Maharaja of the Renandu country in the late 9th century, known from hero-stones near Madanapalle in early Telugu and Kannada. Three of them were edited by R. S. Panchamukhi in 1938. They place him in the wars against the Nolamba king Mahendra and the Gangas, culminating in the battle at Soremati, where he fought on the side of the Bana king Vijayaditya II. The battle has been dated about 877–78, about 885 and 900.

Chalukya-Bhima I

c. 888–918 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (888–918 in Fleet's and Sewell's reckoning), nephew and successor of Gunaga Vijayaditya III. His records say he won back the Vengi country after the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II had overrun it. A young son of his fell in battle against the Rashtrakuta army. He built the Siva temple of Chalukya-Bhimesvara, which gave its name to Bhimavaram near Kakinada (then Cocanada).

Vijayaditya II Prabhumeru (Bana)

c. 898–909 CE

Bana king of the country west of the Andhra road (the Chittoor country), also called Prabhumeru, Vira-Chulamani and Mahavali-Vanaraya. He was the son of Vikramaditya Jayameru (Banavidyadhara) and the father of Vikramaditya II, donor of the Gudimallam plates. His stone records at Gudimallam and in the Kolar country are dated Saka 820, 827 and 831 (898, 905 and 909), with no overlord named. He drove back the Nolamba invasion of Pulinadu and fought, with the Vaidumbas, at Soremati.

Pampa (Adi Pampa)

902 CE

Kannada poet, born in 902 into a Brahmana family from the Vengi country that had become Jaina. At the court of the Chalukya king Arikesari II of Vemulavada he wrote the Adipurana and the Vikramarjunavijaya or 'Pampa Bharata' (941). In the second poem he made his patron the epic hero Arjuna. A rock inscription of his younger brother Jinavallabha on the Bommala Gutta at Kurikyal, near Karimnagar, gives his family and the village the king granted him.

Narasimha II (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

c. 915–930 CE

Chalukya king of Vemulavada, a feudatory of the Rashtrakutas, who ruled from about 915 to 930. Pampa and the Vemulavada inscription of his son Arikesari II credit him with victories over the Latas, the 'Seven Malavas' and the Gurjara-Pratihara king Mahipala, and with a pillar of victory at Kalapriya. N. Venkataramanayya held that he won them as the commander of the Rashtrakuta Indra III's northern campaign of about 916.

Amma I

c. 918–925 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (918–925), grandson of Chalukya-Bhima I. He came to the throne against a conspiracy of his own relatives allied with the Rashtrakutas. His surname Raja-Mahendra led J. F. Fleet to suggest that Rajahmundry (Rajamahendrapuram) was named after him. His death in 925 opened nine years of civil war among the branches of the dynasty. His son Beta-Vijayaditya V, deposed as a child, founded the line of the Chalukya princes of Pithapuram.

Yuddhamalla II

c. 927–934 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (about 927–934) of the junior line descended from Yuddhamalla I. He seized the throne during the civil war that followed the death of Amma I in 925, and held it for seven years until Chalukya-Bhima II drove him out. A Telugu verse inscription on a pillar at Vijayawada (then Bezwada), recording a temple of Kumarasvamin and a monastery for Saiva ascetics, is attributed to him or to his grandfather. His sons Badapa and Tala II later tried to win back the throne with Rashtrakuta help.

Arikesari II (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

c. 930–955 CE

Chalukya king of Vemulavada in today's Karimnagar district, a feudatory of the Rashtrakutas, who ruled from about 930 to about 955. He was the patron of the Kannada poet Pampa, who made him the hero of his Vikramarjunavijaya (941). His pillar inscription at Vemulavada gives the family line and records a gift to a Sun temple in his capital, Lembulavataka. He sheltered a Chalukya prince named Bijja from the Rashtrakuta king Govinda IV, and helped bring Govinda's uncle Baddega (Amoghavarsha III) to the throne.

Chalukya-Bhima II

c. 934–945 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (about 934–945), called Rajabhima, a son of Vijayaditya IV. He ended the civil war that followed the death of his half-brother Amma I by driving out Yuddhamalla II. His grants list a long series of enemies he overcame, among them an army of the Rashtrakuta Govinda IV and Nolamba and Ganga princes of the Mysore country. He was the father of the kings Amma II and Danarnava.

Krishna III (Rashtrakuta)

c. 939–966 CE

Rashtrakuta king (about 939–966), the most powerful of the line, who took Kanchi and Tanjore from the Cholas. In the Telugu country he held most of the Cuddapah country through the Vaidumba chiefs, and the Nolamba chiefs of Anantapur served under him. The Eastern Chalukya pretender Badapa sought his help to drive Amma II out of Vengi. Inscriptions of his reign or of his feudatories have been found at Chennur, Mallikarjunapalli, Minambaram and Inavolu in Telangana.

Iriva-Nolamba (Dilipa)

c. 943–966 CE

Nolamba-Pallava king, younger son of Ayyapa and grandson of Mahendra I, who succeeded his brother Anniga after the Rashtrakuta Krishna III defeated Anniga in 940. B. Lewis Rice gives him dates from 943 to 966. The genealogy on the Hemavati pillar ends with him, in a record of Saka 864 (942–43), and a record of his reign stands below the tank at Hindupur. The Vaidumbas served him, and a Bana chief ruled a district under him in 961. His grandson Polalchora set up a pillar at Kambaduru in 965.

Amma II

945–970 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (945–970), son of Chalukya-Bhima II and Lokamahadevi. He was crowned as a boy on 5 December 945, the first firmly dated event in the dynasty's history. About 956 the Rashtrakuta Krishna III, backing the claims of Yuddhamalla II's son Badapa, invaded Vengi and Amma went to Kalinga. Whether he fled or fought, and whether his half-brother Danarnava then ruled in his name or in his own, is disputed. His many grants include gifts to Jain temples and to a Kalamukha Saiva community at Bezwada.

Badapa

c. 956 CE

Eastern Chalukya prince of the junior line, son of Yuddhamalla II and elder brother of Tala II. In his Arumbaka plates he claimed to have driven Amma II out of Vengi with the help of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III, and he took the imperial titles. Scholars disagree whether he ruled for a short time about 956 in the Velanandu district, or for the 27 years that the later grants call an interregnum (a gap in rule).

Tala II

c. 956 CE

Eastern Chalukya prince of the junior line, also called Vishnuvardhana, son of Yuddhamalla II and younger brother of Badapa. His only known grant, the Sripundi plates, made 'during the period of his rule', gives a small village in the Velanandu district to a minister whose father had died in his service. Its seal reads Tribhuvanasimha instead of the family's Tribhuvanankusa. This led both its editors to doubt that he ruled from the throne of Vengi.

Somadeva Suri

959–966 CE

Jaina scholar and Sanskrit author of the 10th century. He finished his prose-and-verse romance, the Yasastilaka, in 959 at Gangadhara, in the territory of Vagaraja, eldest son of the Chalukya king Arikesari II of Vemulavada. At that time the Rashtrakuta Krishna III was in camp at Melpati. In 966 Arikesari III gave him a village for the Subhadhama Jinalaya, a Jaina temple at Vemulavada.

Arikesari III (Chalukya of Vemulavada)

c. 966–973 CE

Last known Chalukya king of Vemulavada, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta Krishna III. His Parbhani copper plates of 7 April 966 give a village in the Sabbi Thousand to the Jaina scholar Somadeva Suri for the Subhadhama Jinalaya, a temple built by his father at the capital, Vemulavada. An inscription at Repaka of 968 names him as builder of a Jaina temple. The family's rule ended when the Chalukyas of Kalyani took Telangana in the years up to 973.

Danarnava

970–973 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (970–973), elder half-brother of Amma II and son of Chalukya-Bhima II. While Amma II was away in Kalinga about 956, he held the kingdom with the support of the Rashtrakuta Krishna III. His Mangallu grant, made at the request of the Kakatiya chief Gundyana, is the earliest record to name the Kakatiya family. The later records say that after his three-year reign Vengi was without a ruler for twenty-seven years, until his sons Saktivarman and Vimaladitya were restored with Chola help.

Taila II

c. 973–997 CE

Founder of the Western Chalukya dynasty of Kalyani, who overthrew the last Rashtrakuta king, Kakka II, in 973 and reigned until 997. An inscription of his reign dated April 973 has been found at Korapolu in the Medak district, and P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dated his earliest record near Anumakonda to 995. In Parabrahma Sastry's reading, the Kakatiya chief Gunda IV was killed by a chief backed by Taila, and the family recovered only under Gunda's son Beta I.

Rajaraja I (Chola)

c. 985–1014 CE

Chola king of Tanjore (Thanjavur) from 985, the founder of the Chola empire, whose inscriptions claim the conquest of Vengai-nadu, the Eastern Chalukya country of Vengi. About 999 he helped the Eastern Chalukya prince Saktivarman I back to the throne of Vengi, and he married his daughter Kundavadevi to Saktivarman's brother Vimaladitya. This began the alliance that made the Eastern Chalukyas Chola vassals and, two generations later, Chola emperors. Inscriptions of his reign are found at Kalahasti, and a Vaidumba chief ruled under him in the Nellore country.

Beta I

c. 996–1051 CE

Early Kakatiya chief (c. 996–1051), also called Garuda Beta. As a boy he lost his father in war, and later he won back the family's position. His one known record, an inscription of 1051 at Sanigaram, is the oldest Kakatiya record after the Mangallu grant.

Saktivarman I

c. 999–1011 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (about 999–1011), the eldest son of Danarnava. He took the throne after the 27 years in which, as the later grants put it, Vengi had no ruler. The Chola king Rajaraja I is said to have restored order in Vengi at this time, and historians have read Saktivarman's accession as a Chola restoration. Gold coins with his title Chalukya-Chandra have been found in Arakan.

Vimaladitya

1011–1022 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (1011–1022), the younger brother of Saktivarman I. He was crowned on 10 May 1011. The Chola prince Rajendra defeated him, and he appears to have spent some years at the Chola court. There he married Kundavadevi, daughter of the Chola king Rajaraja I. Their son Rajaraja Narendra succeeded him.

Rajendra I (Chola)

c. 1012–1043 CE

Chola king from 1012, son of Rajaraja I and founder of Gangaikondacholapuram. As a prince he defeated the Eastern Chalukya Vimaladitya, his sister's husband, and set up a pillar of victory on Mahendragiri. As king he fought the Western Chalukya Jayasimha II and claimed Kollippakkai (Kolanupaka). His general marched to the Ganges while he himself waited on the Godavari, in a campaign that Krishna Sastri dated to 1028. His daughter Ammangadevi married the Eastern Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra and was the mother of Kulottunga I.

Jayasimha II (Western Chalukya)

c. 1015–1042 CE

Western Chalukya king of Kalyani, called Jagadekamalla, who reigned from about 1015 to 1042 and fought the Chola king Rajendra I. His records name Kollipake, now identified with Kolanupaka in the Nalgonda district, as one of his minor capitals. An inscription of his reign at Kolanupaka is dated January 1033.

Rajadhiraja I (Chola)

1018–1052 CE

Chola king, eldest son of Rajendra I and his co-regent from 1018, who fought the Western Chalukya Somesvara I. His Manimangalam inscription claims that he burnt the centre of Kollippakkai (Kolanupaka), a Western Chalukya city on the edge of Telangana, and counts the Andhra king among those who paid him tribute. An inscription of his 28th year is at Kalahasti. He fell in battle against Somesvara at Koppam in 1052.

Rajaraja Narendra

1022–1063 CE

Eastern Chalukya king of Vengi (crowned 1022, died about 1061–63), the son of a Chola princess and husband of another, who ruled from Rajahmundry. His reign was disturbed by Chola and Western Chalukya intervention and by a rising of his half-brother Vijayaditya VII. Telugu tradition remembers him as the patron of Nannaya, whose Mahabharata is the oldest surviving Telugu literary work.

Vajrahasta III (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1038–1070 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, crowned on 3 May 1038. His Nadagam plates of 1058 give the earliest exactly dated event in the history of the later Gangas, and a family tree of his predecessors. He styled himself lord of the Three Kalingas and issued his grants from Kalinganagara. He was the grandfather of Anantavarman Chodaganga. Historians number him Vajrahasta III or Vajrahasta V.

Kusumayudha IV (Chalukya of Mudigonda)

c. 1040–1065 CE

Chief of the Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas, known from a Sanskrit copper-plate grant, the Mogalcheruvula grant. Cecil Bendall found it in the Nizam's treasury at Hyderabad in 1899 and published it in 1903. It gives a village near Koravi in the Manchikonda district to a Brahmana, and sets out eight generations of the family from Kokiraja. Bendall dated the letters to the 11th century or later; N. Venkataramanayya placed Kusumayudha IV about 1040–1065.

Somesvara I

c. 1042–1068 CE

Western Chalukya king, called Trailokyamalla and Ahavamalla, who reigned from about 1042 to 1068 and made Kalyana (Kalyani) his capital. Records of his reign are found at Alampur, Bodhan and Kolanupaka in Telangana, and the early Kakatiya chiefs Beta I and Prola I served him. His wars with the Cholas reached the Vengi country. Chola inscriptions claim that his army sent to Vengi was destroyed and his sons beaten at Kudalasangamam. He drowned himself in the Tungabhadra in 1068.

Prola I

c. 1052–1076 CE

Kakatiya chief (c. 1052–1076), son of Beta I. He fought for the Western Chalukya king Trailokyamalla (Someshvara I), who gave him the district of Anumakonda as a permanent fief (land held from a king). He bore the title ari-gaja-kesari, and the family's boar emblem was later credited to him.

Kulottunga I

c. 1063–1118 CE

Eastern Chalukya prince of Vengi, son of Rajaraja Narendra and the Chola princess Ammangadevi. As Rajendra (Rajendra-Choda, Rajendra II) he was heir to Vengi in 1063. In 1070 he seized the Chola throne, and he reigned as Kulottunga Chola I until about 1118. He united the Eastern Chalukya and Chola crowns, and governed Vengi first through his uncle Vijayaditya VII and then through his own sons as viceroys.

Vijayaditya VII

c. 1063–1076 CE

Eastern Chalukya prince, a son of Vimaladitya and half-brother of Rajaraja Narendra. He governed Vengi from about 1063 until his death about 1076–77, at first in rivalry with his nephew Rajendra (Kulottunga I) and later as his viceroy. Grants found in the 20th century show that he had also seized Vengi from Rajaraja about 1030–35, and set up his own son Saktivarman II there in 1061.

Virarajendra (Chola)

c. 1063–1070 CE

Chola king from 1062–63 to 1070, probably a younger son of Rajendra I, whose inscriptions give the fullest Chola account of the struggle with the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani for Vengi. He defeated armies sent into Vengi, and in his fifth year his army beat the enemy at Bezwada on the Krishna, marched to the Godavari and through Kalinga, and gave Vengi to a Vijayaditya, whom Hultzsch identified with the Eastern Chalukya Vijayaditya VII. A record of his seventh year, Saka 991, is in the Chittoor district.

Rajaraja I (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1070–1078 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, also called Devendravarman. He reigned for eight years between his father Vajrahasta III and his son Anantavarman Chodaganga (1070–1078 in Sewell's chronology, 1068–1076 in Ramamurti's). His wife Rajasundari was probably a daughter of the Chola-Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I. His general Vanapati claimed victories over the Cholas and the kings of Vengi and Orissa. The grants of his son say that he sheltered the Eastern Chalukya Vijayaditya VII against the Cholas.

Beta II

c. 1076–1108 CE

Kakatiya chief (c. 1076–1108) who took the name Tribhuvanamalla from his overlord, the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. He held Anumakonda as a Chalukya feudatory (subordinate ruler) and won the Sabbi-nadu district through his minister. He gave lands to the Kalamukha Shaiva teacher Rameshvara Pandita.

Gonka I (Velanati)

c. 1076–1117 CE

First prominent chief of the Velanati Chodas. He ruled the Andhra country, or part of it, as an officer of the Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I. A record of his at Chebrolu is dated 1076. M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1076 to 1117. His son Choda (Rajendra Choda I) was adopted by Kulottunga and made governor of Vengi.

Karunakara Tondaiman

c. 1076–1112 CE

General and minister of the Chola king Kulottunga I, the hero of the Tamil poem Kalingattupparani, which describes how he marched an army north from Kanchi across the Penna, the Krishna and the Godavari to defeat the king of northern Kalinga. A Sanskrit inscription of 1103 at Draksharama, which K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer identified as his, records the burning of Kalinga, a victory pillar on the borders of Orissa and his gifts in the Vengi country. The date of the war is disputed: about 1076–77, 1084–90, before 1095–96, or about 1111–12.

Vikramaditya VI

c. 1076–1126 CE

Western Chalukya king of Kalyani, called Tribhuvanamalla. He deposed his brother Somesvara II in 1076 and reigned for fifty years, to 1126. He replaced the Saka era with his own Chalukya-Vikrama era, in which most Telangana records of the time are dated. As a prince he fought the Cholas and their Eastern Chalukya allies for Vengi. Late in his reign, after the Chola viceroy left in 1118, he was recognised as king in Vengi and the coastal Telugu country. His feudatories in Telangana included the Kakatiyas Beta II and Prola II and the Choda chiefs of Kandur.

Anantavarman Chodaganga

c. 1078–1146 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga, crowned in 1078 and still reigning in his 72nd regnal year (1146–47). He was a son of the Ganga king Rajaraja and of Rajasundari, a daughter of Kulottunga I, so he was a grandson of the Chola-Chalukya emperor whose armies invaded Kalinga in his reign. Dozens of his Telugu and Sanskrit inscriptions survive at Mukhalingam, Srikurmam, Simhachalam, Draksharama and other places in the north of the Telugu country. His grants trace the Ganga family back to Brahma.

Vira-Choda

c. 1078–1093 CE

Son of Kulottunga I and viceroy of Vengi, installed on 23 August 1078. He was recalled in 1084 in favour of his eldest brother Chodaganga, and sent back about 1088–89. His Chellur and Pithapuram copper plates carry the full Eastern Chalukya family line, and the account of how Kulottunga handed Vengi to his uncle and his sons.

Tondaya II (Tondarasa) of Kandur

c. 1088–1091 CE

Kandur Choda chief, the Mahamandalesvara Tondarasa Chola-maharaja of Kandur. In December 1088 he was governing the Kollipake seven-thousand province for the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry made him the eldest son of Choda Bhima II and the husband of Mailamba. Her Panugallu inscription of 1124 names their three sons Udayaditya, Bhima and Gokarna.

Bhima Choda III of Kandur

c. 1105–1157 CE

Kandur Choda chief, second son of Tondaya II and Mailamba, for whose welfare his mother founded an agrahara at Panugallu in 1124. The Kakatiya inscription of 1163 accuses a Bhima of killing his brother Gokarna and seizing power after the death of a king Tailapa, and tells how Rudradeva burned his city and drove him into the forest. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dated his records from 1105 to about 1157.

Durgaraja

c. 1108–1116 CE

Elder son of the Kakatiya chief Beta II. He is known from a single inscription of 1098 at Kazipet. He may have ruled briefly between about 1108 and 1116, before his younger brother Prola II took power.

Kumara Tailapa

c. 1110–1141 CE

Western Chalukya prince, a son of Vikramaditya VI by Queen Chandaladevi. From at least 1110 he governed the Kandur thousand district in southern Telangana from his capital Kolur. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry argued that he tried to make himself independent under his brother Somesvara III. He also argued that Tailapa was the 'Tailapadeva' whom the Kakatiya Prola II captured and released, an event earlier writers attached to King Taila III.

Prola II

c. 1116–1157 CE

Kakatiya chief (r. c. 1116–1157), son of Beta II and father of Rudradeva. As a Western Chalukya feudatory (subordinate ruler) he defeated the rival chiefs around Anumakonda. He was killed in battle with chiefs of the coastal Andhra country.

Rajendra Choda I (Velanati)

c. 1117–1132 CE

Velanati chief, son of Gonka I. The Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I adopted him as his son and made him governor of the Vengi country, between 1100 and 1112 according to E. Hultzsch. When the Chola viceroy left Vengi in 1118 he accepted the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI as overlord. M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1117 to 1132.

Vikrama-Chola

c. 1118–1135 CE

Son of the Chola emperor Kulottunga I who governed Vengi for his father from about 1092–93 and left it in 1118 to be crowned Chola king. In his absence the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI took the Vengi province, holding Draksharama from 1120–21 to 1123–24; Vikrama-Chola won it back, and his records are found at Chebrolu and Nidubrolu in 1127 and 1135. An inscription of his ninth year records the building of the temple at Gudimallam, and his records are at Nandalur and Tripurantakam.

Somesvara III

c. 1126–1138 CE

Western Chalukya king, called Bhulokamalla, who reigned from 1126 to 1138. He is credited with the encyclopaedic Sanskrit work Manasollasa. As Prince Somesvara he governed the Kollipake province from Kolanupaka in Telangana, where a pillar of 1125 celebrates his victory over the lord of Trikalinga. An inscription at Patancheru records grants made on the day of his coronation, 20 February 1127.

Gonka II (Velanati)

c. 1132–1163 CE

Velanati chief, called Kulottunga Choda Gonka, who ruled from about 1132 to 1163 according to M. Rama Rao. The Pithapuram inscription says that he set a golden pinnacle on the Bhimesvara temple at Draksharama, and ruled the kings between Kalahasti and the Mahendra mountain. His minister built the Suresvara temple at Karempudi in 1154.

Kulottunga II (Chola)

c. 1133–1146 CE

Chola king, son and successor of Vikrama-Chola, who reigned from the 1130s to the late 1140s. Coastal Andhra still recognised him: Telugu inscriptions at Bapatla are dated in his regnal years, the Velanandu chief Gonka II ruled at Draksharama as his vassal, and a copper-plate grant of his reign by Kolani-Katamanayaka, governor of Sarasipuri, survives as the Chellur plates (1143). The Godavari gazetteer thought the Cholas had little real power in Vengi by then.

Udaya Choda II of Kandur

c. 1136–1176 CE

Kandur Choda chief, son of Gokarna. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry identified him with the 'king Udaya' to whom the Kakatiya Prola II gave back a kingdom after capturing Govindaraja. His records run from 1136 to 1176. The Kakatiya Rudradeva married his daughter and left him his fief (land held from a king). An inscription of 1162 at Jedcherla shows his customs officers granting coins called Gokarna-Singa rukas to the god of Kodur.

Rajaraja II (Chola)

c. 1146–1163 CE

Chola king from 1146, son of Kulottunga II, in whose reign the Chola hold on the Telugu country became nominal. Telugu inscriptions at Bapatla, Appikatla and Draksharama are still dated in his regnal years, but they were set up by the Velanandu chiefs Gonka II and Kulottunga-Rajendra-Choda and other local rulers.

Taila III

c. 1150–1162 CE

Western Chalukya king, called Trailokyamalla, who reigned from 1150. His Kalachuri general Bijjala took over the kingdom between 1156 and 1162. He was dead by January 1163, when the Kakatiya Rudradeva's inscription at Anumakonda mentions his death. J. F. Fleet identified him with the 'Tailapadeva' whom Rudradeva's father Prola II captured and released. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry argued that Prola's captive was the prince Kumara Tailapa instead.

Mallideva of Kona

c. 1155–1195 CE

Haihaya chief of Konamandala, the Godavari delta. He ruled jointly with Manma-Satya II, a great-grandson of his uncle Satya I. In 1195 the two gave the village of Odiyuru to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. Their inscription traces the family from the legendary Kartavirya and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry held that Mallideva and a Satya of the Kona family took part in the battle in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed.

Rudradeva

c. 1158–1195 CE

Kakatiya ruler (c. 1158–1195) who defeated the rival chiefs of Telangana. He proclaimed his family's independence in the Thousand Pillar Temple inscription of 1163, and began the fortified capital at Orugallu (Warangal).

Rajendra Choda II (Velanati)

c. 1163–1181 CE

Velanati chief, son of Gonka II, who ruled from about 1163 to 1181. His copper plates of 1169, issued at Chandavolu, call him a general of the Chola king Rajaraja II. They say he killed Bhima of Kolanu and received the Andhra country between the eastern sea, Kalahasti, the Mahendra mountain and Srisailam. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry made him the master of the coast from Darsi to Simhachalam after 1172; his death in 1181 opened the way for the Kakatiyas.

Ballala II (Hoysala)

1173–1220 CE

Hoysala king, crowned at Dorasamudra on 22 July 1173, who defeated the Seuna army at Soratur, took the Pandya fortress of Uchchangi and pushed his frontier to the Bhima river. He took Nolambavadi: his records in the Anantapur country are at Parigi (Saka 1100, 1178) and Hemavati (1205–06), and an inscription at Harihar claims that he took Gooty. B. Lewis Rice dates his reign 1173–1220.

Kulottunga III (Chola)

1178–1216 CE

Chola king (1178–1216), the last strong ruler of the dynasty. The Telugu Choda chiefs of Pottappi and Nellore, among them Nallasiddha, Tammusiddhi and Tikka, dated their records in his reign, and inscriptions of his years are found at Nellore, in the Gudur country and at Kalahasti, whose temple he renewed. The Cuddapah gazetteer credits him with restoring Chola power in the Paka-nadu in 1196, while the Kakatiyas took over the old Chola lands north of the Krishna.

Kota Keta II

c. 1182–1209 CE

Chief of Amaravati–Dharanikota, the Mahamandalesvara Kota Ketaraja, lord of the Six-thousand country south of the Krishna. His long inscription on a pillar of the Amaresvara temple is dated in Saka 1104, probably the day he came to the throne (about 1182–83). It records grants to Brahmans, and lamps and villages for the Buddha at Amaravati. His mother was a sister of a Gonka of Velanandu. His records run to about 1209.

Prithvisvara

c. 1186–1206 CE

Last ruler of the Velanati Chodas, son of Gonka III and Jayambika. In his reign his mother's grant of 1186 to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram was engraved. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva drove him from the Krishna country, and Ganapatideva's general took the island of Divi about 1203. He held out north of the Godavari; his last record is of 1206, and he was killed in battle soon afterwards.

Mahadeva

c. 1195–1199 CE

Kakatiya king (r. c. 1195–1199), younger brother of Rudradeva and father of Ganapatideva. He was killed in a night battle while attacking the capital of the Yadava (Seuna) kings.

Recherla Rudra

c. 1195–1213 CE

General of the Kakatiya kings Rudradeva, Mahadeva and Ganapatideva, of the Recherla family. He held the kingdom together after Mahadeva's death at Devagiri, and he drove out the Mudigonda chief Nagati. In 1213 he founded the Rudreshvara (Ramappa) temple and its lake at Palampet.

Ganapatideva

c. 1199–1262 CE

Kakatiya king (r. 1199–c. 1262) whose sixty-year reign carried Kakatiya power from Telangana to the coast and the far south. He moved the capital to Orugallu (Warangal). His reign produced the Motupalli sea-trade edict and the Ramappa and Ganapesvaram temples.

Tammusiddhi

c. 1205–1208 CE

Telugu Choda king of the Pottapi and Nellore family, and a vassal of the Chola king Kulottunga III. He was anointed at Nellore in 1205–06 and made grants at Kanchipuram, Tiruvalangadu, Tiruppasur, Tiruvorriyur, Nellore and Kavali. His inscriptions give the fullest early family tree of the family, but they disagree about who his brother or uncle Nallasiddhi was.

Jaya (Jayapa)

c. 1209–1253 CE

General and minister of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, of the Ayya family of Divi. Ganapati married his two sisters and made him commander of the elephant troops and governor of Velanadu. He built the Ganapesvara temple on Divi in 1231 and wrote the Nritta Ratnavali, a Sanskrit treatise on dance.

Tikka I (Telugu Choda of Nellore)

c. 1209–1248 CE

Telugu Choda king of Nellore, also called Tirukalatti and Ganda-Gopala, who ruled from about 1209 to 1248 or 1250. He was a loyal vassal of the Chola Rajaraja III, fought the Hoysalas and held Kanchi. In one modern account he owed his throne at Nellore to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva. He was the father of Manumasiddhi II.

Gangaya Sahini

c. 1239–1257 CE

Kayastha chief and cavalry commander of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. The king made him head of the seventy-two branches of administration (bahattara-niyogadhipati) and gave him a great fief from Panugallu to the Cuddapah country, which he ruled from Valluru. His nephews Jannigadeva, Tripurari and Ambadeva succeeded him, and the last rebelled against Rudramadevi.

Rajendra III (Chola)

c. 1246–1267 CE

The last Chola king (1246 to about 1267). His regnal years were still used by the Telugu Choda rulers of Nellore, among them Manumasiddhi, the patron of the poet Tikkana, and a Tamil record dated in his reign survives in the Gudur country of Nellore as late as 1263–64. An inscription of 1260–61 at Tripurantakam claims victories for him over two Pandya kings, which V. Rangacharya took for a real campaign and Robert Sewell did not. The Cuddapah gazetteer dates his death, and the end of the Cholas, to 1268.

Manumasiddhi II

c. 1248 CE

Telugu Choda king of Nellore from about 1248 or 1250, son of Tikka I and patron of the poet Tikkana Somayaji. He was driven out of Nellore early in his reign. The Kakatiya king Ganapatideva restored him after Tikkana went to the Kakatiya court as his envoy, and he later fought for Ganapati against Kalinga on the Godavari. Whether he was the same king as Vijaya-Gandagopala of Kanchi is disputed.

Ganapamba

c. 1250–1257 CE

Kakatiya princess, daughter of Ganapatideva, married to the Kota chief Beta of Amaravati–Dharanikota. After Beta's death she ruled his lands as a Mahamandalesvara with the male titles of his family. She gilded the Amaresvara temple at Amaravati, and built temples named Betesvara and Ganapesvara after her husband and her father. Her Yenamadala pillar inscription is the main record of the Kota family.

Kota Beta

c. 1250–1257 CE

Chief of Amaravati–Dharanikota, grandson of Kota Keta II, who married Ganapamba, daughter of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. He was alive in 1251, when he founded a temple at Yenamadala, and dead by 1257. His widow built temples in his memory and ruled his lands with the masculine titles of the family.

Narasimha I (Eastern Ganga)

c. 1250–1268 CE

Eastern Ganga king of Kalinga and Orissa in the mid-13th century, son of Anangabhima. The Vizagapatam gazetteer credits him with building the central shrine, the halls and the enclosing verandah of the Simhachalam temple in black stone in 1267–68. His feudatories and ministers left records at Srikurmam. The Orissa temple chronicle remembers him as Languliya Narsinh, builder of the Sun temple at Konarak. His dates differ widely between the sources.

Vishveshvara Shambhu

c. 1250–1261 CE

Shaiva teacher of the Pashupata Golaki monastery, and preceptor (teacher) of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva and of Rudramadevi. Rudramadevi granted him the village of Mandadam on the Krishna in 1261. There he founded a monastery with a college, a feeding house and a maternity and health home. He also founded monasteries and temples elsewhere in the Telugu country.

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I

c. 1251–1268 CE

Pandya king of Madurai who came to the throne in 1251 and led the second Pandya empire to its height. His records claim the defeat of the Hoysala Somesvara, the capture of Kopperunjinga's fortress, the occupation of Kanchi after killing Gandagopala, and a victory over the Telugus and their allies at Mudugur, from which he drove them to the Krishna. He was anointed as conqueror at Nellore. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dates the battle at Muttukuru to 1263 and adds that he struck coins with the Kakatiya boar. Robert Sewell doubted the northern march.

Malyala Gunda

c. 1259–1276 CE

General (dandanatha) of the Malyala family under the Kakatiya rulers Ganapatideva and Rudramadevi, known from his inscriptions of 1259 and 1272 at Bothpur in the Mahbubnagar district. They are elaborate Sanskrit poems by the scholar Isvara-suri, and they state that the Kakatiyas were born in the fourth varna. He had died by 1276–77, when his widow Kuppamamba, daughter of Gona Buddhaya, built a temple for his merit.

Rudramadevi

c. 1262–1289 CE

Daughter and successor of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva. She ruled from Orugallu (Warangal) under the masculine title Rudradeva Maharaja from about 1260. She faced rebels, the Yadavas, the Eastern Gangas and the revolt of the Kayastha Ambadeva, and died in 1289 according to the Chandupatla inscription (1294–95 in older accounts). Henry Yule and E. Hultzsch identified her with the just and beloved queen praised, without a name, by Marco Polo.

Ambadeva (Kayastha)

c. 1272–1294 CE

Kayastha chief (r. 1272–c. 1294) of Valluru in the Cuddapah country, and nephew of Gangaya Sahini. He threw off the authority of the Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi and built an independent state south-west of the Krishna with Yadava and Pandya support. He proclaimed his victories at Tripurantakam in 1290. Prataparudra's armies drove him from Tripurantakam in 1291.

Errapragada

c. 1280–1350 CE

Telugu poet of the 14th century, the third of the 'Kavitraya' who completed the Telugu Mahabharata. He finished the Aranya Parva that Nannaya had left incomplete. He was a Niyogi Brahman of Gudluru in the Nellore country and a devotee of Siva (Sambhudasa). He was attached to Prolaya Vema, the founder of the Reddi kingdom, and dedicated his Harivamsa to him. He also wrote a Ramayana and the Narasimha Purana for the god of Ahobilam.

Induluri Annaya

c. 1289–1323 CE

Brahman minister and general of the Induluri family, son-in-law of Queen Rudramadevi and a chief minister (mahapradhana) of Prataparudra. In 1291 he led the Kakatiya army that won back Tripurantakam from the Kayastha chief Ambadeva. He later governed the Vengi country.

Prataparudra

c. 1289–1323 CE

Last Kakatiya king (r. 1289–c. 1323; 1295–1323 in older accounts) and grandson of Rudramadevi. He crushed the Kayastha revolt, reorganised the nayankara military system, and paid tribute to Delhi after the sieges of 1310 and 1318. He was captured when Ulugh Khan took Warangal in the 1320s. Later warrior families remembered him as the king who raised them to rank.

Vidyanatha

c. 1289–1323 CE

Court poet of the last Kakatiya king Prataparudra. He wrote the Prataparudriya (Prataparudra-yashobhushana), a Sanskrit book on the theory of poetry whose example verses all praise the king. Its model play, the Prataparudra-kalyana, is one of the few literary sources from the time for the Kakatiya court.

Ballala III (Hoysala)

1292–1342 CE

The last great Hoysala king, crowned on 31 January 1292, who united the two halves of the kingdom. Malik Kafur took his capital Dorasamudra in 1311; the city was rebuilt by 1316 and destroyed again by a Tughluq army, after which he lived at Tiruvannamalai. His inscriptions in the Anantapur district run from 1317 to 1340, and in 1328 his minister ruled at Penukonda. A Kakatiya general defeated him at Kanchi. He was killed fighting the Sultan of Madurai on 8 September 1342.

Malik Kafur

c. 1309–1313 CE

Slave general of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji, called Malik Naib. He besieged Warangal in 1309–10 and forced the Kakatiya king Prataparudra to give up his treasure and pay yearly tribute. Then he crossed the Telugu country on his way to the far south, and he collected its tribute from Devagiri. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Malik Maqbul (Khan-i Jahan)

c. 1323–1370 CE

Telugu noble of Warangal, called Kattu before his conversion, who entered the service of Muhammad bin Tughluq after the fall of the Kakatiyas. He governed the province of Telingana until Kanya Naik's revolt drove him out. He rose to be chief minister of Sultan Firuz Tughluq with the title Khan-i Jahan.

Muhammad bin Tughluq

1325–1351 CE

Sultan of Delhi (1325–1351). As Prince Ulugh Khan he besieged Warangal twice in the early 1320s, captured the Kakatiya king Prataparudra and renamed the city Sultanpur. As sultan he held Telingana as a province until a Telugu rising, after his visit of 1335, took Warangal from his governor. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Prolaya Nayaka

c. 1325–1336 CE

Musunuri chief (fl. c. 1325–1336). According to his Vilasa grant, he rose after Prataparudra's death and drove the Delhi garrisons out of the Telugu coast. He ruled from Rekapalli on the Godavari and gave back to the Brahmins the villages that the conquerors had seized.

Prolaya Vema Reddi

c. 1325–1353 CE

Founder of the Reddi kingdom of Addanki and Kondavidu (c. 1325–1353). He took over the country between Srisailam and the sea after the fall of the Kakatiyas. His grants of 1345 and 1346 say he restored the Brahman villages seized by the Muslim conquerors of Warangal. Later records remember him for the flights of steps at Srisailam and Ahobilam, and the poet Errapragada dedicated his Harivamsa to him.

Harihara I (Vijayanagara)

c. 1336–1355 CE

First ruler of Vijayanagara and eldest of the five sons of Sangama. With his brother Bukka he founded the kingdom on the Tungabhadra about 1336. His first dated inscription, of 1340, calls him only a mahamandalesvara, 'great lord'. It is disputed whether he and his brothers came from the service of the Kakatiyas of Warangal, of the Rai of Kampili or of the Hoysalas. His brother Kampa held Udayagiri and Nellore, the first Vijayanagara base in the Telugu country.

Kapaya Nayaka

c. 1336–1368 CE

Musunuri chief (fl. c. 1336–1368), cousin and successor of Prolaya Nayaka. He took Warangal from the Delhi governors and ruled as 'lord of the Andhra country'. He is identified with the Kanya Naik of Barani and the Krishna Naik of Ferishta. He helped the founders of the Bahmani kingdom, then lost Kaulas and Golconda to them. He was overthrown by the Recherla Velamas in about 1368.

Singama Nayaka (Recherla)

c. 1336–1361 CE

Recherla chief of the mid-fourteenth century, son of Dacaya and father of Anapota and Mada, the founders of the Velama kingdoms of Rachakonda and Devarakonda. He fought the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka and settled Brahmins on the Krishna. The family chronicle says he was stabbed to death while besieging the fort of Jallipalli, about 1361.

Ala-ud-din Hasan Bahman Shah

1347–1358 CE

Officer of the Delhi sultanate who led the Deccan revolt against Muhammad bin Tughluq, with help from the ruler of Warangal. In 1347 he founded the Bahmani sultanate at Gulbarga. He took Kaulas from Warangal and made western Telangana a province of his kingdom.

Anavota Reddi

c. 1353–1364 CE

Second Reddi king of Addanki (c. 1353–1364), elder son of Prolaya Vema. His only known copper-plate grant, from Koduru (1358), and his renewal of the Kakatiya charter for sea merchants at Motupalli (1358) survive. A Velama chronicle claims a victory over him at Dharanikota in 1361. His son Kumaragiri and his son-in-law Kataya Vema later ruled at Kondavidu and Rajahmundry.

Bukka I (Vijayanagara)

c. 1355–1377 CE

Second ruler of Vijayanagara, brother and successor of Harihara I, who turned the frontier kingdom into an empire. He fought the Bahmani sultans Muhammad Shah I and Mujahid for the Raichur doab. His son Kumara Kampana destroyed the sultanate of Madura, and his inscriptions boast of driving the Andhras into the hills towards Udayagiri. His minister built the tank of Bukkarayasamudram in the Anantapur country in 1364. Sewell dated his reign 1343–1379 in 1900 and 1355–1377 in 1932.

Muhammad Shah I

1358–1375 CE

Second Bahmani sultan (1358–1375), son of the founder. He organised the court, the army and the four provinces, struck the dynasty's own gold coin, and fought the first great wars with Warangal and Vijayanagara. In Ferishta's account the ruler of Warangal ceded Golconda to him and gave up a jewelled throne, the Takht-i-Feroza or turquoise throne. The Burhan-i Ma'asir tells of the Telingana war in a single sentence.

Anapota Nayaka (Recherla)

c. 1361–1384 CE

Recherla Velama chief (r. c. 1361–1384), son of Singama Nayaka. He fortified Rachakonda in 1365 and overthrew the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka about 1368. By July 1369 he ruled Warangal, Bhongir and Rachakonda. With his brother Mada of Devarakonda he made the Recherla family the leading power of Telangana.

Mada Nayaka (Recherla)

c. 1361–1384 CE

Recherla Velama chief (r. c. 1361–1384), younger son of Singama Nayaka and brother of Anapota. He ruled from Devarakonda and is counted as the founder of the Devarakonda branch. His inscription of 1377 records a pavilion he built at Umamahesvaram, the northern gateway of Srisailam. His son Venna governed Kandikonda.

Anavema Reddi

c. 1364–1386 CE

Third Reddi king (c. 1364–1386), younger son of Prolaya Vema, who ruled from Kondavidu and carried the kingdom's grants into the Godavari delta. He is known from five copper-plate grants (Pachchanitandiparru 1374, Nadupuru, Pedapalakaluru 1378, Vanapalli 1380 and others) and from records at Srisailam and Draksharama. He was surnamed Vasantaraya for his spring festival. The poet Srinatha's connection with the Reddis probably began under him.

Srinatha

c. 1365–1440 CE

Telugu poet of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, often ranked with the three translators of the Mahabharata. He served Peda Komati Vema of Kondavidu as vidyadhikarin and composed his grants and inscriptions. He then wrote for the Reddis of Rajahmundry. His Sringaranaishadham, Bhimakhandam and Kasikhandam are dedicated to Reddi kings and ministers, and they are a main source for their history.

Peda Vedagiri (Recherla)

c. 1384–1410 CE

Recherla Velama chief of Devarakonda (r. c. 1384–1410), son of Mada Nayaka. An inscription of 1399 calls him ruler of the land between Srisailam and the Vindhyas. The family chronicle credits him with a victory near Warangal in the war against Kapaya Nayaka.

Singabhupala (Recherla)

c. 1384–1399 CE

Recherla Velama king of Rachakonda (late 14th century), son of Anapota Nayaka. He wrote the Rasarnavasudhakara, a Sanskrit book on drama whose opening verses are the fullest early account of his family. Later tradition calls him, or a namesake of the next century, Sarvajna ('the all-knowing') Singa, patron of Srinatha and Potana. Who was who is disputed.

Kataya Vema

c. 1386–1415 CE

Minister and brother-in-law of Kumaragiri of Kondavidu. He received 'the eastern country' with Rajahmundry as its capital in the 1380s, and ruled the Godavari delta and the coast to Simhachalam until about 1414–16. A grandson of Prolaya Vema through his mother, he was also a Sanskrit scholar. He wrote the Kumaragirirajiyam, a commentary on Kalidasa's plays.

Kumaragiri Reddi

c. 1386–1402 CE

Reddi king of Kondavidu (c. 1386–1402), son of Anavota. He is remembered for his spring festival and his court's foreign trade, and as the patron after whom Kataya Vema named his commentary on Kalidasa. He gave the Godavari country around Rajahmundry to his minister and brother-in-law Kataya Vema. At the end of his reign he lost Kondavidu to his kinsman Peda Komati Vema.

Firuz Shah

1397–1422 CE

Eighth Bahmani sultan (1397–1422), a grandson of the founder. A learned and tolerant king in his early years, he fought Vijayanagara for most of his reign. The Burhan-i Ma'asir credits him with conquering Telingana as far as Rajahmundry. In 1417 he took tribute from the raja of Telingana, but then lost a two-year siege of Pangal to Vijayanagara and the raja of Telingana together. He gave up the throne to his brother Ahmad in 1422 and died days later.

Bammera Potana

c. 1400–1475 CE

Telugu poet of the fifteenth century, author of the Telugu Bhagavata. Tradition links him with Sarvajna Singa, a Recherla Velama king of Rachakonda. It says he wrote the Bhoginidandakamu in praise of the king's mistress but refused to dedicate his Bhagavata to a mortal king. No inscription confirms the story.

Peda Komati Vema

c. 1402–1420 CE

Fifth Reddi king of Kondavidu (c. 1402–1420), a grandson of Prolaya Vema's elder brother Macha, known as a scholar-king. The Sringaradipika commentary on the Amarusataka and other works are ascribed to him, and the poet Srinatha served him as vidyadhikarin and composed his grants. His reign was spent in wars with the Rajahmundry Reddis, Vijayanagara and the Recherla Velamas.

Allada Reddi

c. 1416–1420 CE

Reddi noble of the Duvvuri branch of the Panta family who took control of the Rajahmundry kingdom after Kataya Vema's death (c. 1416–1420). It seems he ruled first as regent for Kataya Vema's son and daughter. His sons' grants credit him with victories over the Kondavidu king Peda Komati Vema and over 'Alpa Khan', and with friendship with the Gajapati and the king of Vijayanagara. His sons Allaya Vema and Virabhadra ruled Rajahmundry after him.

Ahmad Shah I

1422–1435 CE

Ninth Bahmani sultan (1422–1435), called Wali, 'the Saint'. He took the throne from his brother Firuz and defeated Vijayanagara. In 1424 or 1425 he took Warangal, killing its raja, and the Velama rayas of Devarakonda and Rachakonda then paid him tribute. He moved the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. He had to march into Telangana again to put down the chiefs who rose while he fought Gujarat and Malwa.

Deva Raya II (Vijayanagara)

1422–1446 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1422 or 1423 to 1446, the greatest ruler of the first dynasty. He enlisted Muslim archers in his army, survived an attempt on his life in 1443 and received the Persian envoy Abdur Razzaq. His inscriptions reach the Godavari delta and the Guntur and Nellore country. The Telugu poet Vallabharaya governed Vinukonda for him, and Srinatha was bathed in gold in his Pearl Hall. After his death the Bahmani sultan and the Gajapati of Orissa besieged his capital together.

Lingama Nayaka (Recherla)

c. 1427–1475 CE

Recherla Velama chief of Devarakonda in the fifteenth century, and a great-great-grandson of Mada Nayaka according to an inscription of 1427. He is known from two tank inscriptions of 1427 and from a long list of victories in the family chronicle. The chronicle makes him a rival of the Reddi kings and a contemporary of the Vijayanagara king Praudha Devaraya.

Kapilendra (Kapilesvara)

c. 1434–1470 CE

Founder of the Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty of Orissa, who took the throne of the last Eastern Ganga king in 1434–35 and reigned until about 1470. He conquered the Reddi kingdoms of Rajahmundry and Kondavidu, and governed them through his nephew Raghudeva and his kinsman Ganadeva. He relieved Devarakonda from the Bahmanis in 1459, and his son Hamvira and Raghudeva took Warangal in 1460. His records credit him with conquests down the coast to the Kaveri.

Humayun Shah

1458–1461 CE

Eleventh Bahmani sultan (1458–1461), remembered as Zalim, 'the Cruel'. In Telangana he put down the revolt of his cousin Sikandar Khan, who claimed the province. He sent an army against the Velama fort of Devarakonda, which was routed by its defenders and an Orissan relief force in 1459. He camped at Warangal, left Mahmud Gawan to hold Telangana, and returned to Bidar to take a savage revenge on a rising there.

Hamvira (Hambira)

c. 1459–1478 CE

Son of the Gajapati king Kapilendra and the leading general of his conquests in the Telugu and Tamil countries. He captured the fort of Warangal on 2 February 1460 and made the Chiruvroli grant on the Krishna in 1461. In 1464 his son Dakshina-Kapilesvara governed Kondavidu and the forts of the south. Ferishta writes of an 'Ambur Ray' who took the Orissan throne with Bahmani help after Kapilendra's death. This man has been identified with Hamvira, but the succession is disputed.

Muhammad Shah III

1463–1482 CE

Bahmani sultan (1463–1482) who came to the throne as a boy. He brought Rajahmundry, Kondapalli and the Krishna–Godavari coast under Bahmani rule, and spent three years settling Telangana. In 1481 he had his great minister Mahmud Gawan executed because of a forged letter, a deed the sources blame for the break-up of the kingdom.

Purushottama (Gajapati)

c. 1470–1497 CE

Gajapati king of Orissa from 1469–70 to 1496–97, son of Kapilendra. Early in his reign the Bahmanis took Rajahmundry and Kondapalli or Kondavidu, after a disputed succession in which he may have bought their help. His attempt to recover the Godavari country in the 1470s ended with Muhammad Shah III's invasion of Orissa. But by 1489 his grants and inscriptions reach the Krishna and the Ongole country again. Orissan tradition credits him with an expedition to Kanchi and a romantic marriage.

Mahmud Shah Bahmani

1482–1518 CE

Fourteenth Bahmani sultan (1482–1518). He came to the throne at twelve and spent his reign as the puppet of his ministers, while the governors became kings. Telangana stayed loyal longest. He campaigned at Warangal in 1486 and gave the province to Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk in the 1490s. Bahmani mosques of his reign stand at Rachakonda (1484) and Golconda (1518), the latter still naming him as sovereign.

Saluva Narasimha

c. 1485–1492 CE

Chief of the Saluva family of Chandragiri. He drove the Gajapatis of Orissa back up the coast towards Rajahmundry and faced the Bahmani sultan there in the 1470s. In 1485–86 he took the throne of Vijayanagara from the last Sangama king and founded the second, Saluva, dynasty. He died in 1492–93 and left his young sons in the charge of his general Narasa Nayaka. Whether he recovered Udayagiri from Orissa is disputed.

Yusuf Adil Khan (Yusuf Adil Shah)

c. 1489–1510 CE

Founder of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur (r. about 1489–1510). He was a foreign-born officer of the Bahmani kings who governed the province of Bijapur with the title Adil Khan. He declared his independence in AH 895 (1489–90). In 1493 he defeated the Vijayanagara regent Timmaraja and took Mudgal and Raichur. This began a century of war over the Raichur doab.

Prataparudra (Gajapati)

c. 1497–1540 CE

Gajapati king of Orissa from 1496–97 to about 1540, son of Purushottama, and the last great king of the Suryavamsi line. At his accession his empire reached from Bengal to the Guntur and Nellore country. In 1512–19 the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli, captured his son Virabhadra, marched to Simhachalam and married his daughter. The Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda then took the Godavari–Krishna country. The legal digest Sarasvativilasa bears his name. He was a disciple of Chaitanya.

Shitab Khan (Sitapati) of Warangal

c. 1504–1516 CE

A Telugu chief of humble birth who held Warangal, Khammam and Bellamkonda in the early sixteenth century. Hirananda Sastri identified him with an officer who had fled the Bahmani Sultan Humayun Shah about 1461, and with the Sitapati of the Golconda chronicle. His pillar inscription in Warangal fort records that he took the fort from the Muslims on 21 January 1504. He put back the images of Krishna and of the Kakatiya family goddess. He supported Telugu poets and called himself king of the Bhogi family. Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda defeated him. He took shelter with the Gajapati prince at Kondapalli and fought on the losing side at Palanchinur. The Kistna manual thought he was a vassal of Orissa.

Krishnadeva Raya

1509–1529 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529, of the Tuluva dynasty, and the most famous ruler of the empire. In 1512–16 he took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli from the Gajapati Prataparudra. He marched to Simhachalam and married the Gajapati's daughter. In 1520 he defeated the Adil Shah at Raichur. He wrote the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada, in which the god says Telugu is the best of the languages of the land. His court, with Allasani Peddana and Nandi Timmana, began the age of the Telugu prabandha (long narrative poem).

Ismail Adil Shah

1510–1534 CE

Second Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1510–1534), the son of Yusuf Adil Khan. The fortresses of Raichur and Mudgal changed hands with Vijayanagara in his reign. In 1520 Krishnadevaraya besieged Raichur and routed his army on the Krishna. After Krishnadevaraya's death, Ismail took both forts back.

Achyuta Raya

1529–1542 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1529 or 1530 to 1542, half-brother and successor of Krishnadeva Raya. He was crowned at Tirupati after years of confinement at Chandragiri. He lost Raichur and Mudkal to Bijapur, while Sultan Quli of Golconda attacked Kondavidu. His court poem credits him with a southern campaign and a victory at Raichur. Nuniz, who lived at his capital, called him a tyrant ruled by his two brothers-in-law, the Salakam Tirumalas, whose regency after his death led to civil war.

Ibrahim Qutb Shah

1530–1580 CE

Fourth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1550–1580), a younger son of Sultan Quli. He spent seven years as an exile at Vijayanagara under Rama Raya. He came back to take the throne with the help of the Telugu foot soldiers who held the forts. He joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara at Talikota in 1565, and he conquered Rajahmundry, the northern coast and Kondavidu. Telugu poets dedicated works to him and to his officers, and Telugu records call him Ibharama. A Sanskrit copper-plate grant from Nellore calls him Malikibharama.

Ibrahim Adil Shah I

c. 1535–1558 CE

Fourth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1535–1558), a younger son of Ismail Adil Shah. Invited by Bhoj Tirmal of Vijayanagara, he entered the Vijayanagara capital in 1535. His general Asad Khan then besieged Adoni, the first Bijapur attack on the fortress, which Ferishta says ended in a negotiated peace. In 1551–52 he lost Raichur and Mudgal to Aliya Rama Raya.

Aliya Rama Raya

1542–1565 CE

Chief of the Aravidu family and son-in-law (aliya) of Krishnadeva Raya. After Achyuta Raya's death, he and his brothers Tirumala and Venkatadri overthrew the regent Salakam Timma. He placed Sadasiva on the throne in 1542 and ruled the empire in his name until 1565. His family's lands lay around Kurnool, Adoni and Gooty, and his governors held Kondavidu. He played the Deccan sultans against each other until they joined against him. He was captured and beheaded in the battle of January 1565.

Ali Adil Shah I

c. 1558–1580 CE

Fifth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1558–1580). He was first an ally of Aliya Rama Raya, but then joined the league of Deccan sultans that defeated and killed Rama Raya in January 1565. Afterwards he won back Raichur and Mudgal, took Adoni in 1568 and turned south against the Aravidu kings, besieging Penukonda. The date and details of that siege are disputed. He was the husband of Chand Bibi.

Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah

1566–1612 CE

Fifth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1580–1612), third son of Ibrahim Qutb Shah. He founded the city of Bhagnagar, later Hyderabad, on the Musi river around 1589–91, and built the Charminar, the Jami Masjid and the Dar-ush-Shifa hospital there. Ferishta says he named the city after a singer, Bhagmati. The sources differ on who she was and on how the city got its later name. He wrote poetry in Persian and the old Urdu of the Deccan.

Tirumala (Aravidu)

c. 1569–1572 CE

Brother of Aliya Rama Raya and the first king of the fourth, Aravidu, dynasty of Vijayanagara. He commanded a wing of the army in the battle of 1565 and lost an eye there. He fled with King Sadasiva and the treasury to Penukonda, which became the capital. He took the throne about 1569–70 and divided the empire into three viceroyalties, the Telugu one under his son Sriranga at Udayagiri and Penukonda. The Telugu poem Vasucharitramu was dedicated to him. Heras dates his death to 1572, Sewell to 1578.

Ibrahim Adil Shah II

1580–1627 CE

Sixth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1580–1627), nephew and successor of Ali Adil Shah I, called Jagat Guru. He was the patron of the historian Ferishta and the builder of the Ibrahim Rauza. In his reign Bijapur held Adoni against a siege of 1595–96. Early in the seventeenth century it took Kurnool from the last Hindu chief of the town. Heras places Ferishta's account of a failed Bijapur siege of Penukonda in these years.

Venkatapati II (Vijayanagara)

1586–1614 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1586 to 1614, the youngest son of Tirumala and the last strong ruler of the empire. He was chosen king over his young nephews. He ruled first from Penukonda, then from Chandragiri, and from 1606 from Vellore. He fought Golconda for the Telugu country, and the Telugu Ramarajiyamu says peace was made with the Krishna as the boundary. Jesuit missionaries lived at his court, and Tenali Ramakrishna and Tarigoppula Mallana are counted among his poets. His death at Chandragiri in 1614 was followed by a war of succession.

Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah

1593–1626 CE

Sixth Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1611/12–1626), nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad Quli. He was a scholarly and peaceful king. He founded the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, began a new town called Sultannagar, sheltered the rebel Mughal prince Khurram (Shah Jahan) and had the first history of his dynasty written. His queen, Hayat Bakhsh Begum, was the mother of Abdullah Qutb Shah.

Abdullah Qutb Shah

1614–1672 CE

Seventh Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1626–1672). He was crowned as a boy and left the government to his mother Hayat Bakhsh Begum and his ministers. In 1636 he accepted the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as his overlord. His minister Mir Jumla conquered the Karnatak and its diamond mines. In 1656 Mir Jumla's quarrel with him brought Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. An inscription in Persian and Telugu records the siege. He died without a son in 1672.

Muhammad Adil Shah

1627–1656 CE

Seventh Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1627–1656), called Mahmud in some histories, and the builder of the Gol Gumbaz. He made peace with Shah Jahan in 1636 and then sent his armies into the Karnatak, with Shahji Bhonsle among the commanders. Bijapur took Jinji and Vellore, Penukonda (1652, by a Mackenzie manuscript) and the uplands of the Bellary and Anantapur country. It divided the Karnatak with Golconda's minister Mir Jumla.

Shivaji

c. 1627–1680 CE

Founder of the Maratha kingdom (died 1680), crowned at Raigarh in 1674. In the Telugu country he is remembered for his Karnatak expedition of 1677. He made an alliance with Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda, and the king and his ministers Madanna and Akkanna received him at Hyderabad with great ceremony. He made a pilgrimage to Srisailam, crossed the Krishna near Kurnool and sent his army south through the Cuddapah country to Jinji. On the way home he took the fort of Bellary. In 1680 Bijapur gave him its rights over the Bellary and Anantapur country.

Ali Adil Shah II

1656–1672 CE

Eighth Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1656–1672). Aurangzeb invaded the kingdom when he came to the throne, claiming that he was not Muhammad Adil Shah's son. His reign saw the rise of Shivaji and the rebellion of Siddi Jauhar, the Abyssinian governor of Kurnool. Royal campaigns brought the Kurnool province and the Raichur country back under control, before the Mughal treaties of 1666–68 cut down the kingdom.

Aurangzeb (Alamgir)

1658–1707 CE

Sixth Mughal emperor (1658–1707). As his father's viceroy of the Deccan, he made Golconda pay its unpaid tribute. With Mir Jumla's help he besieged Abdullah Qutb Shah in Golconda in 1656, and won the handover of Ramgir and the Karnatak. As emperor he took Golconda in 1687 after an eight months' siege. He made the kingdom the Mughal province (subah) of Haidarabad and stayed near the fort until January 1688 to settle it. This page covers only his part in the history of the Telugu country.

Siddi Masud Khan

c. 1662–1688 CE

Abyssinian noble of Bijapur. By the Bellary gazetteer's count he was governor and jagirdar (land-grant holder) of Adoni from 1662 to 1687. From 1678 he was regent of the kingdom for the boy-king Sikandar Adil Shah. He built the Jama Masjid of Adoni, which its inscriptions date to AH 1079 (1666–67). Driven from the capital, he held Adoni as the last Bijapur stronghold in the Telugu country. He surrendered it to the Mughals, in 1688 according to Sarkar.

Abul Hasan Tana Shah

c. 1672–1699 CE

Abul Hasan, called Tana Shah, was the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1672–1687). He was a kinsman and son-in-law of Abdullah Qutb Shah. He left the government to the Brahmin brothers Madanna and Akkanna, who allied the kingdom with the Marathas. Aurangzeb made this a charge against him and took Hyderabad in 1685. In 1687 Aurangzeb besieged Golconda for eight months, until a gate was opened by treachery. Abul Hasan died a state prisoner at Daulatabad.

Sikandar Adil Shah

1672–1686 CE

Ninth and last Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur (r. 1672–1686). He came to the throne as a small boy and reigned under regents: Khawas Khan, Bahlol Khan, and the Abyssinian Siddi Masud, jagirdar (land-grant holder) of Adoni. In his reign Shivaji marched through the Kurnool country to take Bijapur's Karnatak forts (1677), and the Raichur doab was ceded to the Marathas. Aurangzeb took Bijapur on 12 September 1686. Sikandar died a prisoner in 1700.

Joseph François Dupleix

1697–1764 CE

Governor of Pondicherry and of the French settlements in India from 1742 to 1754. By backing Muzaffar Jang and then Salabat Jang in the war for the Nizam's throne, he won for the French Company the grant of Masulipatam (1750) and, through his officer Bussy, the Northern Circars (1753). Superseded by Godeheu in 1754, he died in poverty in France.

Kam Bakhsh

1707–1709 CE

Youngest son of Aurangzeb (1667–1709). When his father died in 1707 he was on his way to govern Bijapur. He proclaimed himself emperor, struck coins and made Hyderabad his seat, where he had the subahdar Rustam Dil Khan trampled to death. His brother Bahadur Shah marched south and defeated him near Hyderabad on 13 January 1709, and he died of his wounds that night.

Sarvaya Papadu (Pap Rai)

c. 1708 CE

Telangana rebel of the early eighteenth century, a toddy-drawer by caste, whom the Mughal historian Khafi Khan calls Pap Rai. From forts at Shahpur in the Bhongir country and at a second stronghold, he plundered the roads and killed Mughal officers. In 1708 he sacked Warangal. He was betrayed, captured and executed, and his head was sent to the emperor's court. Telangana tradition remembers him as Sarvaya Papadu, a Goundla hero who robbed the rich, fed the poor and held Golconda for three hours.

Abdul Nabi Khan (Nawab of Cuddapah)

c. 1714 CE

Pathan (Miana) Nawab of Cuddapah in the early eighteenth century. Gribble's chronology calls him 'the greatest of the Cuddapah Nabobs'. Kirmani says that the emperor Bahadur Shah gave him Cuddapah as a land grant, and the Cuddapah gazetteer dates his governorship from 1714. He took Sidhout from its fort commander in 1714 and held Gandikota, Cumbum and Gurramkonda. He made the poligar of Punganur pay him tribute, raided the Baramahal and joined the Nawab of Arcot in taking money from Mysore. Local tradition says he founded the town of Cuddapah. He had stopped ruling by 1732, when an inscription names his son as Nawab.

Charles de Bussy

1718 CE

French general, born in 1718, who commanded the French troops at the court of the Nizams Muzaffar Jang and Salabat Jang from 1751 to 1758. He raised Salabat Jang to the throne and obtained from him the four Northern Circars for the French Company in 1753. He governed them through the Raja of Vizianagaram and the zamindars. In 1757 he destroyed the fort of Bobbili and took the English factories on the coast. Lally recalled him to the Carnatic in 1758, and he left the Circars to be lost to Colonel Forde.

Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I (Mir Qamar-ud-din)

1724–1748 CE

Founder of the Asaf Jahi dynasty and first Nizam of Hyderabad. A Mughal noble of Turani descent, born at Delhi in 1671, he was made viceroy of the Deccan in 1713 with the title Nizam-ul-Mulk. He defeated and killed the governor Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in Berar in 1724, received the title Asaf Jah, and ruled the Deccan as an independent sovereign until his death at Burhanpur in 1748. He is buried at Khuldabad near Aurangabad.

Himmat Bahadur Khan (Nawab of Kurnool)

1733–1751 CE

Pathan Nawab of Kurnool from 1733 to 1751. The Kurnool manual calls him Himayat Khan, and Kirkpatrick's sketch of the family calls him Bahadur Khan or Himmat Bahadur. The Marathas overran his country in 1741. In 1750 Nasir Jang called him to his camp, and he joined the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah and Savanur in the plot with the French that ended in Nasir Jang's murder near Jinji. Several historians say that he fired the shot. Early in 1751 the three Nawabs turned on the new Nizam, Muzaffar Jang, near Rayachoti. Himmat Bahadur killed him with a javelin and was cut down. Salabat Jang and Bussy then stormed Kurnool and took his sons to Hyderabad.

Morari Rao Ghorpade

c. 1741–1776 CE

A Maratha soldier who fought for pay, of the Ghorpade family. He was lord of Gooty from the 1740s until Haidar Ali took the fortress in 1776. The Marathas left him as governor of Trichinopoly in 1741. He gave it up to the first Nizam in the mid-1740s and was accepted as chief of Gooty under the subahdar of the Deccan. His horsemen, whom Orme thought the best Indian soldiers of the day, fought in the Carnatic wars for Muhammad Ali and the English, for Mysore and for the French. Later they fought with the English against Haidar. He held Penukonda and Madakasira and took tribute from the Anantapur poligars. After a long siege of Gooty he surrendered to Haidar and died a prisoner at Kabbaldurga.

Nasir Jang (Mir Ahmad Khan)

1748–1750 CE

Second son of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I. He seized the treasury and the throne of the Deccan when his father died in 1748. The English backed him against his nephew Muzaffar Jang and the French. He took Muzaffar Jang prisoner in 1750. In December 1750 the Nawab of Cuddapah shot him dead on his elephant, in a plot encouraged by Dupleix.

Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah

1749–1795 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1749 to 1795, the son of Anwar-ud-din Khan. His father was killed at Ambur in 1749. He held out at Trichinopoly and, with English help, won the Nawabship from Chanda Sahib and the French. The treaty of Paris of 1763 recognised him, and the Mughal emperor gave him the title Walajah. His Telugu districts were Nellore, held under his brother Najib-ullah, who rebelled in 1757, Ongole and the Palnad. He owed large debts to the Company and to private lenders. He handed the revenues of the Carnatic to the Company in 1781, saw it take over their management in 1790–92, and agreed by the treaty of 1792 to pay nine lakhs of pagodas a year for its troops. He died in October 1795.

Muzaffar Jang (Hidayat Muhi-ud-din Khan)

1750–1751 CE

Grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I through a favourite daughter, and governor of Bijapur. He claimed the Deccan on his grandfather's death in 1748, with the help of Chanda Sahib and the French. His uncle Nasir Jang imprisoned him in 1750. He was proclaimed Subahdar when Nasir Jang was murdered in December 1750, and granted the French Masulipatam and other land. The Nawab of Kurnool killed him on the march back to the Deccan early in 1751.

Salabat Jang

1751–1761 CE

Third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, raised to the throne of the Deccan by the French commander Bussy in 1751. Under Bussy's protection he defeated the Marathas and his elder brother Ghazi-ud-din, and in 1753 assigned the Northern Circars to the French. After Colonel Forde drove the French from the coast, he ceded Masulipatam to the English (1759). His brother Nizam Ali took power as his minister, deposed him in 1761 or 1762 and had him killed in prison about 1763.

Ranmast Khan (Munawwar Khan, Nawab of Kurnool)

1752–1792 CE

Pathan Nawab of Kurnool from 1752 to 1792, the brother of Himmat Bahadur Khan, called Ranmast Khan and Munawwar Khan. His brother died, and the French stormed Kurnool in 1751. He came back from Arcot and raised troops with money from the Nawab of Cuddapah and the help of the deshmukh of Kurnool. In 1752 he won back his capital from the Nizam's officer and the raja of Gadwal. He paid tribute to the Nizam and, from 1769 or about 1775, to Haidar Ali. Local tradition says he paid Haidar after a holy man's attempt to frighten Haidar failed. Tipu Sultan pressed him for unpaid tribute. His son Alif Khan led his horsemen with the Nizam's army against Tipu in 1790–92, and he died in 1792.

Abdul Halim Khan (Nawab of Cuddapah)

1761–1779 CE

The last Pathan Nawab of Cuddapah. He ruled Cuddapah and Sidhout from 1761 until Haidar Ali conquered him in 1779. A Telugu account translated by C. P. Brown says he was freed from prison in the fort of Sidhout in 1761 and became ruler when the Nawab Mohsin Khan left. Gribble says he followed his uncle, whom he calls Mahasim Khan. He paid Haidar money in 1769 and sent him horsemen in 1776, but he sided with the Nizam's general against him. In 1779 Haidar and Mir Sahib defeated his Pathan horsemen near Duvvur, took Cuddapah and forced him to surrender at Sidhout. He died a prisoner at Seringapatam, and his sister became Haidar's wife as Bakhshi Begum.

Haidar Ali

1761–1782 CE

A soldier who made himself master of Mysore in 1761 and ruled it until he died in December 1782. In the Telugu country he took Penukonda and Madakasira from the Maratha Morari Rao in 1762. He won back Gurramkonda through his brother-in-law Mir Sahib in 1768, took Bellary in 1775 and took Gooty from Morari Rao in 1776. In 1779 he conquered the Nawab of Cuddapah, and the Nawab of Kurnool and the poligars of the Bellary and Anantapur country paid him tribute. His invasion of the Carnatic in 1780 began the Second Mysore War.

Madhavrao I

1761–1772 CE

Peshwa (chief minister) of the Marathas from 1761 to his death in November 1772, and the son of Balaji Baji Rao. As a young man he fought beside his uncle Raghunath Rao against Nizam Ali at Rakshasbhuvan on the Godavari in 1763. In his wars with Haidar Ali of Mysore he took Sira in 1767, and the Mysore commander Mir Sahib then received Gurramkonda from the Marathas. His uncle Trimbak Rao took Gurramkonda by siege in 1771. The treaty of June 1772 left it with the Marathas until Tipu took it back in 1773–74.

Nizam Ali Khan (Asaf Jah II)

1761–1803 CE

Fourth son of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I. He pushed aside his brother Salabat Jang in 1761–62 and ruled the Deccan until his death at Hyderabad in 1803. In his reign the Northern Circars passed to the East India Company (1766, Guntur in 1788). The Nizam joined the British against Tipu Sultan, was defeated by the Marathas at Kharda (1795) and accepted a permanent subsidiary force (1798). To pay for it he gave up his Mysore gains, the later Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema (1800). He is the first Nizam buried at the Mecca Masjid.

Sir Thomas Munro

1761–1827 CE

Sir Thomas Munro (1761–1827) was a Scottish soldier and administrator. As the first Principal Collector of the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema, from 1800 to 1807, he put down the poligars (local military chiefs) and made the ryotwari settlement with each cultivator. He became Governor of Madras in 1820. He died in office at Pattikonda, then in the Bellary district, on 6 July 1827. In the Ceded Districts he was remembered with ballads and as a 'father'.

Qamar-ud-din Khan

1781–1799 CE

Son of Mir Sahib and cousin of Tipu Sultan. He followed his father in command of the Gurramkonda and Cuddapah country in 1781–82. In 1783 he defeated a claimant to the Nawabship of Cuddapah and the English force that had taken Cumbum. Tipu arrested him in 1785 and took away his jagirs, but he led Mysore troops again in 1791. After the fall of Seringapatam in 1799 he surrendered to the British. The partition treaty bound the Nizam to give him a personal jagir in the Gurramkonda districts.

Tipu Sultan

1782–1799 CE

Son of Haidar Ali and ruler of Mysore from December 1782 until he was killed at the fall of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799. As a young commander he took Gurramkonda back from the Marathas in 1773–74. As Sultan he held Gooty, Gurramkonda, Cuddapah, Bellary and the Anantapur country. He gave Gooty and Gurramkonda the new names Faiz Hisar and Zafarabad and struck copper coins at both. He besieged Adoni in 1786 and seized the poligars of Rayadurg and Harpanahalli. By the treaty of 1792 he gave up Cuddapah, Gurramkonda, Bellary and Tadpatri to the Nizam. The rest of his Telugu districts went to the Nizam after his death and were ceded to the East India Company in 1800.

Asad Ali Khan (Muzaffar-ul-Mulk) of Banganapalle

c. 1783–1815 CE

Co-ruler of the Banganapalle jagir (land grant) in the late eighteenth century, titled Muzaffar-ul-Mulk. Through his mother he was a grandson of the line of the Mughal killedar (fort commander) Muhammad Beg Khan. He held Chenchelimala and managed Banganapalle for his young nephews. When Tipu Sultan seized the jagir in 1783, he took refuge with a poligar. In 1790, with troops from the Nizam, he and his nephew Ghulam Ali Khan beat Tipu's officer at Tammadapalle and recovered the country. He served the Nizam against Tipu in 1791 and was briefly subahdar of Cuddapah. In 1800 the Nizam stipulated with the Company that the jagir should be continued to him and his nephew.

Ghulam Ali Khan (Mansur-ud-daula) of Banganapalle

c. 1790–1822 CE

Jagirdar (holder of the land grant) of Banganapalle from 1790 to the early 1820s, titled Mansur-ud-daula. The family later regarded him as the founder of the State. A son of Husain Ali Khan, he was confirmed in the jagir by Tipu Sultan in 1783 and at once expelled. With his uncle Asad Ali Khan and troops from the Nizam he won it back at Tammadapalle in 1790. He lived mostly at Hyderabad and fought in the Nizam's army, and he lost the use of his right hand against the Marathas. Under the cession of 1800 the jagir passed under the Company's control free of tribute. Before his death he divided villages among his relatives as sub-jagirs and placed his son Husain Ali Khan on the musnad (throne).

Alif Khan II (Nawab of Kurnool)

1792–1815 CE

Pathan Nawab of Kurnool from 1792 to 1815. He was the third son of Ranmast (Munawwar) Khan, and the Kurnool manual calls him Aluf Khan. He put down his elder brother Hasan Ali Khan, led 1,400 horse for the Nizam at Kharda in 1795 and refused Tipu Sultan's claim to tribute. In 1800 the Nizam handed the Kurnool tribute to the East India Company. Alif Khan denied that it was owed but agreed to pay of his own will. In 1804 the payment was fixed at a lakh and a quarter of Gadwal rupees for eight years and a lakh after that, with 500 horse and 500 foot soldiers. He tried to make his favourite son, Ghulam Rasul, his heir and imprisoned the eldest, whom a Company force freed in 1813. His rule was remembered as harsh.

Sikandar Jah (Asaf Jah III)

1803–1829 CE

Eldest son of Nizam Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad from 1803 to 1829. His reign began with the Maratha war of 1803 and ended in debt. He left the government to his ministers Mir Alam and Munir-ul-Mulk and their deputy Chandu Lal. Under them European officers supervised the districts from about 1820, and the Nizam's tribute from the Northern Circars was bought out (1823). The cantonment of Secunderabad is named after him.

Sir Arthur Cotton

1803–1899 CE

Engineer officer of the Madras army (1803–1899). He planned and built the anicut (dam) across the Godavari at Dowlaishweram (1847–1852), which turned the Godavari delta into irrigated rice land. He backed the plan for the Krishna anicut at Bezwada (built 1852–1855). At Vizagapatam he built sea groins and St John's church in 1844. He planned the upper Godavari navigation, of which the Dummagudem anicut survives.

Mir Alam (Mir Abul Qasim)

1804–1808 CE

Diplomat, general and minister of the Nizams Nizam Ali Khan and Sikandar Jah. He came from a Sayyid family of Shushtar in Persia. He represented the Nizam at Calcutta in 1786–89 and with Lord Cornwallis in 1791, commanded the Nizam's army against Tipu Sultan in 1799, and was minister from 1804 until his death in 1808. He built the Mir Alam tank south-west of Hyderabad (1806) from his share of the Seringapatam prize money. He was the great-grandfather of Salar Jung I.

Chandu Lal

1806–1843 CE

Peshkar (deputy minister) and in practice chief minister of Hyderabad from 1808 to 1843, under Sikandar Jah and Nasir-ud-daula. Born in 1766 into a family that came to the Deccan with Asaf Jah, he rose from the customs department, was made Peshkar in 1806 and governed for the powerless minister Munir-ul-Mulk, holding to the British alliance. His government raised the reformed troops that became the Hyderabad Contingent, but fell deep into debt. He resigned on 6 September 1843 and died in April 1845. He was famous for his generosity.

Ghulam Rasul Khan (Nawab of Kurnool)

1823–1839 CE

The last Nawab of Kurnool, who ruled from 1823 to 1839. He was a younger son of Alif Khan II. He followed his brother Munawwar Khan after another brother, Muzaffar Khan, was imprisoned for murder. The Kurnool manual describes his rule as greedy and his habits as wasteful. At a time of reports of a Wahhabi plot against the British, the Madras government learnt that he was repairing his forts and secretly gathering cannon and military stores. It sent a commission with troops in 1839. He gave up the fort, his unpaid Rohilla and Arab troops were fired on, and he was sent away to Trichinopoly, where a servant murdered him. His jagir was taken over and his family given pensions.

Nasir-ud-daula (Asaf Jah IV)

1829–1857 CE

Nizam of Hyderabad from 1829 to 1857, eldest son of Sikandar Jah. At his request the British officers who had supervised the districts were withdrawn. Misrule, debt and the arrears of the Hyderabad Contingent followed, and Chandu Lal resigned in 1843. By the treaty of 21 May 1853 Berar, Osmanabad and the Raichur Doab were assigned to the British to pay for the Contingent. A week later he appointed Salar Jang minister. He died on 16 May 1857.

Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy

1846 CE

Member of a family of former poligars (local chiefs) of Uyyalawada and Nossam, in the Kurnool country. In 1846 he raised the kattubadis (village revenue peons) against the Company's government, looted the Koilkuntla treasury and fought troops at Giddalur. He was captured in October 1846 and hanged at Koilkuntla. The district manuals of 1875 and 1886 tell the story from the government's side.

Ghulam Muhammad Ali Khan of Banganapalle

1848–1868 CE

Jagirdar of Banganapalle from 1848 to 1868, called Ghulam Ali Khan in the treaties and in the family history. A grandson of Mansur-ud-daula, he was adopted by his uncle Husain Ali Khan and married to his daughter. In 1848 the Madras government handed back the jagir after clearing the family's debts, but Husain Ali Khan died before his sanad (grant) was issued. Ghulam Ali Khan received the sanad of 1849, with civil and criminal jurisdiction short of the death penalty. In 1862 he received the Crown's sanad permitting succession under Muslim law. He was made a Companion of the Star of India and died on 7 October 1868.

Kandukuri Veeresalingam

1848–1919 CE

Social reformer, journalist and writer of Rajahmundry (1848–1919). He worked for the education of girls and the remarriage of widows, and conducted the first widow remarriage in the Madras Presidency in 1881. He wrote the early Telugu social novel Rajasekhara Charitramu.

Salar Jung I (Mir Turab Ali Khan)

1853–1883 CE

Minister of Hyderabad for thirty years (1853–1883) and regent while Mahbub Ali Khan was a child. He was a great-grandson of the minister Mir Alam. He began in 1847 as talukdar (district officer) of districts in Telangana and became minister at twenty-four in 1853. He kept the Nizam's government on the British side in 1857. He reorganised the state: salaried revenue officers in place of revenue farmers, a revenue survey and settlement, civil and criminal courts, departments under four ministers (1868) and better finances. He died on 8 or 9 February 1883.

Afzal-ud-daula (Asaf Jah V)

1857–1869 CE

Nizam of Hyderabad from 1857 to 1869, eldest son of Nasir-ud-daula. He came to the throne on 16 May 1857, as the rising against the Company spread through northern India. With his minister Salar Jang he kept Hyderabad on the British side; the Residency was attacked on 17 July 1857 and the attack was driven off. By the treaty of 1860 Osmanabad and the Raichur Doab were given back to him, a debt of fifty lakhs was cancelled and Shorapur was added to his state; Berar stayed in British trust. He died on 26 February 1869.

Maulvi Allauddin

c. 1857–1884 CE

Muslim religious teacher of Hyderabad who, with the Rohilla leader Turrebaz Khan, led the attack on the British Residency on 17 July 1857. He hid in villages near the city for about two years, was caught at Mangalpalli, and was sentenced by the Nizam's court to transportation for life. He was sent to the Andamans in June 1859 and died there in about 1884.

Rajagopala Krishna Yachendra of Venkatagiri

1857–1916 CE

Raja and later Maharaja of Venkatagiri in the Nellore district (1857–1916), head of the Velugoti family, installed in 1879. He built the Indra Mahal and the Town Hall at Venkatagiri and sat twice in the Madras Legislative Council. He was president of the Madras Landholders' Association from its founding in 1890. He was made K.C.I.E. in 1888, Maharaja in 1910 and G.C.I.E. in 1915. His brothers were adopted into the Bobbili, Pithapuram and Jetprole families.

Turrebaz Khan

1857–1859 CE

Rohilla jamadar (captain of armed retainers) who, with Maulvi Allauddin, led the attack on the British Residency at Hyderabad on 17 July 1857. He was wounded and captured, tried by the Nizam's court and sentenced to transportation for life. He escaped from jail in January 1859 and was killed when a police party caught up with him.

Ramji Gond

c. 1860 CE

Gond leader of the Nirmal country in today's Adilabad district. In 1860 he led Gonds who joined bands of Rohillas against the Nizam's government. The Collector of Nirmal attacked their camp in April 1860; about thirty rebels were killed, among them the Rohilla chief Mian Saheb Khurd, but Ramji escaped. He was later caught, tried and hanged at Nirmal.

Venkata Swetachalapati Ranga Rao of Bobbili

1862 CE

Raja and later Maharaja of Bobbili in the Vizagapatam district. He was born in 1862, a younger son of the Raja of Venkatagiri, adopted in 1872 by the Rani of Bobbili, and installed in 1881. He visited England in 1893 and was made K.C.I.E. in 1895. He sat in the Madras Legislative Council for the great landholders, where he spoke against the Tenancy Bill, and he received the title of Maharaja at the close of the nineteenth century. In 1926 he became the first Pro-Chancellor of the Andhra University.

Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao

1867–1938 CE

Founder of the Telugu paper Andhra Patrika and maker of the balm Amrutanjan (1867–1938), from Elakurru in Krishna district. He backed the non-cooperation movement through his paper, chaired a Madras meeting against the Simon Commission, and was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932. He was elected to the Central Legislature in 1934.

Fateh Ali Khan, Nawab of Banganapalle

1868–1905 CE

Ruler of Banganapalle from 1868 to 1905, and its first ruler to hold the hereditary title of Nawab, granted in 1876. He was born in 1848, a nephew and son-in-law of Ghulam Muhammad Ali Khan. The Madras government accepted him over the claims of his uncle's widow and of a son-in-law. He was made a Companion of the Star of India. He reorganised the State's courts, police, jail and dispensary, and borrowed three lakhs of rupees from the government in 1877. In January 1905 he was removed from the direct running of the State for bad government, and he died three months later.

Mir Mahbub Ali Khan (Asaf Jah VI)

1869–1911 CE

Nizam of Hyderabad from 1869 to 1911, only son of Afzal-ud-daula. Placed on the throne at the age of two, he grew up under the regency of Salar Jang I and took full powers from the Viceroy Lord Ripon on 5 February 1884. His reign saw the railways, the cotton mills, the code of 1892, the lease of Berar to the British in perpetuity (1902), the purchase of the Falaknuma palace (1897) and the Musi flood of 1908. Remembered in Hyderabad as 'Mahboob Pasha', he died on 31 August 1911.

Chandrayya of Rampa

c. 1879–1881 CE

Leader of hill bands in the Rampa rebellion of 1879–1880 in the Godavari and Visakhapatnam hill tracts, a rising against the exactions of the mansabdar of Rampa, new toddy rules and the police. He burnt the Addatigala police station in 1879, held out for months, and was killed in 1880 or 1881, the sources differ, after being betrayed by another rebel.

Karam Tammanna Dora

1879–1880 CE

One of the chief leaders of the Rampa rebellion of 1879–1880 in the Godavari and Visakhapatnam hill tracts. The police history calls him the chief leader of the rising and says a police officer shot him on 25 July 1880; the Godavari gazetteer has him leading a raid into Visakhapatnam district in October 1880.

Mutnuri Krishna Rao

1879–1945 CE

Editor of the Krishna Patrika of Machilipatnam (1879–1945), a leading Telugu nationalist paper. He organised Bipin Chandra Pal's tour of the Telugu districts in 1907, helped build the National College at Machilipatnam, and was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930, the civil disobedience of 1932 and the individual satyagraha of 1940–41.

Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao

1881–1962 CE

Congress leader and lawyer of Vijayawada, born in 1881. He took part in every Congress campaign from the Swadeshi movement of 1905 to Quit India, and was jailed in 1922, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1940–41 and 1942–43. He led the Swaraj Party in Andhra, helped the Hyderabad State Congress in 1947–48, and was Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, 1956–62.

Salar Jung II (Mir Laik Ali Khan)

1884–1887 CE

Minister of Hyderabad from 1884 to 1887, eldest son of Salar Jung I. After his father's death in 1883 he served as joint administrator with Raja Narendra Pershad and secretary to the Council of Regency, and when Mahbub Ali Khan took full powers on 5 February 1884 he was made minister at about twenty. He put down an Arab riot in 1884, but court intrigue and his own indiscretions, as his contemporaries put it, led him to resign in April 1887. He died on 7 July 1889, aged twenty-seven, leaving an infant son, later Salar Jung III.

Cherukuvada Venkata Narasimham

1887–1964 CE

Congress speaker and writer from Ghantasala in Krishna district (1887–1964). He worked on the nationalist papers Desabhimani and Krishna Patrika, taught at the National College in Machilipatnam, and was jailed for a year each in the non-cooperation movement of 1921, the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932. He was known as Upanyasa Chakravarti.

Vemuri Ramji Rao

c. 1891–1963 CE

Social worker of Machilipatnam (about 1891–1963) who worked for Dalits and tribal people. He set up a high school and hostel for Dalit students at Machilipatnam. In 1930, when Gandhi was arrested, he gave up the title Rao Saheb and his nominated seat in the Madras Legislative Council in protest. He founded and edited the Telugu weekly Deenabandhu.

Suravaram Pratapa Reddy

1896–1953 CE

Telugu writer, editor and public worker of Hyderabad State, from Alampur taluk of Mahbubnagar district (1896–1953). He founded and edited the Golkonda Patrika from 1925 to 1949, presided over the first Andhra Conference at Jogipet in 1930, and wrote a social history of the Telugu people that won the Sahitya Akademi award.

Alluri Sitarama Raju

1897–1924 CE

Leader of the Rampa or Agency rebellion of 1922–1924 in the hill tracts of the Godavari and Vizagapatam districts. He raided police stations for arms, held out against special police and the Assam Rifles for nearly two years, and was captured and shot dead in May 1924. Government and nationalist accounts differ over his aims and the manner of his death.

Gam Mallu Dora

1900 CE

Koya leader from Battapanukulu in the Visakhapatnam hill tracts (born 1900), one of the two chief lieutenants of Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Rampa rebellion of 1922–1924. He was captured in September 1923, sentenced to death in May 1924, and served his commuted sentence in the Andamans and an internment camp until 1937. In 1952 he was elected to the first Lok Sabha for Visakhapatnam.

Kakani Venkataratnam

1900–1972 CE

Congress leader of Krishna district (1900–1972). He was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932, and detained for three years in the Quit India movement. After independence he was president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and Minister for Agriculture. He died at Vijayawada on 25 December 1972, during the movement for a separate Andhra State.

N. G. Ranga

1900 CE

Peasant leader and economist from Nidubrolu in Guntur district (born 1900). He organised ryots' associations in Andhra from 1923, founded the Andhra Socialist Party in 1934, ran schools of politics for young workers, and helped found the All India Kisan Sabha. He was jailed for organising rural ryot societies and again in 1942. In 1951 he left the Congress and founded the Krishikar Lok Party, and he sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

Kishen Pershad

1901–1912 CE

Hereditary Peshkar and twice chief minister of Hyderabad: Prime Minister under Mahbub Ali Khan and Mir Osman Ali Khan from 1901 (confirmed 1902) to 1912, and President of the Executive Council from 1925. A descendant of Chandu Lal through his mother, born in AH 1281 (1864–65), he was a poet in Urdu and Persian. He founded literary journals and held large jagirs near Hyderabad.

Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao)

1902–1975 CE

Teacher, social reformer and atheist of Vijayawada (1902–1975), known as Gora. A science lecturer until 1940, he was jailed in 1943 for celebrating Independence Day and detained twice during the Quit India movement. He worked against untouchability, encouraged his children to marry across caste, edited the Telugu weekly Sangham and the English monthly The Atheist, and wrote Positive Atheism.

Anne Anjayya

1905–1975 CE

Congress and Forward Bloc worker from Mudunur in Krishna district (1905–1975). He trained volunteers from 1920, spread khadi in Hyderabad State in the 1930s, was jailed and fined in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932, ran underground papers against the war, and was detained from December 1942 to September 1945.

Baddam Yella Reddy

1906–1978 CE

Telangana leader from Karimnagar district (1906–1978). He was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of 1938–39. He led the Andhra Mahasabha in 1946 and was a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad during the Telangana armed struggle. Later he sat in the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

Jamalapuram Keshava Rao

1908–1953 CE

Hyderabad State Congress leader from Khammam district (1908–1953). He left a government clerk's post to join the State Congress, was jailed in the satyagraha of 1938–39 and again in the campaign for joining India in 1947–48, and was a member of its Action Committee. He was later nominated to the Constituent Assembly.

Makhdoom Mohiuddin

1908–1969 CE

Urdu poet, trade union leader and communist of Hyderabad (1908–1969). He was secretary of the Communist Party in Hyderabad State, was jailed in 1944 for a speech, and was named by the Hyderabad government in 1949 as a member of the communists' State Committee during the Telangana armed struggle. From 1957 until his death he led the communist group in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

Ravi Narayana Reddy

1908 CE

Telangana leader who went to jail in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of 1938. He led the left wing that took control of the Andhra Mahasabha in 1944, and was a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad during the Telangana armed struggle. Congress and government sources of the time describe that struggle in sharply different terms.

Arutla Ramachandra Reddy

1909 CE

Worker of the Arya Samaj and the Andhra Mahasabha from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district, born in 1909. He was beaten in police custody during the Vandemataram movement of 1938, confined to his village in 1945, and held for a year as an undertrial prisoner. The Razakars looted his house in 1947–48. He joined the Communist Party in 1952.

Mir Osman Ali Khan (Asaf Jah VII)

1911–1948 CE

Seventh and last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad (1911–1948), son of Mahbub Ali Khan. He ruled directly from 1914 to 1919 and then through an Executive Council. His reign brought Osmania University (founded by his farman of 1917, with Urdu as the medium of teaching), the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs built after the Musi flood of 1908, the City Improvement Board, the new High Court and the Osmania General Hospital. His government ended in September 1948, when the Indian Army entered the state and a military governor took charge.

Puchalapalli Sundarayya

1913 CE

Communist leader from Alaganipadu in Nellore district (born 1913). He left his studies for the national movement in 1930, was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1934, led the left wing of the Andhra Socialist Party, and kept in touch with the Telangana communists during the struggle of 1946–1948. He sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

Komaragiri Narayana Rao

1915–1978 CE

Hyderabad State Congress worker from Khammam (1915–1978). He worked in the Andhra Mahasabha from 1930, joined the State Congress in 1938, and was jailed at Warangal for nine months in the Quit India movement of 1942–43. He later worked for land reform and the Bhoodan movement and wrote books in Telugu and English on Hyderabad.

Renukunta Rami Reddy

1915–1948 CE

Landlord and Andhra Mahasabha worker of Renukunta, in Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district (born 1915). He trained and led the village's armed squad against the Razakars and the Nizam's police, and was killed when they besieged the village on 4 March 1948 after a fight of about twelve hours. Government, Congress-side and communist sources all record the fight but differ on how he died and how many were killed.

Akbar Hydari (Nawab Hyder Nawaz Jung)

1917 CE

Hyderabad official and minister under Mir Osman Ali Khan. As Secretary in the Education Department he proposed in 1917 the university that became Osmania University, teaching in Urdu. He was Finance Member of the Executive Council from 1919 into the 1930s, President of the state railway board after the state bought the railway, and chairman of a committee of the princes' ministers on the federal plan in 1934–35. By 1938 he headed the government, which banned the new Hyderabad State Congress that year; he was also Chancellor of Osmania University.

Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao

1917–1984 CE

Communist leader of Nalgonda district (1917–1984) and historian of the Telangana armed struggle. Expelled from Osmania University in the Vandemataram strike, he joined the Communist Party in 1939, led its Nalgonda district committee and joined its state secretariat in March 1948. He sat in the Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1962, later led a revolutionary communist group, and spent long years underground and in jail. His Telugu history of the struggle was published in 1988, after his death.

Arutla Lakshminarasimha Reddy

1918–1976 CE

Lawyer and communist leader from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district (1918–1976). He organised campaigns against the jagirdars in Nalgonda in 1936–37, led a batch in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of October 1938 and was jailed until April 1939. He joined the Communist Party in 1940, sat on the working committee of the Andhra Mahasabha, and was wanted by the Nizam's government in 1947. He later served in both houses of the Andhra Pradesh legislature.

Arutla Kamala Devi

1921 CE

Communist worker from Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district, born in 1921. She was general secretary of the Hyderabad Women's Association in 1942–44 and worked underground in the Telangana struggle of 1946–48, organising women against the Razakars. She was later a member of the Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh legislative assemblies from 1952 to 1967.

Gam Gantam Dora

1922–1924 CE

Koya leader from Battapanukulu in the Visakhapatnam hill tracts, elder brother of Gam Mallu Dora and one of the two chief lieutenants of Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Rampa rebellion of 1922–1924. He kept a small band together after Sitarama Raju's death in May 1924 and was killed by a police patrol on 7 June 1924.

Gottimukkala Gopal Reddy

1926–1948 CE

Communist squad leader from Atmakur in Suryapet taluk of Nalgonda district (born about 1926). A poor farmer's son, he joined the struggle against the Nizam in 1946 and rose to lead a guerrilla squad. He was killed with four companions when soldiers and Razakars surrounded his squad at Patarlapadu (Patarlapahad), in Suryapet taluk, in 1947–48.

Doddi Komaraiah

1946 CE

Young member of the Andhra Mahasabha's village volunteers at Kadavendi, in Jangaon taluk, shot dead during a procession past the house of the deshmukh of Visnur in 1946; P. Sundarayya dates it to 4 July 1946. The two communist histories of the Telangana struggle call him its first martyr and say his death set off a wider rising. They differ on who fired, on his place in the village organisation and on what the police did.

Qasim Razvi

1946–1948 CE

President of the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, the Muslim political party of Hyderabad, from 1946, and leader of its armed volunteers, the Razakars, in 1947–48. He opposed accession to India and responsible government, pressed the Nizam's government in its talks with Delhi, and made speeches in 1948 that the Government of India protested against. Congress-side histories blame the Razakars under him for raids on villages; a US report of August 1948 records his threats against Hindus if India attacked. After the Police Action the Razakars were disbanded and their leaders arrested.

Mir Laik Ali

1947–1948 CE

Last Prime Minister of the Nizam's government of Hyderabad, from December 1947 to 17 September 1948. He took office after the Standstill Agreement crisis, negotiated with Delhi in 1948 and, according to a US intelligence report of August 1948, accepted the draft agreement of June 1948 that the Nizam then rejected. His ministry raised spending on the army and police and turned to the United Nations; he resigned on the day the Nizam ordered a ceasefire. Accounts of him differ sharply between the Congress-side histories, the new government of 1949 and his own later book.

J. N. Chaudhuri

1948–1949 CE

Indian Army officer who commanded the main force in the Police Action against Hyderabad in September 1948 and then governed the state as Military Governor until 1 December 1949. With a cabinet nominated by the Government of India, he disbanded the Razakars and other private armies, brought in officers from the Indian provinces and toured the districts; his government's publicity of 1949 presented his rule as secular and even-handed.

Shoebullah Khan

1948 CE

Editor of the nationalist newspaper Imroze in Hyderabad, which criticised the Razakars. He was shot and attacked with swords on 21 August 1948, a few weeks before the Indian Army entered Hyderabad State. The new government pensioned his widow, and a special tribunal tried the case.

Abdul Wahab Khan

before 1618 CE

Abyssinian general of Bijapur who took Kurnool from Gopala Raja, a grandson of Aliya Rama Raya, early in the seventeenth century. He governed it for about sixteen years as the first Bijapur governor of the town. He died in AH 1028 (1618) and is buried in the two-domed tomb on the bank of the Handri at Kurnool.

Addanki Gangadhara

Telugu poet of the 16th century who dedicated his Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu, the story of King Samvarana and Tapati, to Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted it, with Ponnikanti Telaganarya's Yayaticharitramu, among the only Telugu kavyas dedicated to a Muslim ruler. Its opening praises Ibrahim's conquests in the Telugu country.

Akkanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin, brother of the minister Madanna, who commanded the army of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah of Golconda in the 1670s and 1680s. With his brother he received Shivaji at Hyderabad in 1677. The Mughal peace terms of 1685 demanded his dismissal with his brother's, and the two were murdered together at Golconda in March 1686.

Allasani Peddana

Chief Telugu poet of Krishnadeva Raya's court and first of the Ashtadiggajas (the eight court poets), called Andhrakavitapitamaha, 'grandfather of Telugu poetry'. His Svarochisha Manucharitramu, a story from the Markandeya Purana retold with rich description and dedicated to the king, became the model of the Telugu prabandha (long narrative poem). The king honoured him with the anklet of the champion poet and the village of Kokata, and Peddana mourned him in a famous verse.

Ananda Gajapati Raju

before 1897 CE

Maharaja of Vizianagaram, the greatest zamindari of the Madras Presidency, from 1879 (1878 in Maclean's chronology) until his death without children on 23 May 1897. A son of Vijayarama Gajapati Raju III, he held the personal title of Maharaja, sat for many years in the Madras Legislative Council and was made G.C.I.E. in 1892. He maintained the first-grade college at Vizianagaram, and in 1883 he laid the foundation stone of the Town Hall at Madras. His will of 1896 led to a long suit over the succession.

Anwar-ud-din Khan

before 1749 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1744 until he was killed at the battle of Ambur in 1749, and the founder of the family of the later Nawabs, the Walajahs. He was an officer of Nizam-ul-Mulk. From 1725 to 1741 he governed the Ellore and Rajahmundry country in the Telugu north, and then the Nizam gave him Arcot. His sons Mahfuz Khan and Muhammad Ali fought beside him at Ambur against Chanda Sahib, Muzaffar Jang and the French. Muhammad Ali escaped to Trichinopoly and, with English support, won his claim to the Nawabship.

Asad Khan Lari

before 1549 CE

Turkish officer of Bijapur (died 1549), born Khusrau Aqa. He held Belgaum as a jagir (land grant) and was the chief minister and army commander of Ismail and Ibrahim I Adil Shah. In 1535–37 he led the first Bijapur attack on Adoni. He besieged the fort and surprised the camp of Venkatadri, Rama Raya's brother, who had come to relieve it.

Atharvana

Telugu grammarian of the Kakatiya period, author of the Trilinga Sabdanusasanamu, a grammar of Telugu written in Sanskrit. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called him the only Jain writer in surviving Telugu literature, dated him about 1240 and thought his real name was Nallanna. A legend that Nannaya burnt his Telugu Mahabharata out of jealousy was rejected by them, because the two did not live at the same time.

Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu

Telugu poet of Ontimitta in Kadapa district, counted among the eight poets of Krishnadeva Raya's court. The king asked him to write the Sakalakathasara Sangrahamu, a collection of Puranic stories, but died before it was finished; Ramabhadra later dedicated his Ramabhyudayamu, a poem on Rama, to Gobburi Narasaraja. He was nicknamed Pillala Ramabhadrayya for his many children.

Baddena

Telugu Choda chief of the Kakatiya period, author of the Nitisastra Muktavali, a verse handbook on the duties of kings. Tradition also makes him the author of the Sumati Satakam, the book of moral verses taught in Telugu village schools, but the sources disagree on who wrote it and when.

Balwant Rao Mendle

before 1760 CE

Maratha commander of the Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, left in the Carnatic in 1757 to collect tribute. On 24 September 1757 he defeated the Nawabs of Cuddapah and Kurnool near Cuddapah. The Nawab of Cuddapah was killed, and the Marathas took Gurramkonda and Punganur. He then marched across the Cuddapah country to the coast. He took tribute from the zamindars of Venkatagiri and Kalahasti and was bought off before Nellore. He was killed at Panipat in December 1760.

Bandagi (Shaik Bandagi)

before 1942 CE

Muslim farmer of Kamareddygudem, near Devaruppala in Jangaon taluk, who for about ten years fought a land case backed by the deshmukh of Visnur and won it. He was murdered near the village bus stop, in 1942 according to Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao, whose communist history of the Telangana struggle retells an account published in 1945. His grave became a place of an annual urs attended by Hindus and Muslims.

Bhatideva

Ikshvaku queen, wife of King Virapurushadatta and mother of King Ehuvula Chamtamula. In the 2nd year of her son's reign she founded a monastery at Nagarjunakonda for Buddhist teachers of the Bahusutiya school.

Brahma Nayudu

Hero of the Telugu ballad cycle of the Palnati Viralu (Heroes of Palnadu): the minister who led one side in the Palnadu war, fought out at Karempudi, and who is still honoured there as a form of Vishnu. He is known only from the ballads and the cult. No inscription names him, and the dates proposed for his war range from 1080 to 1386.

Bulusu Sambamurti

Congress leader of Kakinada and the Godavari districts who pressed for complete independence from 1924. He presided over the Andhra Provincial Independence League in 1928, was jailed for a year for campaigning against the Simon Commission, broke the salt laws at Chollangi in 1930, and was badly beaten by the police at Kakinada. He later became Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly.

Burgula Ramakrishna Rao

Lawyer and Congress leader of Hyderabad State. He was among the moderate leaders of the Andhra Mahasabha up to 1941, was arrested in the Quit India satyagraha of 1942 and led a satyagraha batch in May 1947. After the first general elections he became Chief Minister of Hyderabad State in 1952. He took part in the talks of February 1956 that settled the terms for joining Telangana to Andhra, and in October 1956 he was named governor of Kerala.

Chakali Ilamma

Washerwoman of Palakurthi, in Jangaon taluk, whose family worked for the Andhra Mahasabha's village sangham against the deshmukh of Visnur in the mid-1940s. Her husband and two sons were jailed in the Palakurthi case, and the deshmukh's men tried to seize the crop of the land she farmed. The two communist histories of the Telangana struggle tell the fight over her crop in different ways; P. Sundarayya calls her a symbol of its first phase.

Chamtisiri

Ikshvaku princess, sister of King Chamtamula and aunt and later mother-in-law of King Virapurushadatta. She was the chief donor of the Buddhist monuments of Vijayapuri (Nagarjunakonda). She gave the pillars of the Great Stupa, an apsidal shrine and a pillared hall beside it, all to the Aparamahavinaseliya school, in the 3rd century CE.

Chemakura Venkatakavi

Telugu poet of the 17th century at the court of Raghunatha Nayaka of Thanjavur. He wrote the Vijayavilasamu, on Arjuna's three marriages, and the Sarangadhara Charitramu, a tragic tale of a prince falsely accused. His style was so admired that it was named after him, 'Chemakura paka', and some count the Vijayavilasamu among the five great Telugu poems.

Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham

Telugu novelist, playwright and speaker of Rajahmundry in the early 20th century, a follower of Kandukuri Veeresalingam's social reform. Jayanti Ramayya in 1913 credited him with starting the Telugu historical novel on the model of Walter Scott, drawing on Tod's Annals of Rajasthan. His plays, above all Prasanna Yadavamu and Gayopakhyanamu, were very popular, and K. Sitaramaiya notes that he wrote and spoke although he was blind.

D. Seshagiri Rao

before 1948 CE

Communist organiser of the coal-mine workers of Kothagudem, in Khammam district. He built a party unit and a miners' union there from the early 1940s, went underground in the Telangana struggle, escaped from police custody and joined the armed squads. He was betrayed, caught and shot by the Nizam's police in 1947–48, and the police kept his death secret for months.

Daud Khan Panni

before 1715 CE

Afghan general of Aurangzeb and his successors (died 1715). He served under Zulfiqar Khan at the siege of Jinji. He held the Kurnool country as a jagir (land grant) and Arcot as faujdar (military governor), and his Afghans captured the rebel prince Kam Bakhsh near Hyderabad in 1709. As Zulfiqar Khan's deputy he governed the six provinces of the Mughal Deccan until 1713. He was sent against the new viceroy Husain Ali Khan and was killed near Burhanpur. His brother Ibrahim Khan, Bahadur Khan Panni, held Kurnool until he fell at Shakar Kheda in 1724. Their successors were the Nawabs of Kurnool, whose line ended in 1839. Kirkpatrick's sketch of the family makes his father, Khizr Khan Panni, its founder, and Ibrahim his nephew.

Dhurjati

Telugu Shaiva poet of Srikalahasti, counted among the eight poets (Ashtadiggajas) of Krishnadeva Raya's court. He wrote the Kalahasti Mahatmyamu, a poem on the holy place of Srikalahasti, and the Kalahastisvara Satakamu, a set of devotional verses to its god. Stories about his loose living go back to a verse about the king's question on the sweetness of his style.

Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya

Congress leader of Guntur district, called Andhra Ratna. In April 1921 he led most of the people of Chirala and Perala to leave their homes rather than pay the taxes of a new municipality. He ran their camp on panchayat (village council) lines for eleven months and raised the Ramadandu volunteer corps.

Durgabai Deshmukh

Congress worker in Madras, one of the Telugu leaders who ran the salt satyagraha in the city in 1930. She led women volunteers, made salt at the Santhome beach on 5 May 1930 and was sentenced to a year's simple imprisonment. Sarojini Regani writes that she was held for a time in solitary confinement in Madurai jail.

Francis Forde

before 1770 CE

Irish officer of the 39th Foot, sent by Clive from Bengal in 1758. He routed the French under Conflans at Condore (Chandurti) near Pithapuram on 9 December 1758 and stormed Masulipatam in April 1759, so winning the Northern Circars from the French for the East India Company. He had earlier led the English detachment in the failed attack on Nellore (1757). Appointed one of the Company's Supervisors in 1769, he was lost at sea when the frigate Aurora disappeared after leaving the Cape at the end of that year.

Gadicherla Harisarvottama Rao

Nationalist journalist who, as a teacher trainee at Rajahmundry, was expelled and barred from government service in 1907 for his part in the Vande Mataram movement. He was jailed in 1908 for an article in his weekly Swaraj, and later led the Home Rule League in Andhra. Regani counts him among the first political prisoners of the movement in Andhra.

Gidugu Venkata Ramamurti

Telugu scholar of Parlakimidi who led the early 20th-century movement to write books in modern spoken Telugu instead of the old literary style. His opponents, among them Jayanti Ramayya in 1913, fought him through the Andhra Sahitya Parishat, but K. Sitaramaiya wrote in 1943 that he lived to see the universities accept the spoken style. He also learned the Savara language of the Visakhapatnam hills and compiled a Telugu-Savara dictionary (1914).

Gobhada

King known only from copper coins found at Kotilingala on the Godavari, inscribed 'Rajno Gobhadasa'. Rachna Lodaya counts him as the first local king of the Deccan to put his name on coins. The excavators dated his coins to the first half of the 2nd century BCE and K. D. Bajpai to about 125–100 BCE. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry took him for the Sunga king Bhagabhadra, an identification Lodaya rejects.

Gona Budda Reddi

Chief of the Gona family in the Kakatiya period, named in its colophons as the author of the Ranganatha Ramayana, the Telugu Ramayana in the native dvipada metre. His sons completed it with the Uttara Ramayana. His daughter Kuppamamba was the wife of Ganapatideva's general Malyala Gunda.

Gopalakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili

before 1757 CE

Chief of Bobbili, a Velama house in the Vizagapatam country. He refused Bussy's demand that he give up his family's old fort in exchange for other lands. Bussy and the Raja of Vizianagaram stormed Bobbili on 24 January 1757. Ranga Rao had the women and children of the fort killed and died fighting on the walls with his men, but his infant son was saved. Three nights later two of his soldiers killed the Raja of Vizianagaram in his tent. The siege is remembered in the Telugu ballad of Bobbili.

Gurajada Apparao

Telugu writer of Vizianagaram, author of Kanyasulkam (the bride-price), the first important social play in Telugu, which mocks the selling of young girls in marriage to old men. He was one of the leaders of the movement to write in spoken Telugu, invented the song metre Mutyala Saramulu, and is credited with beginning the Telugu short story.

Hullaki Bhaskara

Telugu poet of the Kakatiya period, chief author of the Bhaskara Ramayanamu, a Ramayana in mixed verse and prose written with his son and pupils. He dedicated it to Sahinimara, a cavalry commander. A well-known story explains this unusual dedication, but Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called it 'a later invention'.

J. Vengala Rao

Political leader of Andhra Pradesh. He was a member of the Andhra Pradesh assembly from 1962 to 1978, Home Minister of the state from 1969 to 1971 and Chief Minister from 1973 to 1978, the years after the Six-Point Formula. He was one of the leaders who met the Prime Minister during the Telangana agitation of 1969. Later he sat in the Lok Sabha for Khammam (1984–1991) and was Union Minister of Industries.

Jakkana

Telugu poet of the early 15th century, author of the Vikramarka Charitramu, tales of the legendary King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. He dedicated it to Vennelaganti Siddamantri, whose family was favoured at the court of the Vijayanagara king Devaraya II. K. Sitaramaiya counted him among the later poets who imitated Nannechoda's style.

Jamshid Quli Qutb Shah

before 1550 CE

Second Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda (1543–1550), the third son of Sultan Quli. The Golconda chronicle says he had his father killed at prayer and blinded the heir, his brother Qutb-ud-din. His reign was spent in wars with Bidar and Bijapur, and his younger brother Ibrahim fled to Vijayanagara. He died of a long illness in 1550.

Kala Venkata Rao

Congress organiser from Amalapuram in the Godavari district. He left his B.Sc. studies at Machilipatnam in the non-cooperation movement of 1920–21 and was jailed then. He was among the leaders banned from public work in 1932, was sentenced in the satyagraha of 1940–41, and on 29 July 1942 drafted the Andhra Congress instructions known as the Kurnool circular.

Kancherla Gopanna (Bhakta Ramadas)

A Telugu devotee of Rama, remembered as Ramadas. He was a revenue officer who spent government money on the Rama temple at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari and was imprisoned for it. In the legend, he was freed when Rama and Lakshmana paid his debt to the king. He is credited with the Dasarathi Sataka and with devotional songs. Writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make him a nephew of Madanna and an officer of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 places him about 1725 under the Nizams.

Kankanti Paparaju

Telugu poet of the 18th century whose Uttara Ramayanamu, a mixed verse-and-prose telling of the last part of the Rama story, became the best-known Telugu version of it. C. P. Brown recorded in 1852 that the real author was another poet, Pushpagiri Timmanna, and that Paparaju, an official at Pulicat, had taken the book in payment of a debt about 1790. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao also credit him with an early play, the Vishnumaya Vilasamu.

Kokkonda Venkataratnam

Telugu scholar, poet and journalist of the 19th century, a defender of the classical literary style. P. T. Raju wrote that his Narakasura Vijaya Vyayogamu was the first Telugu translation of a Sanskrit play to be printed. He ran the journal Andhra Bhasha Sanjivani, quarrelled in print with Kandukuri Veeresalingam, and later opposed Gidugu Ramamurti's spoken-Telugu movement.

Komarraju Lakshmana Rao

Telugu scholar and organiser who, as diwan (chief minister) to the Raja of Munagala, helped open the first Telugu library in Hyderabad in 1901. He founded the Vignana Chandrika Mandali, which published Telugu books on history and science, held Telugu examinations and prize competitions, and began a Telugu encyclopaedia. A Hyderabad history of the freedom movement calls him the first to see the need for close ties between Telangana and the Andhra districts.

Konda Venkatappayya

Congress leader of Guntur, known as Deshabhakta. He started the Krishna Patrika in 1902, led the movement for a separate Andhra province after 1910, and resigned from the Madras Legislative Council during non-cooperation. He headed the Guntur no-tax campaign of 1922 and was the Andhra 'dictator' of the salt satyagraha of 1930.

Kshetrayya

Telugu poet and composer of padams, love songs on Radha and Krishna, sung by dancers and musicians across South India. K. Sitaramaiya and P. T. Raju place him in the 17th century, at the time of Vijayaraghava Nayaka of Thanjavur. C. R. Day in 1891 called him the most popular composer of padams.

Kuchimanchi Timmakavi

Prolific Telugu poet of the 18th century, called 'Abhinava Vaganusasana' (a new Nannaya). He wrote many long poems, among them the Rukmini Parinayamu and the Rasika Janamanobhiramamu, and a Ramayana and the Nilasundari Parinayamu in 'pure Telugu' without Sanskrit words. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao found his pure-Telugu poems unreadable; K. Sitaramaiya praised him as a scholar of great merit.

Kundavadevi

Chola princess, daughter of the Chola king Rajaraja I and younger sister of Rajendra Chola I. Early in the 11th century she married the Eastern Chalukya king Vimaladitya. She was the mother of Rajaraja Narendra. Her marriage began the alliance through which her grandson Kulottunga I came to rule the Chola empire.

Kusumaditya (Chalukya of Mudigonda)

Chief of the Mudigonda branch of the Chalukyas, son of Bottu-Beta, known from the Kukkunur copper plates found near Bhadrachalam. They tell how a disaster struck in the first year of his rule, and his ministers Indaparaju and Remaraju carried him into exile for twelve years. They brought him back to rule the Visuru-nadu, and he rewarded them with an agrahara (village grant) on the Godavari. Its editor dated the letters to about 1200; P. V. Parabrahma Sastry placed Kusumaditya and his brother Nagati about 1218.

Madanna

before 1686 CE

Telugu Brahmin who became chief minister (wazir) of Abul Hasan, the last Qutb Shahi sultan of Golconda, about 1673, with the title Surya Prakash Rao. With his brother Akkanna he ran the kingdom for some twelve years. He allied it with the Marathas against the Mughals and kept an office at Bezwada. Aurangzeb made the employment of the two Brahmin brothers a charge against the king. They were murdered at Golconda in March 1686.

Madapati Hanumantha Rao

Leader of the Telugu awakening in Hyderabad State. He was a founder and, from 1922, the secretary of the Nizam Rashtra Andhra Jana Sangham, which worked through libraries, schools and publications and became the Andhra Mahasabha in 1930. He organised the first Hyderabad political conference, held at Kakinada in 1923.

Madayyagari Mallana

Telugu Shaiva poet of Kondavidu, counted among the eight poets of Krishnadeva Raya's court. His Rajasekhara Charitramu, a story-poem, is dedicated to Nadindla Appa, nephew and son-in-law of the king's minister Saluva Timma, and its opening traces the minister's family. The Rayavachakamu places him with the king after the victory over the sultans.

Mahmud Gawan

before 1481 CE

Persian merchant who became chief minister of the Bahmani sultanate (c. 1461–1481). He was regent for two boy kings, fought in Telangana and on the west coast, reorganised the provinces and the army, and founded a great college at Bidar. Muhammad Shah III had him executed on a forged charge of treason in 1481.

Mailamba

Kakatiya princess, daughter of Mahadeva and sister of Ganapatideva, married to the Natavadi chief Rudra. She built the tank at Bayyaram, a village named after her mother Bayyamamba. Its inscription, found in 1966, is the main source for the early genealogy of the Kakatiyas.

Malik Hasan Bahri

before 1486 CE

Bahmani noble, born a Brahman and brought up as a Muslim. As Nizam-ul-Mulk he took Rajahmundry and Kondapalli or Kondavidu for Muhammad Shah III in about 1471, and governed all of Telingana. He resented its division by Mahmud Gawan and led the plot that had the minister executed in 1481. He then ruled the kingdom as Malik Naib until he was killed in 1486 after a campaign at Warangal. His son Ahmad founded the Nizam Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar.

Mangalagiri Anandakavi

Telugu poet of the 18th century, author of the Vedanta Rasayanamu, a life of Christ in four cantos written in classical Telugu verse. C. P. Brown called him a Roman Catholic and dated the poem about 1700; Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao put him about 1750 and doubted that he was a church member. Kandukuri Veeresalingam ranked him among the best poets of his century.

Marana

Telugu poet of the late Kakatiya period, a pupil of Tikkana, who wrote the Markandeya Puranamu and dedicated it to Nagaya Gannaya, an officer of the last Kakatiya king, Prataparudra. Its story of the birth of Svarochisha Manu later became the basis of Allasani Peddana's Manucharitramu. The poem's mention of Prataparudra's officers makes it a source for Kakatiya history.

Mir Ali Raza Khan (Mir Sahib)

before 1781 CE

Brother-in-law of Haidar Ali and governor of Gurramkonda, who died in 1781. His family had held Gurramkonda as a jagir (land grant) under Golconda until the Nawabs of Cuddapah took it from them. As Haidar's commander at Sira, he surrendered the fort to the Marathas in 1767 and received Gurramkonda from them. He came back to Haidar's side in 1768 and held Gurramkonda for him. In 1779 he led the first attack on the Nawab of Cuddapah. Haidar gave him the conquered country, with Gurramkonda, as a military grant, for which he had to keep 3,000 horse. He was buried in a mosque at the foot of Gurramkonda fort.

Mir Jumla (Mir Muhammad Said Ardastani)

before 1663 CE

A Persian merchant who became chief minister and army commander of Abdullah Qutb Shah of Golconda. He is known by the title of his office, Mir Jumla. He conquered the Karnatak south of the Krishna, including Gandikota and the diamond country of Cuddapah, and he leased the diamond mines. His quarrel with the king in 1655–56 brought the Mughal prince Aurangzeb to besiege Golconda. He then joined Mughal service as Mu'azzam Khan and died in 1663 after an expedition to Assam.

Mohanangi

Daughter of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara, remembered in Telugu tradition as a poet and a judge of poetry. She is said to have written the Marichi Parinayamu, a love poem now lost. Court stories make her the princess who bought Sankusala Nrisimha's verses in the market and brought him to the king's notice, and the target of a joke by Tenali Ramakrishna. All that is known of her comes from these stories.

Molla

Telugu woman poet of the potter caste, author of the Molla Ramayanamu, a short verse retelling of the Ramayana. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao placed her in Krishnadeva Raya's reign (1509–30) and called hers the most widely read of all the Telugu Ramayanas; C. P. Brown described the poem in 1852 as 'an imitation of Valmiki'.

Mubariz Khan (Khwaja Muhammad, Imad-ul-Mulk)

before 1724 CE

Last Mughal governor of Haidarabad (Hyderabad), which he ruled for nearly twelve years from about 1713. He came from Balkh and had governed Gujarat and Malwa. He fought the Marathas instead of paying them the chauth (a quarter of the revenue). He began the city wall of Hyderabad and held lands on the coast as far as Srikakulam (Chicacole). In 1724 the court at Delhi made him viceroy of the Deccan against Nizam-ul-Mulk. He was defeated and killed with two of his sons at Shakar Kheda in Berar on 11 October 1724 (Irvine's date).

Muddupalani

Telugu woman poet of Thanjavur in the 18th century, author of the Radhika Santvanamu (the consoling of Radha), a love poem in four cantos. She says she was skilled in music, poetry and dance. Kandukuri Veeresalingam, who placed her at Thanjavur about 1760, admired her verse but found it too frank; Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called it indecent.

Mulaghatika Ketana

Telugu poet and scholar of the 13th century, a younger contemporary of Tikkana. He put Dandin's Sanskrit romance Dasakumaracharita into Telugu and dedicated it to Tikkana, wrote an early Telugu grammar, the Andhra Bhasha Bhushanamu, and turned the Mitakshara law code into Telugu.

Nachana Somana

Telugu poet at the court of Bukka I of Vijayanagara in the 14th century and author of the Uttara Harivamsamu, a retelling of the later life of Krishna. Critics ranked him with the three poets of the Telugu Mahabharata, and N. Venkataramanayya pointed to him as the only poet in a spoken language known to have been patronised by Bukka.

Najib-ullah Khan

Brother of the Nawab Muhammad Ali Walajah and governor of Nellore in the 1750s. In 1753 the adventurer Muhammad Kamal drove him out of Nellore, but he won it back and had Kamal beheaded. In 1757 he refused his brother's demand for an extra payment and rebelled. His garrison beat off the attack of the Nawab's army and an English force under Colonel Forde. He went over to the French, received Bussy at Nellore in 1758 and joined Moracin against Tirupati. When the French siege of Madras failed in 1759, he killed the Frenchmen with him and was confirmed in Nellore for a tribute of 30,000 pagodas. In 1762 an English force under Caillaud took the Nellore fort from him for the Nawab.

Nandi Timmana

Telugu poet of Krishnadeva Raya's court and one of the Ashtadiggajas (the eight great poets), popularly called Mukku Timmana. He was a Niyogi Brahman and a Saiva, and a nephew of the poet Malayamaruta. He wrote the Parijatapaharanamu, dedicated to the king, the story of Krishna bringing the parijata tree from heaven for Satyabhama. Its introduction is a source for the careers of Narasa Nayaka and Krishnadeva Raya. Tradition says it was written to reconcile the king with a queen.

Nannaya

Telugu poet of the 11th century, the author of the earliest surviving Telugu literary work. He wrote the first parvas (books) of the Telugu Mahabharata at the request of the Eastern Chalukya king Rajaraja Narendra of Rajahmundry. A Telugu grammar in Sanskrit, the Andhra-sabda-chintamani, is traditionally said to be his, though later historians doubted it. A. C. Burnell placed him in the 12th century in 1878; the editors of the inscriptions and later historians place him under Rajaraja in the 11th.

Nannechoda

Telugu Choda prince of Pakanadu and author of the Kumarasambhavamu, a long Telugu poem on the birth of the war-god Kumara. The poem was found and printed only in the early 20th century, and scholars still argue over its date: its editor placed it before Nannaya, while Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao put the poet about 1150.

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

Congress leader and member for Kalahasti in the Andhra Legislative Assembly. He was Deputy Chief Minister of the Andhra State at Kurnool from 1953 to 1956 and one of the Andhra leaders who agreed the terms for the union with Telangana in February 1956. On 1 November 1956 he was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and he was still Chief Minister in 1958.

Nyapathi Subba Rao

Lawyer of Rajahmundry and a leader of the moderate wing of the Congress in the Telugu districts. During the Vandemataram years of 1905–1908 he led the Swadeshi movement at Rajahmundry, interceded for expelled students, defended the men charged after the Kakinada club riot of 1907 and opened the National High School at Rajahmundry. In 1917 he signed the Madras Congress call for passive resistance to free the Home Rule leaders.

P. V. Narasimha Rao

Political leader from Andhra Pradesh. He was a member of the state assembly from 1957 to 1977 and a minister from 1962. As Chief Minister from 1971 to 1973 he faced the agitation that followed the Supreme Court's Mulki judgment of October 1972, and on 17 January 1973 the Governor reported his resignation. President's rule followed the next day. He sat in the Lok Sabha from 1977 to 1997, held several Union ministries and became Prime Minister.

Palkuriki Somanatha

Telugu Shaiva poet from Palakurthi near Warangal. He wrote the Basava Purana and the Panditaradhya Charitra in the dvipada metre, the founding works of Telugu Virashaiva literature. Historians disagree over whether he lived in the late twelfth century or under Prataparudra, the last Kakatiya king.

Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao

Telugu essayist, playwright and humorist of the early 20th century, best known for the Sakshi (The Spectator) essays, which appeared in weekly parts in the Andhra Patrika. He also wrote plays, among them Kanthabharanam and Radhakrishna, and early short stories. Critics disagreed about his humour: Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao found it clean and kindly, K. Sitaramaiya at times obscene.

Pattabhi Sitaramayya

Congress leader of Machilipatnam and historian of the Indian National Congress. He worked for the National College and khadi in the Krishna district, planned the salt satyagraha in the Telugu districts in 1930, and was arrested during the boycott of the Simon Commission and again in 1930, 1932 and 1942. In 1939 he lost the election for Congress president to Subhas Chandra Bose.

Pillalamarri Pinaveerabhadrudu

Telugu poet of the later 15th century at the court of Saluva Narasimha, who became the first king of Vijayanagara's second dynasty. His Jaimini Bharatamu, dedicated to that king, opens with an account of the Saluva family's wars. Many stories grew up around him: that he silenced Srinatha as a boy, and that the goddess Sarasvati wrote his poem in one night.

Pingali Ellanarya

Telugu poet of about 1602, author of the Tobhya Charitramu, also called the Sarvesvara Mahatmyamu, a poem in four cantos on a Christian subject. He wrote it for Tumma Rayapa Reddi, a minor chief in the Kondavidu country. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao say it was based on an account of the life of St Thomas kept in the patron's family.

Pingali Surana

Telugu poet of the mid-16th century at the courts of Akavidu and Nandyal in Kurnool district. He wrote the Raghavapandaviyamu, in which every verse tells the stories of both Rama and the Pandavas, and two story-poems: the Kalapurnodayamu, a plot of his own invention, and the Prabhavati Pradyumnamu. Tradition counts him among Krishnadeva Raya's eight court poets, but Subramiah Pantulu and P. T. Raju put him a generation later.

Ponnikanti Telaganarya

Telugu poet of the 16th century, author of the Yayaticharitramu, the story of King Yayati in five cantos written in 'pure Telugu', avoiding Sanskrit words. He dedicated it to Amin Khan, a general of Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda, and its opening praises Amin Khan's family as servants of the sultan.

Potti Sriramulu

before 1952 CE

Began a fast at Madras on 19 October 1952 for the forming of a separate Andhra State, and died on the night of 15 December 1952, the 58th day. His death set off protests across the Andhra districts. Four days later the Government of India announced that the state would be formed, and it came into being on 1 October 1953.

Raghoji Bhonsle I

before 1753 CE

Maratha chief of Berar and Nagpur, the Sena Sahib Subha of the Maratha state. In 1740 he led the great Maratha army into the Carnatic. On its way south it defeated the Nawabs of Kurnool and Cuddapah, and it killed the Nawab of Arcot and took Trichinopoly in 1741. In 1753 the Nizam Salabat Jang made peace with him by giving up land that both sides claimed. Grant Duff dates his death to March 1753. The Vizagapatam gazetteer credits 'the Marathas under Ragoji Bhonsla' with the raid on the Northern Circars in 1754.

Raghunath Rao

Maratha general and statesman, called Raghoba. He was the brother of the Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao and, from 1761, regent for his nephew Madhavrao I. In 1763, after Nizam Ali had plundered Poona, he marched on Hyderabad. The city wall kept him out, but he took a payment from the suburbs. He then routed the Nizam's army on the Godavari at Rakshasbhuvan. He held the Peshwaship briefly in 1773–74, when Haidar Ali took Sira and Gurramkonda from the Marathas.

Raghunatha Nayaka of Thanjavur

Telugu Nayaka ruler of Thanjavur (then Tanjore) in the early 17th century, himself a poet in Telugu and Sanskrit and a writer on music. His court began the 'Southern school' of Telugu literature: his own Valmiki Charitramu was an early Telugu prose work, and Chemakura Venkatakavi wrote the Vijayavilasamu there. Poems by his son, his minister and a woman poet of his court describe his wars for the Vijayanagara throne.

Ramarajabhushana (Bhattumurti)

Telugu poet of the later 16th century, author of the Vasucharitramu, the story of King Vasu's marriage told in verse full of double meanings, which became the model for later poets. His title means 'ornament of Rama Raja's court'; his own name was Bhattumurti. He dedicated the Vasucharitramu to Tirumala Raya and a book on poetics, the Narasabhupaliyamu, to Rama Raya's nephew. Scholars long argued whether the two names belong to one poet.

Rayaprolu Subba Rao

Telugu poet who led the 'new poetry' (bhava kavitvam) of the early 20th century, lyric verse on nature and idealised love written under the influence of English romantic poets. His Lalita (1909) and Trunakankanamu (1914) made his name. He was invited to the new Telugu chair at Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 1918–19, and was head of its Telugu department in 1944.

Rustam Dil Khan

before 1708 CE

Mughal subahdar (governor) of Haidarabad (Hyderabad) under Aurangzeb, and son of the earlier subahdar Jan Sipar Khan. He built the Kali Masjid outside the Yaqutpura gate in AH 1114 (1702). After Aurangzeb's death he submitted to the rebel prince Kam Bakhsh. The prince suspected him of a plot and had him trampled to death by an elephant in 1708.

Saadatullah Khan

before 1732 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic, with his capital at Arcot, from about 1710–13 until his death in 1732. A Navayat, born Muhammad Saeed, he was the diwan (finance officer) and faujdar (military governor) of the Mughal general Daud Khan Panni. He followed Daud Khan in the government of the Carnatic below the Ghats, which ran along the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon and took in Nellore. A chronology of Sidhout says that he took the place in 1694 and appointed its fort commander, years before he became Nawab. His faujdar governed Nellore. He granted the jagir of Udayagiri in 1720. With the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Savanur he took a large payment from Mysore. He left the Nawabship to his nephew Dost Ali.

Saluva Timma (Timmarasu)

Chief minister of Vira Narasimha and of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara, known in Telugu tradition as Timmarasu and Appaji, 'father'. Nuniz says he saved Krishnaraya from being blinded and made him king. He managed the campaign against Orissa, took Kondavidu in 1515 and governed it through his family, the Nadindla brothers. Nuniz says the king later blinded and imprisoned him, suspecting him of poisoning the young prince. Telugu tradition makes the king and his minister the heroes of many tales.

Samagopa

King known only from his coins, found at Kotilingala, Peddabankur and Dhulikatta in the old Karimnagar district and at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. He issued more coins than any other Kotilingala king. Rachna Lodaya takes him for the last local king before the Satavahanas, ousted by Simuka about 52 BCE; P. V. Parabrahma Sastry took him for a Sunga king.

Sarangu Timmana

Telugu poet of the late 16th century, author of the Vaijayanti Vilasamu, also called the Vipranarayana Charitramu, the story of a Vaishnava devotee tempted by two courtesan sisters. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu wrote in 1898 that Timmana called himself the karanam (accountant) of Golconda. C. P. Brown noted that it was printed with a commentary in 1849.

Shahji Bhonsle

before 1664 CE

Maratha captain of hired soldiers and father of Shivaji. He served the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, and from 1636 the Adil Shahs of Bijapur. As second in command to Randaula Khan, he took part in Bijapur's conquest of the Karnatak. He was given a jagir (land grant) round Bangalore and Kolar, a country taken from the forebears of the Telugu poligars of Punganur. He kept a court at Bangalore and died in 1664. His son Vyankoji inherited his Karnatak jagir.

Siddi Jauhar (Salabat Khan)

before 1662 CE

Abyssinian officer of Bijapur who held Kurnool as his government and jagir (land grant) under Ali Adil Shah II. Given the title Salabat Khan, he besieged Shivaji in Panhala in 1660. Suspected of letting him escape, he withdrew to Kurnool, rose against the king in 1662 and was killed by his own followers. His son-in-law was Siddi Masud of Adoni.

Simhavarman (Pallava, Manchikallu inscription)

Pallava king of the Bharadvaja gotra, known only from a broken Prakrit pillar inscription found at Manchikallu in the Palnad taluk. D. C. Sircar took it for the earliest Pallava record. He suggested that this Simhavarman brought the Krishna–Guntur country under the Pallavas, pushing out the Ikshvakus, and was perhaps the father of Sivaskandavarman.

Simhavarman II (Pallava)

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. Four of his grants survive. All give villages in the Guntur and Nellore districts and were issued from camps, not from Kanchi: the second Omgodu grant (year 4), the Pikira grant from Menmatura (year 5), the Mangalur grant from Dasanapura (year 8) and the Vilavatti grant (year 10). Many scholars date his accession to 436 from a Jain work, the Lokavibhaga; others place him about 500.

Skandavarman (Salankayana)

Salankayana king of Vengi, known from two Sanskrit grants of his first regnal year, from Kanteru and Kanukollu. The Kanukollu plates, published in 1960, make him a son of Hastivarman II and a great-grandson of Hastivarman I, a cousin of Nandivarman II; before they were found he was usually placed after Nandivarman II as the last known king of the line.

Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk

before 1543 CE

Persian-born officer of the Bahmani sultanate who governed Telingana from Golconda. He conquered much of Telangana and the Krishna–Godavari coast, and founded the Qutb Shahi dynasty. He was assassinated in 1543. According to the Golconda chronicle, he was killed at prayer in the mosque of Golconda fort. According to Ferishta, a slave killed him while he was examining jewels.

Swami Ramananda Tirtha

Leader of the Hyderabad State Congress, which the Nizam's government banned before it could meet in 1938. He was imprisoned in its satyagrahas of 1938, 1940 and 1942. As its president from 1946 he led the 'Join Indian Union' movement for Hyderabad's accession to India, which ended with the integration of the state in 1948.

Tallapaka Annamacharya

Telugu composer of devotional songs (sankirtanas) to the god Venkatesvara of Tirupati, the first of the Tallapaka family of temple poets. The Tirupati temple dated him 1408–1503 when it printed his songs in 1941. Temple records of 1530–1558, studied by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, show his son Tirumalai Aiyangar as the temple's appointed singer, and his grandson setting up his image as a teacher.

Tanguturi Prakasam

Barrister and Congress leader of the Telugu districts of Madras. He chaired the Madras meeting against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919, gave up his practice during non-cooperation, led the salt satyagraha in Madras city in 1930 and became Revenue Minister in 1937. He later served as Chief Minister of Madras and then as the first Chief Minister of the Andhra State. His ministry sat at Kurnool, and it fell after a vote of no confidence in November 1954.

Tarigonda Vengamamba

Telugu woman poet and devotee of Tarigonda, near Vayalpad in the old Kadapa district, who lived in the first half of the 19th century. She wrote the Venkatachala Mahatmyamu on the holy hill of Tirupati, the Rajayogasaramu and a Telugu couplet version of the Bhagavata. C. P. Brown noted in 1852 that she was living in 1840.

Tarigoppula Mallana

Telugu poet of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, author of the Chandrabhanu Charitramu, the story of the marriage of Krishna's son Chandrabhanu. He belonged to the circle of the Vijayanagara king Venkatapati Raya at Chandragiri, where his elder brother Datta Mantri was a minister.

Tenali Ramakrishna

Telugu poet, author of the Panduranga Mahatmyamu. Tradition counts him among the Ashtadiggajas of Krishnadeva Raya's court, and he is famous throughout the Telugu country as a jester. The record is thin. He first wrote as Tenali Ramalinga, a Saiva, before turning Vaishnava. The evidence of his patrons and contemporaries places him in the later sixteenth century, at the court of the Aravidu kings, rather than under Krishnadeva Raya. The jests told of him are folklore.

Tenneti Viswanatham

Congress leader of Visakhapatnam. In the 1920s he was among the Andhra leaders who pressed for complete independence, and in 1928 he was treasurer of the Andhra Provincial Independence League. He led the salt satyagraha in Visakhapatnam district in 1930, was banned from public work in 1932, sat on the Andhra Congress Working Committee in 1937 and was detained in the Quit India movement of 1942.

Tikkana Somayaji

Telugu poet of the 13th century at the court of the Telugu Choda king Manumasiddhi II of Nellore. He translated fifteen books of the Mahabharata into Telugu, completing the work Nannaya had begun two centuries earlier, and wrote the Nirvachanottara Ramayana. He went as his patron's envoy to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva, whose help restored Manumasiddhi to Nellore.

Tirupati Venkata Kavulu

Pair of Telugu poets, Tirupati Sastri and Venkata Sastri, who wrote together in the early 20th century. They were famous for satavadhanam, composing verse on a hundred subjects at once before an audience, and for plays on the Mahabharata such as Pandavavijayamu. Writers of the old school, they translated the Devi Bhagavatam and Arnold's Light of Asia, and trained many later poets.

Tyagaraja

Telugu singer, poet and composer of Tiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district, whose devotional songs (kritis and kirtanas) to Rama are sung all over South India. C. R. Day in 1891 dated him about 1820–1840 and H. A. Popley in 1921 about 1800–1850, while P. T. Raju placed him in the 18th century. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called him the greatest gift of Thanjavur to Telugu literature.

Unnava Lakshminarayana

Lawyer and Congress worker of Guntur. Government intelligence reports named him during the Vandemataram movement; he gave up his legal practice in the non-cooperation movement, and in 1921 he was jailed for a year after going to enquire into the forest troubles of Palnadu. In 1932 the government forbade him, with Unnava Lakshmibayamma and others, to hold a civil disobedience conference.

V. Prabhakar Rao

before 1948 CE

Communist and president of the Andhra Mahasabha's committee in Karimnagar district, from Polampalli in Karimnagar taluk. In 1947–48 he led armed squads against the Nizam's police and the Razakars, and was killed with several companions when police surrounded his squad near Mandapuram, in Huzurabad taluk, in January 1948.

Vattikota Alwar Swamy

Telugu writer and publisher from Nalgonda district who rose from poverty without schooling. In 1938 he founded the Desoddharaka Granthamala, which published small books to spread national feeling. He ran the arrangements for the Andhra Mahasabha's session at Chilkur, became its organising secretary at Bhongir in 1944, and moved from nationalism to the Communist Party.

Vavilikolanu Subbarao

Telugu scholar-poet of the early 20th century who translated Valmiki's Ramayana into Telugu verse line by line and dedicated it to Rama. K. Sitaramaiya records that he believed Ontimitta in Kadapa district was the birthplace of Bammera Potana, renovated the Rama temple there and founded a school of Rama devotees. He was one of the classical scholars criticised by Gidugu Ramamurti in the language quarrel.

Vedam Venkataraya Sastri

Telugu scholar, critic and playwright, counted in 1928 among the leading critics of the day, given the title Mahamahopadhyaya. He wrote learned commentaries on classical poems, the historical play Prataparudriyamu about the last Kakatiya king, and translations from Sanskrit. A defender of the classical literary style, he argued with Kandukuri Veeresalingam and opposed Gidugu Ramamurti's spoken-Telugu movement.

Vemana

Telugu poet of short moral, religious and satirical verses, each ending with the refrain 'Viswad abhi rama vinara Vema'. His verses were the moral schoolbook of the Telugu country. Nothing certain is known of his life: C. P. Brown, who collected and translated the verses from 1824, heard that he lived about 1600, while Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao preferred the early 15th century.

Vemulavada Bhimakavi

Telugu poet known mostly from legend, linked by tradition with Vemulavada in Karimnagar district and with Draksharama. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called him 'a poet of mystery': he has been placed in every century from the 12th to the 16th, and no work can be given to him with certainty. Later poets remembered him for 'words of power', and one tradition makes him the first to write verse with two meanings.

Vijayaraghava Nayaka of Thanjavur

Telugu Nayaka ruler of Thanjavur (then Tanjore), son of Raghunatha Nayaka, and himself an author of Telugu plays, among them a Raghunathabhyudayamu in praise of his father. K. Sitaramaiya and P. T. Raju name him as the patron of the song-composer Kshetrayya. A Telugu chronicle of the Thanjavur kings tells how he refused a marriage alliance with the Nayaka of Madurai and died fighting when Madurai's army stormed Thanjavur.

Vijayarama Raju II of Vizianagaram

before 1794 CE

Raja of Vizianagaram from 1759 to 1794. He was adopted as a boy after Vijayarama Raju I died at Bobbili (1757) and Ananda Raju died (1759). With his half-brother Sitarama Raju he made the Vizianagaram family the strongest power in the Vizagapatam country under the East India Company, and they took the lands of the smaller zamindars. In 1793 his estate was seized for unpaid revenue and he was ordered to leave the district. He camped at Padmanabham, and he was killed there with his Rajput followers when the Company's troops attacked on 10 July 1794.

Vinukonda Vallabharaya

Telugu poet of the 15th century, governor of Vinukonda under the Vijayanagara king Devaraya II, named as the author of the Kridabhiramamu, a lively tour of the streets of Warangal told as a play. His family served the Vijayanagara kings from Bukka I onward as ministers, generals and keepers of the royal jewels. P. T. Raju and K. Sitaramaiya give the Kridabhiramamu to Srinatha instead.