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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Chippili

Village in the Madanapalle country of the former Chittoor district. It has been identified with Chirpali, the capital of Renandu named in the Tippaluru inscription of the Telugu Chola Punyakumara. A Kannada memorial stone there names a Punyakomaran ruling Chirpuli.

Capital of Renandu

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (1956) took Chippili, in the Madanapalle taluk, to be the chief city or early capital of the Renandu country. It appears as Chirpali in the Tippaluru inscription of Punyakumara, which calls it his capital (palu).123 They counted it, with Biriparu or Malepadu, as a capital of the line of Dhananjaya.123 They also suggested that Punyakumara’s queen came from the Pari family, whose 7th-century records lie in the same taluk.4

The memorial stone

In 1912 H. Krishna Sastri assigned to Punyakumara a Kannada memorial stone at Chippili.5 It records that a man named Parasuraman fell in a rising while a Punyakomaran was ruling Chirpuli, though Krishna Sastri admitted some doubt about the identification.5

The 1956 editors listed the same stone among records of chiefs called Punyakumara in letters of the 8th or 9th century, whose Chola descent was uncertain.6 See Punyakumara. The Wikidata item for the village gives no coordinates, so none are shown here.

Footnotes

  1. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  2. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 232 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  3. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 249 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  4. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 234 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  5. H. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara; the Fifth Year”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1912), p. 342 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 251, note 4 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

Photos

Dynasties

Telugu Cholas of Renadu

c. 550–800 CE

Kings of Renandu, the country around Kadapa, from about the later 6th to the 8th century. They claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala, took the names of their Pallava and then Chalukya overlords, and ruled from Chippili and Malepadu. Their stone inscriptions at Kalamalla and Erragudipadu are among the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. None of their records is dated in an era. Three editors have placed the same king, Punyakumara, about 625, about 740 and about 800.

People

Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu and Hiranyarashtra, the best-documented ruler of the family. He is known from two sets of Sanskrit copper plates (Malepadu, fifth year; Dommara-Nandyala, tenth year) and from Telugu stone records at Tippaluru, Ramesvaram and Veludurti. His titles imitate those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I. Editors have dated him about 625, about 740 and near the end of the 8th century.

References

Sources (2)
  1. 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. 225, 232, 234, 249, 251. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (No. 42). Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  2. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI (1911–12) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1912, pp. 342. H. Krishna Sastri, Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara (No. 35). [Public domain]

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