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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Kumaragiri Reddi

Reddi king of Kondavidu (c. 1386–1402), son of Anavota. He is remembered for his spring festival and his court's foreign trade, and as the patron after whom Kataya Vema named his commentary on Kalidasa. He gave the Godavari country around Rajahmundry to his minister and brother-in-law Kataya Vema. At the end of his reign he lost Kondavidu to his kinsman Peda Komati Vema.

Kumaragiri was the fourth king of the Reddis of Kondavidu. His reign is known mainly from three sources:123

  • records of his minister Kataya Vema1
  • Srinatha’s Telugu poem Haravilasam, as summarised by J. Ramayya2
  • the commentary on Kalidasa that Kataya Vema named after him3

In his time the Reddi kingdom was split in two, with an eastern half ruled from Rajahmundry.1

Parents and coming to the throne

Kataya Vema’s Tottaramudi plates say that Kumaragiri was the son of Anavota, the eldest son of the founder Prolaya Vema.1 They say he ruled the country for a long time from his ancestral capital, Kondavidu.1 The introduction to Kataya Vema’s commentary on Kalidasa’s Shakuntala gives the same line, though it leaves out Anavema.3 Ramayya, writing in 1906, concluded that the crown passed to Kumaragiri when his uncle Anavema died.2

The plates also say that Kataya Vema helped Kumaragiri to take possession of his ancestral lands and to govern them, “even as Krishna did to Yudhishthira”.1 M. Somasekhara Sarma read this as evidence of a disputed succession after Anavema’s death.45 He placed Kumaragiri’s accession between 1382 and 1386.45

Other accounts give a different family tree. The Kistna District Manual of 1883 makes Komaragiri a brother of the earlier kings and the father of the last two.6 Robert Sewell’s pedigree of 1932 agrees with the plates in making him Anavota’s son.7

Reputation and the spring festival

The Kondavidu Dandakavili, a local chronicle, calls Kumaragiri an unpopular and wicked prince.2 The Kistna manual describes him as “a ruler of bad reputation”.6 His Reddi surname was Vasantaraja, “king of spring”.8

According to Ramayya, the Haravilasam suggests that Kumaragiri started a great yearly spring festival (vasantotsava).2 The merchant Tippa held the sole right to supply perfumes and spices for it.2 V. Rangacharya calls Kumaragiri the author of the Vasantarajiyam.9

The History of Telugu Literature of 1928 says that the Sringaradipika, a work on poetics, claims to be his composition.10 But it “is held by many to be by Srinatha”.10 Ramayya gave the Sringaradipika to Peda Komati Vema.2

Trade

Tippa, to whom the Haravilasam was dedicated, was the son of the Nellore merchant Avachi Devaya, an early backer of the Reddi kings.8 Ramayya calls him a purveyor (supplier) to Kumaragiri.8 The poem says Tippa brought goods from many lands:2

  • camphor trees from the Panjab2
  • elephants from Ceylon2
  • horses from Hurumanji, which Ramayya took to be Ormuz or Persia2
  • civet from Goa2
  • silk cloth from China2

It also names goods from places Ramayya could not identify.2 Ramayya read this as evidence that the Telugu country “had extensive trade relations” with other parts of India and with foreign countries.2 The same poem makes Kumaragiri a contemporary of Harihara II of Vijayanagara and of the Bahmani sultan Firuz Shah.2

Wars and the division of the kingdom

N. Ramesan, following Somasekhara Sarma, says that a Vijayanagara army under Harihara II took Tripurantakam and advanced to Vinukonda.11 He says Kumaragiri sent Kataya Vema against it.11 The peace that followed was sealed by a marriage between Harihara’s family and Kataya Vema.11

Kataya Vema was also Kumaragiri’s brother-in-law, married to Kumaragiri’s sister Mallambika.1213 In return for his services, the Tottaramudi plates say, Kataya Vema was given “the eastern country”, with Rajahmundry as its capital.1 The date of the division is given differently:21415

  • Ramayya dated it to not later than Saka 1308 (about 1386; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), a year in which Kataya Vema was already issuing his own inscriptions2
  • Sewell placed it about 138014
  • the Godavari gazetteer gives Kataya Vema’s records as running from 1385 to 142215

Somasekhara Sarma held that the eastern province was formed about 1390, after a campaign led by Kumaragiri’s son Anavota and Kataya Vema.516 In his account it passed to Kataya Vema when the young prince died.516 See the Reddis of Rajahmundry.

Kataya Vema’s loyalty

Kataya Vema went on honouring his former master. He named his commentary on Shakuntala the Kumaragirirajiyam, and he called one of his sons Kumaragiri.31718 Inscriptions of 1414 and 1416 at Draksharama were made for the merit of Kataya Vema and of this son and his queen.31718

In 1410 Kataya Vema gave the village of Kaluvacheru, renamed Komaragiripuram, to the temple at Ahobilam.19 He gave it for the merit of “his master (and brother-in-law) Komaragiri-Reddi”, with a list of other villages named after him.19

Next to the village granted in 1411–12 lay an agrahara (village given to Brahmins).3 E. Hultzsch thought Mallambika had founded it and named it after her brother.3 Kataya Vema’s wife made a grant to the Markandeya temple at Rajahmundry.20

End of the reign

Ramayya believed Kumaragiri was the last of Prolaya Vema’s branch.2 After him, in Ramayya’s view, the crown passed to Peda Komati Vema, a grandson of Prolaya Vema’s elder brother Macha.2

Somasekhara Sarma, with more records, found a grant for the merit of Kumaragiri and his wife dated December 1402.4212216 He argued that Peda Komati Vema had seized Kondavidu by force before then, defeating Kataya Vema.4212216 In his account Kumaragiri fled with Kataya Vema to Rajahmundry and spent his last days there in illness.4212216 His dates are therefore uncertain:236411

  • the Dandakavili: Saka 1296–1309 (about 1374–1387)23
  • Ramayya: Saka 1300–1320 (about 1378–1398)23
  • the Kistna manual: 13826
  • Somasekhara Sarma and Ramesan: 1386–1402411

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 ↩7

  2. Ramayya, Madras Museum Plates of Vema (1905–06), p. 12 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  3. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 320 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. M. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 173 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 10 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 385 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. J. Ramayya, Madras Museum Plates of Vema, A.D. 1345, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 11 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  10. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 60 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. 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

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

  13. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  16. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 174 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  17. E. Hultzsch, Three Inscriptions of Kataya-Vema, Saka-Samvat 1313, 1336 and 1338, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 329 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

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

  20. 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)). ↩

  21. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 157 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. Somasekhara Sarma, History of the Reddi Kingdoms (1948), p. 159 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Ramayya, Madras Museum Plates of Vema (1905–06), p. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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.

References

Sources (9)
  1. Archaeological Survey of India, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII (1905–06) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1906, pp. 11–13. J. Ramayya, Madras Museum plates of Vema (No. 3). [Public domain]
  2. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 319–321, 328–330. J. Ramayya, Tottaramudi plates of Kataya-Vema (No. 46); E. Hultzsch (No. 47). [Public domain]
  3. 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]
  4. 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, 385. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. 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. 10. [Public domain]
  6. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 26. [Public domain]
  7. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (The Heritage of India Series) (opens in a new tab), Association Press (Y.M.C.A.), Calcutta / Oxford University Press, London, 1928, pp. 60. [Public domain]
  8. 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]
  9. 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, 157–159, 173–174. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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