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Mahendravikrama (Telugu Chola)

Telugu Chola king of Renandu, son of Dhananjaya and father of Punyakumara, the first of his line to take the title Chola-Maharaja. His name copies that of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I, and his editors placed him about 600. Short Telugu stone records of a 'Chola-Maharaja' at Uruturu and Indukuru are assigned to him.

Mahendravikrama was a Telugu Chola king, the first of his line to take the title Chola-Maharaja.12 In H. Krishna Sastri’s view, his name copies that of the Pallava king Mahendravarman I.3 His editors of 1956 placed him about 600.4

In the Malepadu plates

Mahendravikrama was the son of Dhananjayavarman, according to the Malepadu plates of his son Punyakumara.1 H. Krishna Sastri translated the plates’ description of him in 1912.1 He “acquired the title Chōḷa-Mahārāja” and “was well versed in grammar and other sciences”.1 He “was the lord of the Pāṇḍya, Chōḷa and Kēraḷa (countries)”.1

He was “equal in prowess to (god) Mahēndra” and had “many surnames such as the glorious Muditaśilākshara, Navarāma, etc.”1 The Dommara-Nandyala plates of Punyakumara’s tenth year repeat the same description.5

The name of a Pallava king

Krishna Sastri thought that Mahendravikramavarman “appears to have been so named after Mahēndravikrama, a name or surname of Mahēndravarman I.”3 Mahendravarman I was the Pallava contemporary of the Chalukya Pulakesin II in the 7th century.3

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (1956) went further. They held that he was in close touch with two Pallava kings.6 One was Mahendravarman I, whose name he took.6 The other was Simhavishnu, since his title “lord of the Chera, Chola and Pandya countries” was one that Simhavishnu was said to have won.6 They thought he may have taken part in Simhavishnu’s southern campaigns.6

H. K. Narasimhaswami dated the family about a century later.7 He suggested instead that the title Chola-Maharaja was given to Mahendravikrama by the Pallava Paramesvaravarman I, his predecessors having been plain kings.7

Records of a Chola-Maharaja

Short Telugu stone records issued simply in the name of a Chola-Maharaja at Uruturu and Indukuru, both in the Kamalapuram country, were assigned to Mahendravikrama by the 1956 editors. Their reasons were the early 7th-century letters, and the fact that he was the king who took the title Chola-Maharaja and the surname Muditasilakshara.2

Both record grants of a pannasa (a gift of land) by an Erigal-Dugaraju.28 The editors took him to be Mahendravikrama’s elder son and heir-apparent Gunamudita.28 The engraver Asivairuvu of the Indukuru stone also appears in a Chola-Maharaja record from Potladurti-Malepadu edited by M. S. Sarma.8

The editors also suggested that he is the Navapriya Mutturaju who witnessed the Erragudipadu grant together with a Vallava Dukaraju. They took Vallava Dukaraju to be a crown prince of the Pallavas of Kanchi in the time of Simhavishnu (about 575–600).9 But they allowed that the name might stand for a Vallabha (Chalukya) heir.9 The pairing of the two names suggested to them an alliance with the Pallavas.9

Date

The editors placed him about 600, a generation after his father.4 This puts him in the same generation as Navarama, son of Sundarananda, in the collateral (side) line of Srikantha.4 On Narasimhaswami’s chronology he ruled late in the 7th century.10

Footnotes

  1. H. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara; the Fifth Year”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1912), p. 339 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 228, Uruturu inscription (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 341 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 248, genealogical table (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. H. K. Narasimhaswami, “Dommara-Nandyala Plates of Punyakumara; 10th Year”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 269 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  6. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 251 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Narasimhaswami, “Dommara-Nandyala Plates” (1956), p. 272 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  8. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), pp. 229–230, Indukuru inscription (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 227 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Narasimhaswami, “Dommara-Nandyala Plates” (1956), p. 270 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

Dynasties

Telugu Cholas of Renadu

c. 550–800 CE

Kings of Renandu, the country around Kadapa, from about the later 6th to the 8th century. They claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala, took the names of their Pallava and then Chalukya overlords, and ruled from Chippili and Malepadu. Their stone inscriptions at Kalamalla and Erragudipadu are among the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. None of their records is dated in an era. Three editors have placed the same king, Punyakumara, about 625, about 740 and about 800.

References

Sources (2)
  1. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI (1911–12) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1912, pp. 339, 341. H. Krishna Sastri, Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara (No. 35). [Public domain]
  2. B. Ch. Chhabra and N. Lakshminarayan Rao (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVII (1947–48) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1956, pp. 227–230, 250–251, 269, 272. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (No. 42); H. K. Narasimhaswami (No. 44). Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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