Ganapatideva (Kona)

Ganapatideva was one of the last chiefs of the Haihayas of Kona, the family that ruled the Godavari delta.¹ His records run from 1262 to 1300, mostly in the Kshiraramesvara temple at Palakollu.¹ In his time the Kakatiyas ruled most of the Telugu country, but the Kona chiefs kept much of their freedom.²

Family

E. Hultzsch found two later kings of the family in the Palakollu inscriptions, Ganapatideva and Bhima-Vallabha.¹ The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1932–33 showed how they were related.³ A record of Saka 1184, about 1262, calls the mahamandalesvara (great provincial lord) Kona Ganapatidevaraja the son of Anyama (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).³ Another record says that Bhima-Vallabha married Anyamamba.³ So the report concluded that Ganapati was a son of Bhima-Vallabha.³ It also named his brother, Kona Ramanatha.³

Queens

Ganapatideva’s queen was Odayamahadevi.¹ She was a daughter of Mahadeva of Nidudaprolu, who bore the old royal title Vishnuvardhana-maharaja.¹ Hultzsch thought that Mahadeva may have descended from the Eastern Chalukyas.¹ He took Nidudaprolu to be probably Nidadavolu, nine miles south-west of Rajahmundry.¹ The 1932–33 report found a second queen, Lakumamba.³

V. Yashoda Devi, in a thesis printed in 1993, listed three records of Odayamahadevi at Palakollu, dated 1286, 1290 and 1306.⁴ Ganapati is not mentioned in her grant of 1306, so Yashoda Devi thought he had died by then.⁵

His reign

Yashoda Devi thought that father and son ruled together for many years.⁴ A record of 1262 at Draksharama names Ganapatideva maharaja and his mother Anyamadevi.⁴ A record of 1275 at Palakollu praises his great valour, and calls his father lord of the Kona country.⁴ She thought that they ruled from Palakollu and had a peaceful reign.⁴

The Kakatiyas

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry thought that the Kona Haihayas did not accept the Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi as their overlord.² He noted that no Kakatiya record is found in the Vengi country between 1262 and 1278.² Yashoda Devi likewise found no sign that Ganapati and his father obeyed either the Cholas or the Kakatiyas.⁵ Instead, she noted, they married into the local Chalukya families.⁵

Where the sources disagree

• Whose successors were they? Hultzsch thought that Ganapatideva and Bhima-Vallabha followed Mallideva and Manma-Satya II, the chiefs of the Pithapuram inscription of 1195.¹ Yashoda Devi argued that they followed a later pair, Mallideva II and Bhima IV, who ruled from 1231 to 1254.⁶⁴
• His mother’s family. Yashoda Devi wrote that Anyamamba was a daughter of Indusekhara of the Chalukyas.⁵ The 1932–33 report gave only her name.³

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II; Saka-Samvat 1117”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 87 and note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 127. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. 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

4. Yashoda Devi, History of Andhra Country (1993), p. 89 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

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

6. V. Yashoda Devi, The History of Andhra Country, 1000 A.D.–1500 A.D. (1993), p. 88 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩