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Mallideva of Kona

Haihaya chief of Konamandala, the Godavari delta. He ruled jointly with Manma-Satya II, a great-grandson of his uncle Satya I. In 1195 the two gave the village of Odiyuru to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. Their inscription traces the family from the legendary Kartavirya and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry held that Mallideva and a Satya of the Kona family took part in the battle in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed.

Mallideva was a chief of the Haihaya family of Konamandala, the Godavari delta, and ruled jointly with Manma-Satya II.1 See the Haihayas of Kona and Palnadu.

Their inscription is the second of four engraved on a stone pillar at the entrance of the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram.1 It records a grant made by the two joint rulers at the vernal equinox of Saka 1117 (1194–95 or 1195–96; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).1 They gave the temple the village of Odiyuru, in the Guddavadi district.1 E. Hultzsch identified Odiyuru with the modern Oduru, near Draksharama.12 See the Pithapuram inscription of Mallideva.

Family

The inscription traces the two chiefs from Kartavirya, son of Kritavirya, grandson of Haihaya and descendant of Yadu.2 In Hultzsch’s table of the family, the founder Mummadi-Bhima I had two sons, Venna and Rajaparendu I, lord of Konamandala.3 Rajaparendu I had three sons: Mummadi-Bhima II, father of Lokamahipala; Rajendra Choda I; and, by another wife, Satya I.34

Mallideva was a son of the Kona chief Rajendra Choda I and his queen Mallaradevi, and the brother of Beta.3 Satya I was the father of Rajaparendu II and of Bhima III, and Rajaparendu II was the father of Vallabha.3 His colleague Manma-Satya II was the son of Vallabha, and succeeded his father after Vallabha had reigned fourteen years.34

The rule passed in this order after Rajendra Choda I died:4

  • his brothers Mummadi-Bhima II and Satya I, ruling jointly
  • their sons Lokamahipala and Bhima III
  • Mallideva and Vallabha
  • Manma-Satya II4

Inscriptions

At Draksharama, Gangadevi, queen of Kona-Malliraja, gave a lamp.4 Hultzsch dated this record to Saka 1077 (1155) and assigned it to Mallideva.4 The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1932–33 corrected the date to Saka 10[5]7.45 V. Rangacharya took the Mallaraja of that record to be “evidently Mallideva, the joint ruler with Vallabha”.6

The report for 1932–33 also named Kona Mallanripati in a Draksharama record of Saka 1096.5 It identified him as probably the same chief.5 Robert Sewell’s table (1932) gives Mallideva the dates 1155 and 1195.7

Overlords and the death of Prola II

The inscription of 1195 adds two verses in praise of Jayamamba. She was the queen of the Velanati chief Gonka III and mother of Prithvisvara. Hultzsch took this to mean that the chiefs of Konamandala depended on the chiefs of Velanandu. Prithvisvara, in turn, was a vassal of a king Rajaraja of the Eastern Chalukya line.4 See the Velanati Chodas and Prithvisvara.

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry cited a Draksharama inscription about the death of the Kakatiya Prola II. It says that Prola II was slain by Chodayaraja of the Kota family and the Haihaya chiefs Satya and Mallideva of the Kona country. He found this confirmed by the Pithapuram inscription of 1195.8

The line he cited calls Manma-Satya II Prodari-badavanala, “submarine fire to the enemy Proda”.9 Another line says that the crown of a king Proda ornamented Mallideva’s throne. Hultzsch’s footnotes correct the word in both places to praudha, “mighty”.9

Parabrahma Sastry suggested that Prola had gone to help the Chola king put down a rebellion of these chiefs.10 But he admitted that the evidence was too meagre for a firm conclusion.10

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II; Saka-Samvat 1117”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva” (1897), p. 84 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva” (1897), p. 85, table “The Chiefs of Konamandala” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva” (1897), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for 1932–33 (1936), Part II, para. 10, p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 728, No. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 361 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  8. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 87. ↩

  9. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva” (1897), p. 91, text lines 79 and 91 and notes 8 and 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 88. ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Haihayas of Kona and Palnadu

c. 1073–1364 CE

Two families of chiefs in the Telugu country who claimed descent from the legendary Haihaya king Kartavirya. The Kona chiefs ruled Konamandala, the Godavari delta, from the late 11th century to the 14th, under the Chola–Chalukya kings and the Velanati Chodas. They joined in the war in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed. In the Palnadu, Haihaya chiefs of the Chagi family appear as feudatories of the Western Chalukyas from 1111. The Palnadu chiefs are the kings of the Telugu heroic ballad of the Palnati Viralu, whose war, fought out at Karempudi, has been dated anywhere from 1080 to 1386.

References

Sources (5)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 83–87, 91. E. Hultzsch, Pithapuram inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II (No. 10). [Public domain]
  2. Madras Government (Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle), Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for the Year ending 31st March 1933 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1936, pp. 57. [Public domain in India]
  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. 719, 728. [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. 361. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1978, pp. 87–88. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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