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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Kataya Vema

Minister and brother-in-law of Kumaragiri of Kondavidu. He received 'the eastern country' with Rajahmundry as its capital in the 1380s, and ruled the Godavari delta and the coast to Simhachalam until about 1414–16. A grandson of Prolaya Vema through his mother, he was also a Sanskrit scholar. He wrote the Kumaragirirajiyam, a commentary on Kalidasa's plays.

Kataya Vema was the first ruler of the eastern Reddi kingdom at Rajahmundry. He began as the minister of his brother-in-law Kumaragiri of Kondavidu.1 He supported Kumaragiri’s cause “even as Krishna did to Yudhishthira”.1 As a reward he received “the eastern country, of which Rajamahendranagari (the modern Rajahmundry) was the capital”.1 See the Reddis of Rajahmundry.

Family

Kataya Vema was the son of Kata II and of Doddambika, a daughter of Prolaya Vema of Kondavidu.2 His grandfather was Mara and his great-grandfather Kata I.23 The verse that opens his inscriptions at Pithapuram and Draksharama calls him “the great-grandson of Kataya … the grandson of Mara, the son of the lord Kata”.23 It also calls him “the son-in-law of the heroic prince Annavota”.23

He married his cousin Mallambika, a daughter of Anavota, the elder brother of Anavema.2 M. Somasekhara Sarma, with V. Prabhakara Sastri, held that Anavota’s daughter was called Doddambika.4 In his inscriptions he appears as Katamareddi-Vemareddi, “Vema, son of Katama Reddi”.5 G. V. Ramamurti noted that the Reddis often put a father’s name before a son’s.6

He named a son Kumaragiri after his master.57 Inscriptions at Draksharama in 1414 and 1416 were made for the merit of Kataya Vema, of this son and of the son’s queen.57 His daughter Anitalli married Virabhadra, a son of Allada Reddi.6

Somasekhara Sarma gives him a second daughter, Hariharamba, who married Virabhadra’s elder brother Allaya Vema.8 L. D. Barnett read the Vemavaram grant as saying that the mother of Allaya Vema’s wife was a daughter of the Vijayanagara king Harihara.9 N. Ramesan, on the other hand, says that Harihara II gave his daughter Hariharamba in marriage to Kataya Vema himself, to seal a peace.10

Minister and general

Ramesan, following Somasekhara Sarma, says that Kataya Vema led Kumaragiri’s army against a Vijayanagara force.1011 This force had taken Tripurantakam and reached Vinukonda.1011 Ramesan adds that Kataya Vema later led an eastern campaign.1011 The introduction to his commentary on Shakuntala names forts he took, among them Bendapudi and Ramagiri.1011

Somasekhara Sarma credits him and Kumaragiri’s son Anavota with leading the Reddi armies as far as Cuttack and the Chilka lake about 1390.12

The eastern kingdom

J. Ramayya dated the gift of the eastern country to not later than Saka 1308 (1386–87; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).13 His reason was that Kataya Vema was already issuing his own inscriptions by then.13 Robert Sewell placed the gift about 1380.14

In 1386 he gave gold to the temple at Simhachalam for the merit of his parents.15 In the same year a minister of his gave a flower garden to the Amaresvara temple at Amaravati.16 In December 1391 he built a stone enclosure for the Kuntimadhava temple at Pithapuram.53

In 1410 he gave villages to the Narasimha temple at Ahobilam.17 They included Kaluvacheru, renamed Komaragiripuram, and other villages named after Kumaragiri.17 His Tottaramudi plates of 1411–12 gave a village on the Vriddha-Gautami in the Konasima.18 The village was named Mallavaram after his wife.18 See the Tottaramudi plates.

At Draksharama, his servant Kadiyamu Machinenu built an asthana-mandapa (audience hall) of stone in October 1414.57 Machinenu’s wife Potasani built a stone enclosure there in March 1416.57 Each was made for the merit of Kataya Vema, his queen, his son and his son’s queen.57 His wife made a grant to the Markandeya temple at Rajahmundry.19

Scholar

Ramayya called Kataya Vema “the author of a learned commentary on Kalidasa’s three dramas”.118 The commentary on Shakuntala is named Kumaragirirajiyam after his patron.118 Its introduction gives the same genealogy as his grants.118

Wars and death

The Telugu Choda chief Annadeva claimed in his Rajahmundry Museum plates that he “protected the family of Kataya Vema as they prostrated at his feet” (bowed to the ground before him).2021 V. Appa Rao in 1927 took this as a defeat of Kataya Vema’s house.2021

Somasekhara Sarma held that Kataya Vema refused to accept Peda Komati Vema as his overlord after Kumaragiri’s death.222324 In his view, Kataya Vema fought Annadeva and Peda Komati Vema with help from Deva Raya I of Vijayanagara, and died in these wars.222324 He cited the title “who took the head of Kataya Vema”, borne by the Koppunula chiefs who served Peda Komati Vema.222324

The Godavari gazetteer gives his dates as 1385 to 1422.25 His last published inscription is of 1416.7 After his death his kinsman Allada Reddi took control of the kingdom.25

Footnotes

  1. J. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema, Saka-Samvat 1333, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 319 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 321 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Hultzsch, Three Inscriptions of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 329 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. M. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 48 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. E. Hultzsch, Three Inscriptions of Kataya-Vema, Saka-Samvat 1313, 1336 and 1338, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 328 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  6. G. V. Ramamurti, Konkuduru Plates of Allaya-Dodda, Saka-Samvat 1352, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Hultzsch, Three Inscriptions of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 330 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  8. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 181 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. L. D. Barnett, Vemavaram Grant of Allaya-Vema Reddi: Saka 1356, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 238 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. N. Ramesan, Copper Plate Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh Government Museum, Hyderabad, Vol. I (1962), p. 168 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. Ramesan, Copper Plate Inscriptions, Vol. I (1962), p. 169 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 173 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. J. Ramayya, Madras Museum Plates of Vema, A.D. 1345, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 12 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  14. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  15. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. III (1919), p. 1678, Vizagapatam No. 105 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. II (1919), p. 824, Guntur No. 625 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  17. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. II (1919), p. 975, Kurnool No. 598 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 320 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  19. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 723, Godavari No. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  20. V. Appa Rao, “Rajahmundry Museum Plates of Annadeva Choda”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society I, No. 4 (1927), p. 176 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  21. Appa Rao, “Rajahmundry Museum Plates of Annadeva Choda” (1927), p. 177 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  22. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 174 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), pp. 176–177 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 180 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  25. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 26 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Reddis of Kondaveedu

c. 1325–1424 CE

Telugu dynasty of the Panta Reddi family. It rose on the coast after the fall of the Kakatiyas and ruled for about a hundred years, from about 1325 to the 1420s, first from Addanki and then from the hill fortress of Kondavidu. Its six kings, from Prolaya Vema to Racha Vema, held the country between Srisailam and the sea and at times the Godavari delta. They built the flights of steps at Srisailam and Ahobilam, fought the Recherla Velamas, Vijayanagara and the Bahmanis, and kept a court where Errapragada and Srinatha wrote. Under Kumaragiri the eastern half of the kingdom became a separate state at Rajahmundry.

Reddis of Rajahmundry

c. 1386–1448 CE

The eastern Reddi kingdom, centred on Rajahmundry and the Godavari delta. It grew out of the Kondavidu kingdom when Kumaragiri Reddi gave 'the eastern country' to his minister and brother-in-law Kataya Vema in the 1380s. After Kataya Vema's death about 1414–16, his kinsman Allada Reddi fought off the Telugu Choda Annadeva, the Kondavidu king and a Bahmani army. Allada's sons Allaya Vema and Virabhadra ruled jointly until the 1440s, when the Gajapati Kapilesvara of Orissa took the delta. Srinatha wrote his last poems at their court.

References

Sources (11)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 318–321, 328–330. J. Ramayya, Tottaramudi plates of Kataya-Vema (No. 46); E. Hultzsch, three inscriptions of Kataya-Vema (No. 47). [Public domain]
  2. Archaeological Survey of India, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII (1905–06) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1906, pp. 12. J. Ramayya (No. 3). [Public domain]
  3. 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. 56. G. V. Ramamurti (No. 9). [Public domain]
  4. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIII (1915–16) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, Calcutta, 1916, pp. 238–239. L. D. Barnett (No. 23). [Public domain]
  5. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 723, 824, 975. [Public domain]
  6. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. III (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 1678. [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. 202–203, 210, 386. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  8. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 26. [Public domain]
  9. Not Available, The Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, Vol.1,pt.2 (opens in a new tab), 1926, pp. 176–179. V. Appa Rao (1927). [Public domain]
  10. N. Ramesan, Copper Plate Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh Government Museum, Hyderabad, Vol. I (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series No. 6) (opens in a new tab), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1962, pp. 168–169. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  11. M. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (circa 1325 A.D. to circa 1448 A.D.) (opens in a new tab), Andhra University, Waltair (Andhra University Historical Series No. 38), 1948, pp. 44–45, 173–181. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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