Mahadeva

Coming to power

Mahadeva was a son of Prola II and Muppamamba and the younger brother of Rudradeva.¹ The Ganapesvaram inscription of 1231 says: “After king Rudra had gone to heaven, the earth was cherished by king Mahadeva”.² Rudradeva had no children. The Khandavalli copper plates of Prataparudra say that Rudra gave the kingdom to his younger brother. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry suggested that Mahadeva may have ruled as regent for the young prince Ganapati.³

One inscription calls Ganapati Rudra’s son, probably by adoption.⁴ Parabrahma Sastry thought that Ganapati went with Mahadeva on his campaign against the Yadavas.⁴

His reign was short, and its dates differ slightly in Parabrahma Sastry’s own work:

• his genealogical table gives 1196–99, though it is misprinted as 1296–99
• his text gives 1196 to 1198
• the heading of his chapter on Mahadeva gives 1195–1198/99⁵³

His 1975 thesis has him succeed in 1195–96.⁶ Rudradeva’s last known date is April 1195, and Ganapatideva’s first is December 1199.⁴⁷

Records

Parabrahma Sastry knew of only two inscriptions of Mahadeva’s reign.³ One is at Sundella in the Karimnagar district, dated 1197, and the other is a broken, undated record in the Warangal fort.³

Epigraphia Telanganica (2023) lists more.⁸ An inscription from Kummarikunta in the Warangal district, dated 1197, records temples to Mahadeva (Shiva), Vasudeva and Surya built by Malli Reddi. Its two published reports give its date as 13 May and 29 May. The temples stood in the estate of Kusumanayaka, chief of Koravi, a subordinate of the mahamandaleshvara (great provincial lord) Kakatiya Mahadeva.⁸ A pillar at Maturu in the Nalgonda district, dated 26 November 1197, records a village granted by Kakati Mahadeva Maharaja, lord of Anmakondapura (Hanamkonda), to the god Maheshvara at the northern gate of Srisailam. Another record, from Togarrayi in the Warangal district, gives him grander titles: praudha-pratapa-chakravarti, Rayanarayana and Raya-bhujabala-bhima.⁹

A damaged pillar inscription at the Sambhuni-gudi in Warangal fort praises a king Mahadeva for his devotion to Shiva. It says that he valued the sovereignty he had won no more than a straw.¹⁰ It adds that he learned the whole of the dharma (sacred duty) from the sage Dhruveshvara.¹⁰ Parabrahma Sastry names Dhruveshvara Pandita as Mahadeva’s teacher, who gave him Shaiva initiation.¹¹

Death at Devagiri

The one political event of the reign known for certain is Mahadeva’s invasion of the Yadava (Seuna) kingdom of Devagiri.³ The Khandavalli plates say, in a figure of speech, that while plundering the enemy’s town at night he “slept” on the temples of an elephant.³

The Yenamadala inscription of his granddaughter Ganapamba, dated 1249–50, uses the same image.¹²¹³ In E. Hultzsch’s translation: “Having fallen asleep in a great battle on the two temples of a female elephant, this foremost among warriors awoke on the two breasts of a distinguished nymph of heaven.”¹²¹³ Hultzsch explained that this means he was killed in battle.¹²¹³

The Yadava inscriptions tell the story from the other side. The Paithan plates of the Yadava king Ramachandra say that Jaitrapala killed the king of Trikalinga (a mistake for Trilinga, the Telugu country).³ The plates add that Jaitrapala freed Ganapati from prison and made him king.³ A Bahal inscription of the Yadava king Singhana says that Jaitugi had saved Ganapati’s life in battle and made him lord of the Andhra country.¹¹¹⁴ Parabrahma Sastry concluded that Mahadeva attacked during the reign of Jaitugi I and died fighting from an elephant at night while trying to take the enemy capital. Why he undertook the campaign is not known.³¹¹

Elsewhere Parabrahma Sastry places his death in 1198.¹⁵ The Yadava court writer Hemadri wrote that Jaitrapala sacrificed a “Raudra” in battle. R. G. Bhandarkar changed this to Rudra and took Rudradeva as the victim. Parabrahma Sastry argued that the passage refers to Mahadeva.⁴ His thesis notes that the Bayyaram tank inscription calls Mahadeva Kataka-churakara, the plunderer of Kataka. He read Kataka as Kalyana, sacked during the same campaign.⁶

Mahadeva’s death left the young Ganapatideva a captive of the Yadavas.¹⁶ The general Recherla Rudra held the kingdom together until Ganapatideva returned.¹⁶ Parabrahma Sastry counted Mahadeva among the Kakatiya rulers who died as warriors.¹⁷

Family

Mahadeva’s queen was Bayyamamba (Bayyambika), the mother of Ganapati.²¹¹ They also had two daughters.¹¹¹⁸

Mailama (Mailamba) married Rudra of the Natavadi family, the grandson of Mahadeva’s maternal uncle Natavadi Durga. Kundamamba married another Rudra, apparently a son of the Natavadi chief Buddha.¹¹¹⁸ Mailamba built the Bayyaram tank, which records the family’s genealogy. Its inscription says that Mahadeva arranged the marriages of both Ganapati and Mailamba.¹⁹¹⁶ Parabrahma Sastry placed these marriages before the Devagiri campaign.¹⁹¹⁶

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, Ganapesvaram Inscription of the Time of Ganapati, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 83 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

2. Hultzsch, Ganapesvaram Inscription (1894–95), p. 90, verses 11–12 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 103. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 100. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 35–36. ↩

6. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas and Their Times (PhD thesis, Karnatak University, 1975), p. 150. ↩ ↩²

7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 106. ↩

8. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 2 (2023), pp. 102–104. ↩ ↩²

9. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 2 (2023), pp. 103–104, 106. ↩

10. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), p. 65 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)); Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 2 (2023), pp. 104–106. ↩ ↩²

11. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 104. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

12. E. Hultzsch, Yenamadala Inscription of Ganapamba, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 101, verse 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. Hultzsch, Yenamadala Inscription (1894–95), p. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), pp. 128, 355 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

15. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 143. ↩

16. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 106–107. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

17. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 142. ↩

18. Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 131 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

19. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 30. ↩ ↩²