A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Gonka I (Velanati)

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.

Gonka I was the first chief of the Velanati Chodas to hold high office under the Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I. E. Hultzsch edited the family tree from the Pithapuram pillar inscription of 1186.1 In it he placed Gonka as the tenth name in the list, a son of Nanniraja and a vassal of Kulottunga I.1 The inscription says that Gonka ruled the Andhra country under Kulottunga’s orders.12 Hultzsch took this to mean the Telugu country “or perhaps rather a portion of the latter”.12

The earliest dated record of him is an inscription at Chebrolu, dated in Saka 998 (1076; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).3 It records the gift of three lamps to the temples of Mulasthana-Mahadeva and Kumarasvamin.3 The Godavari District Gazetteer (1907) also cited this record of 1076.4

Gordon Mackenzie’s Kistna District Manual (1883) listed a grant of “Gonka Chola” of 1109 among the records of the Gonka family.5 He described the family as people “who appear to have been hereditary Viceroys of the Chola Kings”.5

The copper plates of the Velanati chief Rajendra Choda II, as the Government Epigraphist read them in 1917, call Gonka the founder of the family’s fortunes.6 They say that he got the chiefship of the six-thousand country from Kulottunga I by helping him on the battlefield, and that he married Sabbambika.6

Robert Sewell’s table (1932) gives his dates as 1077 to perhaps 1108.7 M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1076 to 1117.8 He noted that the Telugu poem Keyurabahucharitramu praises his valour and the skill of his minister Nanduri Govindamatya.8

His nephew Vedura II served the viceroy Vira-Choda and was rewarded for a victory over a Pandya king.2 His son Rajendra Choda I was adopted by Kulottunga I and given the Vengi country.2

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Prithvisvara; Saka-Samvat 1108”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. E. Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya”, Epigraphia Indica V (1899), p. 143, note 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, para. 27, p. 119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 399 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  8. M. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 2 (October 1930), p. 68 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Velanati Chodas

c. 1076–1209 CE

A family of chiefs of Velanadu, the Chandavolu (Tsandavolu) country in the western Krishna delta. They rose as officers of the Eastern Chalukya and Chola kings and governed the Vengi country for the Chola emperors from the reign of Kulottunga I. Their records run from 1076 at Chebrolu to 1206. Gonka II claimed rule from Kalahasti to the Mahendra mountain, and Rajendra Choda II was the chief power on the coast in the 1170s. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva defeated the last of them, Prithvisvara, and had annexed Velanadu by 1209.

References

Sources (7)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 35–36. E. Hultzsch, Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara. [Public domain]
  2. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. V (1898–99) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the 1959 Government of India Press facsimile reprint), 1899, pp. 143. [Public domain]
  3. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1915-16 to 1919-20 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1920, pp. 119 (report for 1916–17). [Public domain]
  4. M. Rama Rao, History of the Velnadu Chiefs, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. V, pt. 2 (October 1930) (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, 1930, pp. 68. [Public domain]
  5. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 23. [Public domain]
  6. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 7. [Public domain]
  7. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 399. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: