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Chandavolu (Chandole)

Village in the western Krishna delta, the old Tsandavolu of the Repalle taluk. E. Hultzsch identified it with Sanadavrolu, the capital of the Velanati Chodas. Gordon Mackenzie (1883) described it as a place of great antiquity, with temple inscriptions of the 1150s–1170s, finds of gold and the foundations of extensive buildings. It appears in the ballad of the Palnadu heroes.

Chandavolu, written Tsandavolu in the 19th-century records, lies in the western delta of the Krishna. It was formerly in the Repalle taluk of the Kistna district.12

E. Hultzsch noted an inscription at Draksharama which says that the Velanati chief Gonka III resided at Sanadavrolu in Velanandu.1 He identified Sanadavrolu with “the modern Tsandavolu, a name which closely resembles Sanadavrolu, as the former capital of the chiefs of Velanandu”.1 Gordon Mackenzie’s Kistna District Manual (1883) calls Velnad “an old name for all the Tsandavolu country”.3 It says that the early Telugu settlers called the Tsandavolu country Velnadu, “the outer or nether land”.4 See the Velanati Chodas.

In the inscriptions

Copper plates of the Velanati chief Rajendra Choda II were issued at Dhanadapuri in Saka 1091 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years).5 H. Krishna Sastri identified Dhanadapuri with Tsandavolu.5 An inscription noted in the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1916 names a temple of Pandisvara at Sanadavrolu.6 A dancer in its service, Sokkama, was the mother of Kamidevi, a wife of Gonka III.6

After the Kakatiya conquest Ganapatideva’s general Jaya set up an inscription here too.7 Hultzsch found it on a pillar built into the roof of the Lingodbhavasvamin temple at “Tsandavolu, the capital of the chiefs of Velanandu”.7 The Godavari District Gazetteer took this inscription as evidence that the Kakatiya king overcame the Velanandu chiefs.8

The village in the 19th century

Mackenzie described Tsandavolu as “a place of very great antiquity”.2 It had a mound outside the village that might contain Buddhist remains.2 There were four inscriptions in the temple, three of them dated in 1154, 1171 and 1176.29

Many gold coins had been found there.9 In 1874 workmen came upon masses of molten gold “as large as bricks”.9 Trenches dug by treasure-seekers had laid bare the masonry foundations of very extensive buildings.9

Robert Sewell (1882) noted that Buddhist or Jaina copper images had been found close by.10 He placed the village nine miles from the coast and fourteen miles south-west of the stupa (relic mound) of Bhattiprolu.10

In the ballad

Sewell summarised the ballad of the heroes of the Palnadu.11 In it, the king Alugu Bhupati married the daughter of a king of Chandavolu, “which is near the sea”.11 Mackenzie noted that the village “is mentioned in ancient Hindu ballads and poems”.2 See the Haihayas of Kona and Palnadu.

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Prithvisvara”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Mackenzie, Kistna District Manual (1883), p. 209 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Mackenzie, Kistna District Manual (1883), p. 214 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 151 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, para. 27, p. 120 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1915–16 (G.O. No. 99, Home (Miscellaneous), 29 August 1916), Part II, para. 49, p. 134 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. E. Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya”, Epigraphia Indica V (1899), p. 150, postscript (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Mackenzie, Kistna District Manual (1883), p. 210 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), Appendix A, p. iii, note 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Sewell, Lists of Antiquarian Remains, Vol. I (1882), Appendix A, p. v (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

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.

People

Gonka I (Velanati)

c. 1076–1117 CE

First prominent chief of the Velanati Chodas. He ruled the Andhra country, or part of it, as an officer of the Chola–Chalukya emperor Kulottunga I. A record of his at Chebrolu is dated 1076. M. Rama Rao dated his rule from 1076 to 1117. His son Choda (Rajendra Choda I) was adopted by Kulottunga and made governor of Vengi.

Rajendra Choda I (Velanati)

c. 1117–1132 CE

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.

Gonka II (Velanati)

c. 1132–1163 CE

Velanati chief, called Kulottunga Choda Gonka, who ruled from about 1132 to 1163 according to M. Rama Rao. The Pithapuram inscription says that he set a golden pinnacle on the Bhimesvara temple at Draksharama, and ruled the kings between Kalahasti and the Mahendra mountain. His minister built the Suresvara temple at Karempudi in 1154.

Rajendra Choda II (Velanati)

c. 1163–1181 CE

Velanati chief, son of Gonka II, who ruled from about 1163 to 1181. His copper plates of 1169, issued at Chandavolu, call him a general of the Chola king Rajaraja II. They say he killed Bhima of Kolanu and received the Andhra country between the eastern sea, Kalahasti, the Mahendra mountain and Srisailam. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry made him the master of the coast from Darsi to Simhachalam after 1172; his death in 1181 opened the way for the Kakatiyas.

Prithvisvara

c. 1186–1206 CE

Last ruler of the Velanati Chodas, son of Gonka III and Jayambika. In his reign his mother's grant of 1186 to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram was engraved. The Kakatiya Ganapatideva drove him from the Krishna country, and Ganapatideva's general took the island of Divi about 1203. He held out north of the Godavari; his last record is of 1206, and he was killed in battle soon afterwards.

Jaya (Jayapa)

c. 1209–1253 CE

General and minister of the Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, of the Ayya family of Divi. Ganapati married his two sisters and made him commander of the elephant troops and governor of Velanadu. He built the Ganapesvara temple on Divi in 1231 and wrote the Nritta Ratnavali, a Sanskrit treatise on dance.

References

Sources (6)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 33. E. Hultzsch, Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara. [Public domain]
  2. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 151, 209–210, 214. [Public domain]
  3. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1882, Appendix A, iii. [Public domain]
  4. 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); 120 (report for 1916–17). [Public domain]
  5. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. V (1898–99) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the 1959 Government of India Press facsimile reprint), 1899, pp. 150. [Public domain]
  6. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 23–24. [Public domain]

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