Nellore

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.

Kulottunga III (Chola)

1178–1216 CE

Chola king (1178–1216), the last strong ruler of the dynasty. The Telugu Choda chiefs of Pottappi and Nellore, among them Nallasiddha, Tammusiddhi and Tikka, dated their records in his reign, and inscriptions of his years are found at Nellore, in the Gudur country and at Kalahasti, whose temple he renewed. The Cuddapah gazetteer credits him with restoring Chola power in the Paka-nadu in 1196, while the Kakatiyas took over the old Chola lands north of the Krishna.

Tammusiddhi

c. 1205–1208 CE

Telugu Choda king of the Pottapi and Nellore family, and a vassal of the Chola king Kulottunga III. He was anointed at Nellore in 1205–06 and made grants at Kanchipuram, Tiruvalangadu, Tiruppasur, Tiruvorriyur, Nellore and Kavali. His inscriptions give the fullest early family tree of the family, but they disagree about who his brother or uncle Nallasiddhi was.

Tikka I (Telugu Choda of Nellore)

c. 1209–1248 CE

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.

Rajendra III (Chola)

c. 1246–1267 CE

The last Chola king (1246 to about 1267). His regnal years were still used by the Telugu Choda rulers of Nellore, among them Manumasiddhi, the patron of the poet Tikkana, and a Tamil record dated in his reign survives in the Gudur country of Nellore as late as 1263–64. An inscription of 1260–61 at Tripurantakam claims victories for him over two Pandya kings, which V. Rangacharya took for a real campaign and Robert Sewell did not. The Cuddapah gazetteer dates his death, and the end of the Cholas, to 1268.

Manumasiddhi II

c. 1248 CE

Telugu Choda king of Nellore from about 1248 or 1250, son of Tikka I and patron of the poet Tikkana Somayaji. He was driven out of Nellore early in his reign. The Kakatiya king Ganapatideva restored him after Tikkana went to the Kakatiya court as his envoy, and he later fought for Ganapati against Kalinga on the Godavari. Whether he was the same king as Vijaya-Gandagopala of Kanchi is disputed.

Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I

c. 1251–1268 CE

Pandya king of Madurai who came to the throne in 1251 and led the second Pandya empire to its height. His records claim the defeat of the Hoysala Somesvara, the capture of Kopperunjinga's fortress, the occupation of Kanchi after killing Gandagopala, and a victory over the Telugus and their allies at Mudugur, from which he drove them to the Krishna. He was anointed as conqueror at Nellore. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry dates the battle at Muttukuru to 1263 and adds that he struck coins with the Kakatiya boar. Robert Sewell doubted the northern march.

Harihara I (Vijayanagara)

c. 1336–1355 CE

First ruler of Vijayanagara and eldest of the five sons of Sangama. With his brother Bukka he founded the kingdom on the Tungabhadra about 1336. His first dated inscription, of 1340, calls him only a mahamandalesvara, 'great lord'. It is disputed whether he and his brothers came from the service of the Kakatiyas of Warangal, of the Rai of Kampili or of the Hoysalas. His brother Kampa held Udayagiri and Nellore, the first Vijayanagara base in the Telugu country.

Deva Raya II (Vijayanagara)

1422–1446 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1422 or 1423 to 1446, the greatest ruler of the first dynasty. He enlisted Muslim archers in his army, survived an attempt on his life in 1443 and received the Persian envoy Abdur Razzaq. His inscriptions reach the Godavari delta and the Guntur and Nellore country. The Telugu poet Vallabharaya governed Vinukonda for him, and Srinatha was bathed in gold in his Pearl Hall. After his death the Bahmani sultan and the Gajapati of Orissa besieged his capital together.

Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah

1749–1795 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1749 to 1795, the son of Anwar-ud-din Khan. His father was killed at Ambur in 1749. He held out at Trichinopoly and, with English help, won the Nawabship from Chanda Sahib and the French. The treaty of Paris of 1763 recognised him, and the Mughal emperor gave him the title Walajah. His Telugu districts were Nellore, held under his brother Najib-ullah, who rebelled in 1757, Ongole and the Palnad. He owed large debts to the Company and to private lenders. He handed the revenues of the Carnatic to the Company in 1781, saw it take over their management in 1790–92, and agreed by the treaty of 1792 to pay nine lakhs of pagodas a year for its troops. He died in October 1795.

Rajagopala Krishna Yachendra of Venkatagiri

1857–1916 CE

Raja and later Maharaja of Venkatagiri in the Nellore district (1857–1916), head of the Velugoti family, installed in 1879. He built the Indra Mahal and the Town Hall at Venkatagiri and sat twice in the Madras Legislative Council. He was president of the Madras Landholders' Association from its founding in 1890. He was made K.C.I.E. in 1888, Maharaja in 1910 and G.C.I.E. in 1915. His brothers were adopted into the Bobbili, Pithapuram and Jetprole families.

Puchalapalli Sundarayya

1913 CE

Communist leader from Alaganipadu in Nellore district (born 1913). He left his studies for the national movement in 1930, was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1934, led the left wing of the Andhra Socialist Party, and kept in touch with the Telangana communists during the struggle of 1946–1948. He sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

Balwant Rao Mendle

before 1760 CE

Maratha commander of the Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, left in the Carnatic in 1757 to collect tribute. On 24 September 1757 he defeated the Nawabs of Cuddapah and Kurnool near Cuddapah. The Nawab of Cuddapah was killed, and the Marathas took Gurramkonda and Punganur. He then marched across the Cuddapah country to the coast. He took tribute from the zamindars of Venkatagiri and Kalahasti and was bought off before Nellore. He was killed at Panipat in December 1760.

Francis Forde

before 1770 CE

Irish officer of the 39th Foot, sent by Clive from Bengal in 1758. He routed the French under Conflans at Condore (Chandurti) near Pithapuram on 9 December 1758 and stormed Masulipatam in April 1759, so winning the Northern Circars from the French for the East India Company. He had earlier led the English detachment in the failed attack on Nellore (1757). Appointed one of the Company's Supervisors in 1769, he was lost at sea when the frigate Aurora disappeared after leaving the Cape at the end of that year.

Najib-ullah Khan

Brother of the Nawab Muhammad Ali Walajah and governor of Nellore in the 1750s. In 1753 the adventurer Muhammad Kamal drove him out of Nellore, but he won it back and had Kamal beheaded. In 1757 he refused his brother's demand for an extra payment and rebelled. His garrison beat off the attack of the Nawab's army and an English force under Colonel Forde. He went over to the French, received Bussy at Nellore in 1758 and joined Moracin against Tirupati. When the French siege of Madras failed in 1759, he killed the Frenchmen with him and was confirmed in Nellore for a tribute of 30,000 pagodas. In 1762 an English force under Caillaud took the Nellore fort from him for the Nawab.

Saadatullah Khan

before 1732 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic, with his capital at Arcot, from about 1710–13 until his death in 1732. A Navayat, born Muhammad Saeed, he was the diwan (finance officer) and faujdar (military governor) of the Mughal general Daud Khan Panni. He followed Daud Khan in the government of the Carnatic below the Ghats, which ran along the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon and took in Nellore. A chronology of Sidhout says that he took the place in 1694 and appointed its fort commander, years before he became Nawab. His faujdar governed Nellore. He granted the jagir of Udayagiri in 1720. With the Pathan Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Savanur he took a large payment from Mysore. He left the Nawabship to his nephew Dost Ali.

Tikkana Somayaji

Telugu poet of the 13th century at the court of the Telugu Choda king Manumasiddhi II of Nellore. He translated fifteen books of the Mahabharata into Telugu, completing the work Nannaya had begun two centuries earlier, and wrote the Nirvachanottara Ramayana. He went as his patron's envoy to the Kakatiya Ganapatideva, whose help restored Manumasiddhi to Nellore.

Nellore inscription of Sundara Pandya

c. 1276 CE

Tamil inscription on the western wall of the Ranganayakaswami temple at Nellore, recording that 'the emperor of the three worlds, the unequalled among kings, Sundara Pandyadeva', at the request of Kalingarayar, gave the village of Mavadikundai in Mundanadu for offerings in a hall named after him and for the worship of the god Pallikondaperumal. The regnal year is lost. The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 identified the king with a Jatavarman Sundara Pandya who came to the throne in 1276 and was crowned at Nellore.