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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Tikka I (Telugu Choda of Nellore)

Telugu Choda king of Nellore, also called Tirukalatti and Ganda-Gopala, who ruled from about 1209 to 1248 or 1250. He was a loyal vassal of the Chola Rajaraja III, fought the Hoysalas and held Kanchi. In one modern account he owed his throne at Nellore to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva. He was the father of Manumasiddhi II.

Tikka I was a vassal of the Chola king Rajaraja III, and he helped the king at Kanchi against the Pandyas and the Hoysalas.1 The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 called him the greatest of his line and the founder of its Nellore branch.2 See the Telugu Chodas of Pottapi and Nellore.

Family and names

Tikka was the son of Manmasiddhi, the eldest brother of Tammusiddhi.34 In March 1209 he made a gift at Nandalur in the Kadapa (then Cuddapah) country.34 It was for the merit of his father Manuma-Sitta and of Nallasiddha, in the 31st year of the Chola Kulottunga III.34 The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 called him the son of Manmasiddhi-Rajendra.2

His Tamil name Tirukalatti comes from Kalahasti.45 Sewell’s table also gives Alluntikka-Kalatti and the family title Ganda-Gopala.4 A record of 1228–29 at Katrayapadu in the Kavali country is dated in the reign of the Mahamandalesvara (great lord) Gandagopala Tirukaladeva Choda Maharaja.5

Restored at Nellore

Parabrahma Sastry, a modern historian, held that Tikka joined the Kakatiya Ganapatideva’s war against the Velanati king Prithvisvara.6 In his account Tikka shared with Ganapati the boast of having played ball with Prithvisvara’s head.6

Tikka then claimed the throne of Nellore as the rightful heir and won Ganapati’s help, Parabrahma Sastry says.7 In this account the Kakatiya king marched on Nellore, put Tammusiddhi to flight and gave the kingdom back to Tikka.7

Brackenbury’s Cuddapah gazetteer (1915) tells the same boast differently.1 There it is a feat of Tikka’s in defence of the Pakanadu: he “played ball with the head of Prithviswara”.1

Defender of the Cholas

Tikka remained a Chola vassal. Brackenbury wrote that the Chola empire survived the Pandya attacks of Rajaraja III’s reign.1 He said this was “chiefly due to the prowess and loyalty of the Madurāntaka-Pottapi-Chōla Tikka who was then administering the Pâka-nâdu”.1 He adds that Tikka helped the king at Kanchi against the Pandyas and their ally, the Hoysala Vira-Somesvara.1

The Nellore gazetteer added that he pushed his conquests into South Arcot and occupied Kanchi.2 It says he resisted the Hoysalas and the Sambuvarayas, and was called restorer of the Chola kingdom.2 Sewell lists:8910

  • records of Tikka at Kanchi from 12308910
  • a Hoysala attack on him under the general Singana about 12408910
  • a record at the hill fort of Udayagiri8910
  • an inscription at Annamasamudram claiming that he ruled at Kanchi and consecrated a temple there, which Sewell thought might be an exaggeration8910

The Kakatiya connection continued. In the fifth year of Allun-Tikka Gandagopala’s rule at Kanchi, a minister of Ganapati made a gift to the Arulala-Perumal temple.11 In the following year an inscription near Kanchi complains of the misdeeds of Ganapati’s followers towards temple property.11

The Telugu poet Tikkana, in his Nirvachanottara Ramayana, credits Tikka with wars against the Velanadu chiefs to the north.212 He also credits him with defeating Sarangadhara, a son of the Kakatiya governor of Addanki.212

Death

Sewell’s table counts Tikka’s reign from after May 1223 and puts his death in 1250–51.4 Parabrahma Sastry dates his death to 1248.13 His son Manumasiddhi II succeeded him at Nellore. V. Venkayya, as reported by H. Lüders in 1903, had identified the Madhurantaka Pottapi-Chola named in records at Kanchi of 1233–37 with Chola-Tikka.14 Venkayya thought Chola-Tikka was probably Tammusiddhi’s successor.14

Footnotes

  1. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah (1915), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938 (1942), p. 44 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 396, genealogical table (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part II (1905), Kavali No. 38, p. 734 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 108. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 109. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  8. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  9. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 144 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 146 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, “Nayanapalle Inscription of Ganapatideva”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 195 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  12. Johns, Nellore District Gazetteer (1942), p. 46 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  13. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 112. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  14. H. Lüders, “Two Inscriptions of Tammusiddhi, Saka-Samvat 1129”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1903), p. 121 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Telugu Chodas of Pottapi and Nellore

c. 1120–1316 CE

A family of Telugu chiefs who called themselves Madhurantaka Pottapi-Cholas and Ganda-Gopalas and claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala. They ruled the Pakanadu country of Nellore and southern Kadapa (Cuddapah) from Pottapi and then Nellore, from the early 12th century to about 1316. First vassals of the Cholas, they took Kanchi under Tikka I and his successors. They then passed under the Kakatiyas, who restored Manumasiddhi II, the patron of the poet Tikkana. A related branch ruled Konidena in the Guntur country.

References

Sources (7)
  1. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 32. [Public domain]
  2. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collections of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Madras, in Three Parts, Part II (opens in a new tab), 1905, pp. 734. Kavali No. 38. [Public domain]
  3. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VII (1902–03), with Kielhorn's List of Inscriptions of Southern India (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1903, pp. 121. [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. 130–146, 396. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1942, pp. 44, 46. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  6. 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. 195. V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, Nayanapalle Inscription of Ganapatideva. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  7. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1978, pp. 108–109, 112. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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