Dhananjaya (Telugu Chola)

Dhananjayavarman was a Telugu Chola king, the youngest son of Nandivarman in the Malepadu plates.¹ His editors identify him with Erikal-Muturaju Dhananjaya, who ruled Renandu according to a pillar inscription at Kalamalla.²³

In the family tree

In the family tree of the Malepadu plates, Dhananjaya is the youngest of the three sons of Nandivarman.¹ Nandivarman was a king of the Kasyapa-gotra (clan), born in the family of Karikala.¹ Dhananjaya’s brothers were Simhavishnu and Sundarananda.¹

H. Krishna Sastri translated the plates in 1912.¹ His translation says that the youngest, “Dhanaṁjayavarman, on whom devolved the sovereignty in regular succession”, had a son who took the title Chola-Maharaja, Mahendravikrama.¹

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (1956) made him the founder of the line that came from Erigal.⁴ This line ruled Renandu, Hiranyarashtra and Siddhi, with capitals at Chippili and Malepadu.⁴

The Kalamalla inscription

A damaged pillar at Kalamalla in the Kamalapuram country records a gift to, or by, one Revanakalu of Chirumburu.³ The gift was made while Erikal-Muturaju Dhananjaya was ruling Renandu.³

Krishna Sastri noticed it in 1912 as a record of “a certain D[h]anaṁjeyuṇḍu who was ruling Rēnāṇḍu”.² By its letters he placed it “roughly … to the same period as the Mālēpāḍu plates”.² He thought it “not unlikely” to refer to Dhananjayavarman, the last son of Nandivarman.²

Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya edited the inscription.³ They accepted the identification without doubt.³ They dated the pillar to the last quarter of the 6th century by comparing its letters with the Biragunda stone of the Western Ganga king Avinita.³ See the Kalamalla inscription.

His title

The editors argued that Erikal or Erigal is a place name, the old seat of the family.⁵ They identified it with Nidugal in the Pavugada taluk of Tumkur district.⁵

Muturaju is a rank, not a personal name.⁶ In their reading it was held by a senior prince other than the king and the heir.⁶ Dhananjaya held it as the third of three brothers, whose elder brothers had sons of their own.⁶ The Malepadu plates say that the brothers’ sons and grandsons each enjoyed the fortune of a kingdom.⁶

The Erragudipadu stone, a few miles away and in almost the same letters, names an Erikal-Mutturaju without a personal name.⁷ The editors thought him plausibly, but not certainly, the same Dhananjaya.⁷

Another Dhananjaya

Krishna Sastri also pointed to “a certain Dhanaṁjaya Eriga” of inscriptions in the Maddagiri taluk of Tumkur.² This man called himself a Chola ruling a district that Krishna Sastri read as Alvadi six hundred.² B. L. Rice dated him to about the middle of the 8th century.² Krishna Sastri thought this chief “either directly or indirectly connected” with Dhananjayavarman.²

Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya read the district as Erigalvadi six hundred.⁵⁴ They treated its ruler as a later chief, an Adhiraja Dhananjaya of the Chola family living about the middle of the 8th century.⁵⁴ His link with the main line was unknown.⁵⁴

Date

None of the records is dated.³⁸ The figure of about 575 rests on the comparison with Avinita’s inscription.³⁸ It also rests on a family tree counted at 25 years a generation from Nandivarman.³⁸ Nandivarman is placed about 550, because he and his son Simhavishnu bear the names of 6th-century Pallava kings.³⁸

Krishna Sastri allowed a little more than a century for the five rulers from Nandivarman to Punyakumara.⁹ He dated the Malepadu plates to the end of the 8th century, which would bring Dhananjaya well into the 8th.⁹

H. K. Narasimhaswami took the three brothers to have ruled one after another.¹⁰ He started from Punyakumara’s accession about 740 and placed Nandivarman’s accession about 630.¹⁰ This puts Dhananjaya at the end of the 7th century.¹⁰ The dynasty page sets out the three datings.¹⁰

Footnotes

1. H. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara; the Fifth Year”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1912), p. 339 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 341 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 221 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

4. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 249 and note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), pp. 221–222 and note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), pp. 223–224 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 227 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

8. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), pp. 250–251 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 344 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

10. H. K. Narasimhaswami, “Dommara-Nandyala Plates of Punyakumara; 10th Year”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 270 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴