Kusumaditya (Chalukya of Mudigonda)

Kusumaditya is the donor of the Kukkunur plates, the only surviving copper-plate grant of the Chalukyas of Mudigonda.¹ An earlier grant of the family, of Kusumayudha IV, could not be traced by 1974.¹

The Kukkunur plates

The five plates come from Kukkunur, near Bhadrachalam in the old Khammam district, and the Andhra Pradesh Department of Archaeology and Museums acquired them. They were noticed in Indian Archaeology 1971-72 and edited by Bh. Lakshminarayana in Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974). Their seal bears a boar, a makara arch, fly-whisks, an empty throne, an umbrella, a crescent and a conch.²³

Apart from Sanskrit verses at the beginning and end, the record is in Telugu prose.¹ Lakshminarayana called it the earliest copper-plate grant written entirely in Telugu prose.¹ He dated the letters to about the beginning of the 13th century, but the government epigraphist’s report of 1971-72 had put them at about the 11th.³² See the Kukkunur plates.

Family

According to the plates, after fifty-nine kings Kariya-Gonaga, lord of Koravipura, came to power.¹ Kariya-Gonaga’s brother Nijjayaraja had a son, Kusumayudha.¹ That Kusumayudha’s son was Beta, and Beta’s son was a second Kusumayudha, called Mutt-anegalla.¹ Kusumayudha Mutt-anegalla’s son was Bottu-Beta.¹

Kusumaditya and Nagati were the two sons of Bottu-Beta and his queen Mahadevi, and Kusumaditya, the elder, became king.¹ P. V. Parabrahma Sastry gave the queen’s name as Abhinava-gauri in his table of the family.⁴

Exile and return

In the first year of his rule a disaster (bhumi-praghattambu) struck the kingdom.¹ His minister Indaparaju, the head of the revenue office (srikaranadhipati), and Indaparaju’s younger brother Remaraju then acted.¹ They gathered the treasure, chariots, elephants and horses, and took the king to foreign lands.¹ There they lived in the forests on roots and fruits for twelve years.¹

With their advice and their service in battle, Kusumaditya returned to his own country, the Visuru-nadu, and ruled all of it.¹ In thanks he made the brothers mahamandalesvaras (great feudal lords) and gave them the insignia of that rank.¹ He granted them the fertile village of Krichchaka in Visuru-nadu, on the bank of the Godavari, as an agrahara (village granted to Brahmins).¹ The record was composed by Bayya and engraved by Betacharya.¹ Lakshminarayana thought the gift village was probably Kukkunur itself.⁵

The plates do not name the enemy. Parabrahma Sastry suggested that the “upheaval” was an attack by the Kakatiyas.⁶⁷ In his reading the Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra put the family to flight.⁶⁷ He based this on Rudra’s Palampet inscription of 1213, which says that Rudra made one Nagati-bhupala flee.⁶⁷ Lakshminarayana held that the riddle could not be solved.⁸

Date

An inscription of 1218 at Nattaramesvaram, in the West Godavari district, names two brothers called Kusumaditya and Nagatiraja who made gifts in the Vengi country.⁹¹⁰⁷ Parabrahma Sastry identified them with Kusumaditya and his brother, and dated the Kukkunur plates to the closing years of the 12th century.⁹¹⁰⁷ He thought the Kakatiya Ganapatideva later drove the family from Visuru-nadu.⁹¹⁰⁷

Lakshminarayana allowed about twenty-five years a reign, and on that basis placed Kusumaditya at about 1140–1165 and Nagati at about 1165–1196.⁸⁵ He thought the Nagati of the Palampet inscription was too late to be Kusumaditya’s brother, and was perhaps his grandson.⁸⁵

Footnotes

1. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 353, reprinting Lakshminarayana (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 351, summarising Indian Archaeology 1971-72, p. 52, and the Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy for 1971-72, p. 20. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

3. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 352, reprinting Bh. Lakshminarayana, “Kukkunuru Plates of Kusumadya”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974), pp. 39–49. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

4. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 53, genealogical table. ↩

5. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 356, reprinting Lakshminarayana (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 56. ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 57. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 355, reprinting Lakshminarayana (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 53. ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 54. ↩ ↩² ↩³