Rajendra Choda I (Kona)

Rajendra Choda I was a chief of the Haihayas of Kona, the family that ruled Konamandala, the Godavari delta, under greater kings.¹ He made a grant in 1128, and is the first member of the family whose own record E. Hultzsch could list.¹² He matters as the father of Mallideva, and because after his death the family began its custom of rule by two chiefs at once.¹³

Family

The Pithapuram inscription of 1195 gives the family tree.⁴ Rajendra Choda I was a son of Rajaparendu I, lord of Konamandala, and a grandson of the founder, Mummadi-Bhima I.⁴¹ The founder is said to have received the signs of royal power from the emperor Rajendra-Choda, whom Hultzsch identified with Kulottunga I.⁵ So Hultzsch thought that Rajendra Choda I “was evidently named after the patron of his grandfather”.¹

His brothers were Mummadi-Bhima II, who was older, and Satya I, a son of another mother.⁴¹ With his queen Mallaradevi he had two sons named in the table, Beta and Mallideva.⁴ V. Yashoda Devi, in a thesis printed in 1993, wrote that he had five sons in all.³

Titles and the hall at Draksharama

Rajendra Choda I bore the titles Vikrama-Rudra, Haihayaditya and Gandavendaduva.¹ He built a mandapa (pillared hall) in the Bhimanatha temple at Draksharama.¹ He named it Gandavendaduva, after one of his titles.¹

The grant of 1128

The earliest of the family’s stone inscriptions at Draksharama and Palakollu records a grant made in Saka 1050, about 1128 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).¹ The donor is Choda, surnamed Vikrama-Rudra, son of Rajaparendu of the Haihaya family.¹ He calls himself lord of the Kona country and “the ornament (of the city) of Mahishmati”, the old Haihaya capital.¹ Hultzsch identified him with Rajendra Choda I.¹ The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1932–33 still treated this as the earliest record in Hultzsch’s list.²

Between Chalukyas and Cholas

The Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI died in 1126.³ Yashoda Devi thought that Rajendra Choda I then helped the Cholas fight the generals of the new Chalukya king, Somesvara III, in Vengi.³ In her account he had won some successes by 1128, like the Velanati chiefs and other small rulers of the region.³ She noted that his very name showed loyalty to the Chola house.³

After his death

After Rajendra Choda I died, his two brothers ruled together.¹ Yashoda Devi noted that his own sons were set aside in favour of his brothers.³ His son Mallideva became a joint ruler only in the next generations, first with Vallabha and then with Manma-Satya II.¹ See Mummadi-Bhima II and Satya I.

Where the sources disagree

• When did the family receive Konamandala? Robert Sewell’s table (1932) says that the founder received the country from the Eastern Chalukya Rajendra II about 1063.⁶ Yashoda Devi rejected an early date, noting that Rajendra II need not have made the gift in 1063, the year he came to the throne of Vengi.⁷ She placed it between 1073 and 1082, when he was already the emperor Kulottunga I.⁷
• How many sons? Hultzsch’s table names two sons, Beta and Mallideva.⁴ Yashoda Devi wrote of five sons, of whom Beta and Mallideva were the first two.³

Footnotes

1. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva” (1897), p. 86 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. 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. Yashoda Devi, History of Andhra Country (1993), p. 80 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

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

5. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II; Saka-Samvat 1117”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 361, “Kona or Konamandala Chiefs” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

7. V. Yashoda Devi, The History of Andhra Country, 1000 A.D.–1500 A.D. (1993), p. 77 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²