Ganapesvaram

Place and name

Ganapesvaram is a hamlet near Talagada-Divi on the island of Divi, near the mouth of the Krishna.¹ In the 1890s it lay in the Bandar (Machilipatnam, then Masulipatam) taluk of Krishna (then Kistna) district.² It takes its name from a temple of Shiva called Ganapeshvara or Ganapatishvara.³ The Kakatiya general Jaya built the temple and named it after his king, Ganapatideva.³

Hultzsch explained the name Divi as the Telugu form of the Sanskrit dvipa, the word the inscription uses for the island.³

Kakatiya history

Before the Kakatiyas, a family of local chiefs, the Ayyas, held Divi.⁴¹ According to Jaya’s inscription, his grandfather Narayana fortified the island for a king called Chodi.⁴ Narayana also built tanks and temples there.⁴

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry writes that early in Ganapatideva’s reign a Kakatiya army under the general Malyala Chaunda captured the island fortress. Ganapati left the Ayya family in place as his subordinates and took the young Jaya (Jayapa) into his service.¹ The inscription says that Ganapati married Jaya’s two sisters, Narama and Perama, and made Jaya a general.³

Jaya’s temple was consecrated in April 1231.³ Its Telugu inscription granted the temple dues from boats, village revenues and 25 cows for a lamp that would always burn.³ Parabrahma Sastry notes that Divi had been a port under the Velanati chiefs before Ganapatideva conquered it.⁵

Later inscriptions

In the 1890s the pillar that carries Jaya’s record stood in front of the village’s Durgamba temple.² It also bears four later inscriptions, dated between Saka 1235 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years) and 1693.² One of them refers to a linga (stone emblem of Shiva) named after Ganapati at the place where the river meets the sea.² Another refers to the god Ganapeshvara “in the beautiful Peda-Divipura”.²

South-Indian Inscriptions IV prints the Telugu text of the later records on the same pillar.⁶ One of them is dated Saka 1268 (1346–47).⁶⁷⁸ In it one of the servants of the Musunuri chief Kapaya Nayaka made a gift to the god for Kapaya’s merit.⁶⁷⁸ The record calls Kapaya lord of the city of Arumanamganti.⁶⁷⁸

Footnotes

1. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 107–108. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. E. Hultzsch, Ganapesvaram Inscription of the Time of Ganapati, Epigraphia Indica III (1894–95), p. 82 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Hultzsch, Ganapesvaram Inscription (1894–95), p. 84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Hultzsch, Ganapesvaram Inscription (1894–95), p. 83 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 257. ↩

6. H. Krishna Sastri (ed.), South-Indian Inscriptions (Texts), Vol. IV (1923), pp. 311–312, Nos. 948–950 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Telugu text. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant of Prolaya-nayaka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1957–58), p. 256 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V (1931), p. 218 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³