Lingama Nayaka (Recherla)

Lingama-nayaka was a chief of the Devarakonda branch of the Recherla family in the fifteenth century. Two inscriptions of 1427 give his descent.¹²³ The family chronicles add a list of wars and a quarrel with the Reddi kings.¹²³ Not all of these can be fitted to the dates of the inscriptions.¹²³ See the Recherla Velamas.

The inscriptions of 1427

Epigraphia Telanganica summarises a Telugu and Sanskrit inscription of 30 July 1427.¹ It is on a pillar of the bund (embankment) of the Gauramma tank at Sarikonda, in the Kalwakurthy taluk of the Mahbubnagar district.¹ It traces the line from Dacha and Singa through Madhava I, Vedagiri I and Madhava II to Vedagiri II.¹⁴

According to the Sarikonda inscription of 1427, Lingama-nayaka and his sister Ammalamba were the children of Vedagiri II.¹⁴ Lingama married Gauridevi, by whom he had a son, Parvata.¹⁴ The editors note that line 93 of this record gives the family name of the donor as Vela(m)ma.¹

A Sanskrit inscription of 4 December 1427 on a pillar of the Maisamma tank at Charikonda, in the same taluk, gives the same line.² It runs from Dachaya through Madhava, Vedagiri and a second Madhava called Khadga-Narayana to a second Vedagiri.² The Charikonda inscription of 1427 names Lingama as the brother of Vedagiri II, not his son.² It gives him the title Medini-Varaha, “the boar who lifted the earth” carried off by the Yavanas (the Muslims).²

The inscription praises the gifts of Lingama’s wife Gauri at Srisailam and Tirumala, and her tank, the Gaura-samudra.² It mentions the kingdoms of the Gajapatis, the Asvapatis (the Bahmanis) and the Narapatis (Vijayanagara).² His minister was Tippaya, and the poem was composed by Ahobala Sukavi.² The list of rulers in the same work gives Lingama a reign from 1427 to 1475.⁵

The chronicle

The family chronicle printed in 1910 also makes Lingama a brother of Vedagiri.³ It names three sons of a Kumara Mada: Sura, Kumara (or Chinna) Vedagiri and Lingama.³

The chronicle says that Lingama’s elder brother, Kumara Vedagiri, killed Macha Reddi, a brother of the Reddi king Anavema.³ Vedagiri had Macha Reddi’s likeness engraved on his spittoon.³ In the chronicle’s story, Anavema in turn killed Vedagiri and did the same to his likeness.³ Then the young Lingama gathered his kinsmen and killed Anavema.³ He had the Reddi’s likeness engraved on his own spittoon and took the title simha-talata.³

The chronicle goes on to list his victories:³⁶⁷

• thirty-two forts taken from the Muslims³⁶⁷
• wars with the rulers of Rajahmundry and Vijayanagara³⁶⁷
• the capture of Nagarjunakonda from Gona Malla Reddi³⁶⁷
• the defeat of a king called Jayasingaraju, who marched on Warangal³⁶⁷
• the defeat of Munuganti Mummadi, who marched on Rachakonda³⁶⁷
• a victory near Bhimavaram over a Kaparaju and his army³⁶⁷

It says that he received an anklet of honour (gandapenderam) from Praudha Devaraya of Vijayanagara.³⁶⁷ It places him in the middle of the fifteenth century, as that king’s contemporary.³⁶⁷

Alladi Jagannatha Sastri’s family history of 1922 repeats the story of Anavema’s death.⁸⁹ It adds that Lingama took the Reddi king’s favourite dagger, Nandikampotu.⁸⁹ The Reddi Virabhadra tried to win it back through the poet Srinatha, and this is the subject of a humorous Telugu poem.⁸⁹

The chronicle’s Reddi wars do not fit the dates of the records. According to the chronology accepted by N. Ramesan in 1962, the Reddi king Anavema ruled from about 1364 to 1386.¹⁰ That is half a century before Lingama’s inscriptions of 1427.¹⁰¹ The battle near Bhimavaram recalls the battle in which, according to other chronicle accounts, Anapota overthrew the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka about 1368.⁶¹¹ See Anapota Nayaka.

Devarakonda in 1459

In 1459 a Bahmani army under Khwaja Jahan and Nizam-ul-Mulk besieged Devarakonda. Ferishta calls it a fortress “belonging to a zemindar of Tulingana” (a landholder of Telangana), who had supported the rebel Sikandar Khan.¹² The defenders called in the Raja of Orissa, whose troops arrived with war-elephants.¹²¹³ The Bahmani army was caught between the garrison and the relief force, and it was routed and pursued for eighty miles.¹²¹³

Ferishta does not name the chief of Devarakonda.¹² The census survey of the Nalgonda district (1964) says that the Rachakonda king Singama III was allied with Lingama of Devarakonda.¹⁴ It says he was also allied with Vijayanagara and with Kapilesvara Gajapati of Orissa.¹⁴ See Devarakonda.

Footnotes

1. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), pp. 33–34, No. 17. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 35, No. 19. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Vellala Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), pp. 54–55 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 34, No. 17, genealogy. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 11, list of rulers. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

6. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), pp. 56–57 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

7. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), pp. 58–59 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

8. Alladi Jagannatha Sastri, A Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas (1922), p. 25 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Jagannatha Sastri, Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas (1922), p. 26 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. N. Ramesan, Copper Plate Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh Government Museum, Hyderabad, Vol. I (1962), p. 165 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

11. V. Yashoda Devi, After the Kakatiyas (1975), pp. 64–65. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

12. Muhammad Qasim Ferishta, tr. John Briggs, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, Vol. II (1829), p. 456 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Ferishta, tr. Briggs, Vol. II (1829), pp. 457–458 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

14. A. Chandra Sekhar (ed.), Census of India 1961, Vol. II, Part VII-B (20): Fairs and Festivals, Nalgonda District (1964), Section I (Nalgonda taluk), entry “Rajkonda” (PDF p. 23) (censusindia.gov.in↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²