Amma II

Amma II ruled the Eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengi for twenty-five years, from 945 to 970.¹² His is the earliest coronation in the dynasty’s history for which a grant gives a date in the Saka era.¹² J. F. Fleet built his whole chronology of the earlier kings by counting back from it.¹² Amma came to the throne as a boy, faced rival claimants from two branches of his own family, and lost his kingdom for a time to a Rashtrakuta invasion.³⁴

Family

Amma II was the son of Chalukya-Bhima II and his queen Lokamahadevi.⁵⁶ A grant of his own compares his birth to that of the war-god: “Just as Kumara to Mahesvara from Uma, Amma-raja was born to him from Lokamahadevi.”⁶ Danarnava, his successor, was his elder half-brother.⁷⁴ The Pithapuram inscription of 1202 adds a third son of Bhima II, named Kama.⁸

One of Amma II’s grants was found at Gundugolanu.² It was made at the request of a prince Kama and his wife Nayamamba, who were Amma II’s father-in-law and mother-in-law.²

He bore the second name Vijayaditya (VI in Fleet’s numbering, V in E. Hultzsch’s pedigree of 1890). Like his uncle Amma I, he also bore the surname Raja-Mahendra.⁵⁹ In his grants he uses the full imperial titles Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Paramabhattaraka.⁵⁹

Coronation

One of his grants, the Padamkaluru plates, gives the date of his coronation in full astronomical detail. Fleet calculated it as Friday, 5 December 945.² He noted that the king was then in the twelfth year from his birth.²

V. Rangacharya wrote about the choice of the boy king in 1960.⁴ He thought it was explained by the lower rank of Danarnava’s mother, Ankidevi.⁴ He noted that the grants describe Amma as born with a mark round his neck like the necklet (kanthika) of an heir.⁴ They also say he was crowned at the request of all the people.⁴

Rivals in his own family

Fleet thought that the family quarrels which had begun in 925 ended with Amma II’s accession.⁵ The only exception he saw was a hint, in one corrupt passage, of a struggle with Yuddhamalla II.⁵ Later finds showed otherwise. B. V. Krishna Rao edited Amma’s Masulipatam plates in 1938.³ He read a verse as saying that after his coronation Amma II defeated a rival Vijayaditya and a group of treacherous kinsmen.³ This rival’s neck was adorned with the kanthika of the heir-apparent.³

Krishna Rao identified the rival with Kanthika-Beta, the son of Amma I, who had been deposed as a child in 925.³ He concluded that Beta came back on the death of Bhima II to oppose the boy king.³ He suggested that the sons of Yuddhamalla II were among the other claimants.³

The Rashtrakuta invasion and the journey to Kalinga

The Mangallu grant was first noticed in 1917 and edited by Rangacharya in 1960.¹⁰¹¹ It says that Amma II ruled for eleven years and then went to the Kalinga country Krishna-kopat.¹⁰¹¹ His half-brother Danarnava then obtained the land from the Vallabha, the Rashtrakuta king, and ruled it.¹⁰¹¹ The Krishna was the Rashtrakuta Krishna III. The words have been read in several ways:

• The 1917 epigraphy report took Krishna-kopat to mean “in wrath against Krishna”, that is, that Amma marched against him.⁴
• B. V. Krishna Rao (1936) held that Amma went towards Kalinga to fight an alliance led by Krishna III.¹²¹³ The alliance meant to replace him with Krishna’s own favourite, Badapa.¹²¹³ In his view the war may have lasted a year or two, and ended in a great victory for Amma.¹²¹³ He dated the Tandikonda grant to 958, after Amma’s return.¹²¹³
• The 1921 epigraphy report, on a newly found grant of Badapa, read it as saying that Badapa sought the help of Krishna III and drove Amma out of the country.¹⁴¹⁵ It concluded that Danarnava ruled while Amma was away and issued his grant in Amma’s name.¹⁴¹⁵ Meanwhile Badapa held the Velanandu district in the east.¹⁴¹⁵
• V. Rangacharya (1960) understood the words to mean that Amma went because Krishna was angry with him.⁴¹⁶ He thought Amma was more the victim than the avenger of that anger, perhaps even a prisoner in Krishna’s camp.⁴¹⁶ In his view Danarnava acted as Amma’s regent and issued the Mangallu grant in his name.⁴¹⁶
• P. V. Parabrahma Sastry (1978) argued that Danarnava issued the Mangallu grant in his own right.¹⁷¹⁸ In his view Krishna III made Danarnava king after Amma fled to Kalinga.¹⁷¹⁸ Amma later gathered forces there and won back his throne.¹⁷¹⁸

All the later records of the dynasty give Amma II a reign of twenty-five years, which places his death in 970.¹⁶⁷ The sources used here do not say how he died.

Grants and religion

Fleet listed six grants of the reign, and more were found later.²⁷ Several show the king supporting both Jain and Saiva foundations:

• The Kaluchumbarru grant was edited by Fleet in 1903.¹⁹²⁰ It gives the village of Kaluchumbarru, in the Attilinandu district near Attili in the Tanuku taluk, to the Jain teacher Arhanandin.¹⁹²⁰ The gift was for repairs to the charitable dining-hall of a Jain temple called Sarvalokasraya-Jinabhavana.¹⁹²⁰ It was made at the request of Chamekamba, a lady of the Pattavardhika family and a pupil of Arhanandin.¹⁹²⁰ Fleet took her to be a courtesan and a favourite of the king.¹⁹²⁰ The grant also made a man named Kusumayudha hereditary village headman (gramakuta).²¹
• The Maliyapundi grant was edited by Hultzsch in 1908.²²²³ It gives the small village of Maliyapundi, near Ongole, to a Jain temple south of Dharmapuri, the Katakabharana-Jinalaya.²²²³ The temple was in the charge of a priest of the Yapaniya order.²²²³ The gift was made at the request of Durgaraja, who had founded the temple.²²²³ He was a great-grandson of Gunaga Vijayaditya III’s general Pandaranga.²²²³
• The Masulipatam plates were edited by Krishna Rao in 1938.³²⁴ They record a gift to the Jain faith by a family of Jain feudatories.³²⁴ Two of them, Bhima and Naravahana, had received the insignia of feudal chiefs from Chalukya-Bhima II.³²⁴ According to Krishna Rao, the plates record that they built two Jain temples at Vijayavatika (Vijayawada, then Bezwada).³²⁴
• The Tandikonda grant was edited by Krishna Rao in 1936.¹³²⁵ It gives Tandikonda and three other villages to the temple of Uma-Mahesvara at Vijayawada, built by Vijayaditya II Narendra-mrigaraja.¹³²⁵ It was composed by the king’s guru Vidyesvara, of the Kalamukha school of Pasupata Saivas.¹³²⁵ The grant sets out Vidyesvara’s line of teachers.¹³²⁵ Robert Sewell entered the same gift under 958.²⁶

Amma II, like his father, called himself a devotee of Siva.⁵¹⁹ The seals of his grants bear the family motto Sri-Tribhuvanankusa.⁵¹⁹

Footnotes

1. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Masulipatam Plates of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica XXIV (1937–38), p. 211 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II” (1960), p. 39 and note 6 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

5. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), pp. 270–271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

6. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 38, translation, p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

7. Fleet, “Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 272 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 227 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

9. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 32, pedigree of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

10. V. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II” (1960), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Tandikonda Grant of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica XXIII (1935–36), p. 162 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Krishna Rao, “Tandikonda Grant of Ammaraja II” (1936), p. 163 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

14. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, paras. 13–14, p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

15. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, para. 14, p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

16. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II” (1960), p. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

17. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 15. ↩ ↩² ↩³

18. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 16. ↩ ↩² ↩³

19. J. F. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant of Vijayaditya-Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 179 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

20. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant” (1903), p. 182 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

21. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant” (1903), p. 183 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

22. E. Hultzsch, “Maliyapundi Grant of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

23. Hultzsch, “Maliyapundi Grant of Ammaraja II” (1908), p. 50 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

24. Krishna Rao, “Masulipatam Plates of Ammaraja II” (1938), p. 212 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

25. Krishna Rao, “Tandikonda Grant of Ammaraja II” (1936), p. 164 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

26. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩