Bhima-Vallabha (Kona)

Bhima-Vallabha was a chief of the Haihayas of Kona, who ruled the Godavari delta from Palakollu in the 13th century.¹² He was the father of the chief Ganapatideva.² His family’s records show the Kona chiefs still ruling their small country while the Kakatiyas held most of the Telugu lands.³

Family

A record at Palakollu names Bhima-Vallabha as the son of Rajaparendu and grandson of Gandavendara, “the lord of Mahishmati”.² The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1932–33 thought that he was probably a son of Mahipalarendu, and so a grandson of the chief Vallabha, after whom he was named.² It explained that the names Rajaparendu and Mahipalarendu mean the same thing.² In that case, Gandavendara would be a title of Vallabha.²

The same record says that Bhima-Vallabha married Anyamamba.² Kona Ganapatideva, in a record of Saka 1184, about 1262, is called the son of Anyama (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).² So the report concluded that Ganapatideva was Bhima-Vallabha’s son.² Another son, Kona Ramanatha, made a gift at Palakollu in Saka 1240, about 1318.²

His reign

E. Hultzsch knew of two inscriptions of Bhima-Vallabha in the Kshiraramesvara temple at Palakollu.¹ He dated one of them to Saka 1240, about 1318.¹

V. Yashoda Devi, in a thesis printed in 1993, thought that Bhima-Vallabha and Ganapati ruled together, as father and son, from about 1254 to 1300.⁴ She dated a record naming Bhima-Vallabha and Anyamamba to 1261.⁴ In her account, Ramanatha took Ganapati’s place beside his father after 1300.³ A Palakollu record of 1318 names the sons of Ramanatha, and after that year neither father nor son is heard of.³

The later Bhima-Vallabha

A Kona Bhima-Vallabharaja appears again in a record of Saka 1286, about 1364.² The 1932–33 report thought that he was a different man, probably a grandson.² Yashoda Devi thought he was a grandson of Ramanatha, and the last ruler of the family.³⁵ She noted that by 1369 the Kona country had become part of the Reddi kingdom.⁵ Robert Sewell’s table (1932) also ends with a Kona Bhima-Vallabha in 1364–65, and says that the family then disappears from history.⁶ See the Reddis of Kondavidu.

Where the sources disagree

• The record of 1318. Hultzsch gave the Palakollu inscription of Saka 1240 to Bhima-Vallabha himself.¹ The 1932–33 report read the gift of that year as made by his son Ramanatha.² Yashoda Devi read the record of 1318 as naming Ramanatha’s sons.³
• His father. The Palakollu record calls his father Rajaparendu.² The 1932–33 report and Yashoda Devi took this name to stand for Mahipalarendu, son of Vallabha, but the report called the link only probable.²⁴

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II; Saka-Samvat 1117”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 87 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for 1932–33 (1936), Part II, para. 11, p. 59 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. Yashoda Devi, History of Andhra Country (1993), p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. V. Yashoda Devi, The History of Andhra Country, 1000 A.D.–1500 A.D. (1993), p. 89 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Yashoda Devi, History of Andhra Country (1993), p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

6. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 361, “Kona or Konamandala Chiefs” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩