Kusumayudha I (Chalukya of Mudigonda)

Kusumayudha I was a chief of the Chalukyas of Mudigonda. His family held the country round Koravi, the modern Kuravi, between Vengi and the Rashtrakuta lands.¹² He lived at the end of the 9th century, when the Rashtrakutas and the Eastern Chalukyas fought over Vengi.³ A stone inscription at Koravi gives him the leading part in one round of that war.⁴⁵

Family

In C. Bendall’s reading of the Mogalcheruvula grant, Kusumayudha I was the son of Kokiraja, the founder of the family.¹ His son was Bijayita.¹⁶ See Kusumayudha IV, whose grant gives this family tree.

S. Dasarathi, writing in 1969, read two verses of the same grant differently.⁷⁸ In his view Kusumayudha’s father was Ranamarda, a brother of Kokiraja who ruled the Manchikonda district.⁸ He pointed out that the Koravi inscription calls Kusumayudha “the ornament of the Ranamarda family”.⁷⁸ N. Mukunda Rao also made Ranamarda the father, but called him probably a younger brother of Kokiraja.⁹

Saving Vengi

The Koravi inscription is in early Telugu, on a broken stone pillar at the Virabhadra temple of the village.¹⁰¹¹ It gives no date.¹¹ According to it, Kannara Ballaha had seized the lands of the Ranamarda family.⁵ N. Venkataramanayya identified Kannara Ballaha with the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II, and Dasarathi agreed.³⁷

Kusumayudha won the lands back by the strength of his arm.⁵ Then he put the necklace of royalty on Chalukya-Bhima I and tied the band of kingship on his forehead at his coronation.⁵ Sword in hand, he stood by the new king to guard his throne.¹⁰¹² As his reward he ruled half of the kingdom beside Bhima as a “deputy king”.²⁵ His share was the Vengi country beginning with Manchikonda-nadu.²⁵

Venkataramanayya called Kusumayudha one of Bhima’s loyal feudatories.³ He thought this Rashtrakuta raid reached only the frontier district, and that Kusumayudha and the other chiefs of the western border soon turned it back.³

The Bezwada plates

Chalukya-Bhima I issued the Bezwada plates at his coronation in 892.¹³ Venkataramanayya read them as a gift of the village of Kukiparru to a Brahmin, made at Kusumayudha’s request.¹³ F. Kielhorn, who edited the plates in 1899, had taken the same word as praise of the king, who “gladdens the learned with the excellent god of love” (kusumayudha).¹⁴ He admitted that he did not understand the exact meaning.¹⁴ The writers of the 1969 symposium on the Koravi inscription followed Venkataramanayya.¹⁵⁸

His sons

The inscription says that Kusumayudha’s eldest son ruled after him, but it does not give his name.² A second piece of the pillar, found in the village tank, names a prince called Anungu Gonangayya. This prince protected the band of kingship “tied by his father”.¹²¹⁵ Most writers in 1969 took Gonangayya to be Bijayita, the son of Kusumayudha I in the Mogalcheruvula grant.¹⁵¹⁶ A younger son, Niravadya, ruled after Gonangayya died.¹⁰¹⁶ See Bijayita.

Where the sources disagree

• His father. Bendall made Kusumayudha the son of Kokiraja.¹ Dasarathi and Mukunda Rao made him the son of Ranamarda.⁸⁹
• The Bezwada plates. Kielhorn read kusumayudha as praise of King Bhima.¹⁴ Venkataramanayya read it as the name of the chief at whose request Bhima made the gift.¹³
• His dates. Venkataramanayya placed him about 890–915, counting twenty-five years a generation back from Kusumayudha IV.¹³ Dasarathi placed him about 878–895.¹⁷ Epigraphia Telanganica, under the entry from a volume of 1962, dates the Koravi inscription to 920. Mukunda Rao dated it to about 932–33.⁴¹⁸

Footnotes

1. C. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV”, Indian Antiquary XXXII (1903), p. 281 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 52. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 51, Koravi inscription, from Selected Stone Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (1962), pp. 17–21. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

5. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 53, summarising A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telangana Districts, Part III (1956), pp. 135–139. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV” (1903), p. 284, translation and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 59, S. Dasarathi in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 60, S. Dasarathi in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 66, N. Mukunda Rao in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

10. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 54, summarising Inscriptions of Warangal District (2016), pp. 10–15. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 65, N. Mukunda Rao in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

12. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 55, reprinting “The Koravi Epigraphs (A Symposium)”, Epigraphia Andhrica I (1969), pp. 118–145: introduction by N. Venkataramanayya and paper by M. V. N. Aditya Sarma. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

13. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 36, note 55 continued (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

14. F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Grants: C. Bezvada Plates of Chalukya-Bhima I”, Epigraphia Indica V (1899), p. 130 and note 11 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

15. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 56, M. V. N. Aditya Sarma in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

16. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 67, N. Mukunda Rao in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

17. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 64, S. Dasarathi’s table of the family (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

18. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 68, N. Mukunda Rao in the Koravi symposium (1969). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩