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Rajendra Choda I (Velanati)

Velanati chief, son of Gonka I. The Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I adopted him as his son and made him governor of the Vengi country, between 1100 and 1112 according to E. Hultzsch. When the Chola viceroy left Vengi in 1118 he accepted the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI as overlord. M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1117 to 1132.

Rajendra Choda I, also called simply Choda, was a son of Gonka I.12 See Gonka I and the Velanati Chodas. The Pithapuram pillar inscription says that the Chola emperor Kulottunga I adopted him as his son.3 It says the emperor gave him the Vengi country of sixteen thousand villages.3

E. Hultzsch dated this change of governors between 1100 and 1112.3 The first was the last date he knew for the viceroy Vira-Choda, and he took the second to be the year of Kulottunga’s death.3 His wife was Gundambika.12

The Godavari District Gazetteer (1907) says that Kulottunga left Choda as viceroy of Vengi when the Chola prince Vikrama Chola went south in 1118.4 It adds that “it was however under Choda that the Velanandu family first attained the position of viceroys of the Vengi country”.4

When Vikrama Chola left, the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya VI was recognised in Vengi.5 Robert Sewell recorded that the Velanandu chief Rajendra Choda, who governed the province, transferred his loyalty to him.5

Hultzsch noted an inscription of Velananti Rajendra Choda at Draksharama.67 It is dated in Saka 1042 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years) and in the forty-fifth year of the Chalukya-Vikrama era.67 From it he concluded that “the chiefs of Velanandu became tributary to the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI”.67

The Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1916 described a record of Saka 1054 (1132).8 It names him as a subordinate of Vikramaditya VI and credits him with defeating a certain Siddhi-Beta, perhaps a Telugu Choda chief.8

M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1117 to 1132.9 He named his ministers Kommana and Narayana from the Keyurabahucharitramu.9 He placed in his reign both the Western Chalukya invasion of Vengi and its reconquest by Vikrama Chola.9 Sewell’s table gives his dates as 1115 to 1130.10

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Prithvisvara; Saka-Samvat 1108”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  2. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, para. 27, p. 119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 96 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  6. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Inscription of Prithvisvara” (1897), p. 38 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1915–16 (G.O. No. 99, Home (Miscellaneous), 29 August 1916), Part II, para. 48, p. 134 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. M. Rama Rao, “History of the Velnadu Chiefs”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 2 (October 1930), p. 68 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 399 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

Dynasties

Velanati Chodas

c. 1076–1209 CE

A family of chiefs of Velanadu, the Chandavolu (Tsandavolu) country in the western Krishna delta. They rose as officers of the Eastern Chalukya and Chola kings and governed the Vengi country for the Chola emperors from the reign of Kulottunga I. Their records run from 1076 at Chebrolu to 1206. Gonka II claimed rule from Kalahasti to the Mahendra mountain, and Rajendra Choda II was the chief power on the coast in the 1170s. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva defeated the last of them, Prithvisvara, and had annexed Velanadu by 1209.

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. 35–38. E. Hultzsch, Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara. [Public domain]
  2. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1915-16 to 1919-20 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1920, pp. 134 (report for 1915–16); 119 (report for 1916–17). [Public domain]
  3. M. Rama Rao, History of the Velnadu Chiefs, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. V, pt. 2 (October 1930) (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, 1930, pp. 68. [Public domain]
  4. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 22–23. [Public domain]
  5. 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. 96, 399. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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