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Phirangipuram

Village near Guntur, two miles from the Kondavidu hills. A pillar in front of its Virabhadra temple carries a verse inscription of 1410, composed by Srinatha. It records the tank Santana-sagara built by Suramamba, queen of the Reddi king Peda Komati Vema.

Phirangipuram lies in the old Sattenapalli taluk of the Guntur district, close to the Kondavidu hills.1 When J. Ramayya wrote in 1912, it was a station on the Vijayawada (then Bezwada)–Guntakal railway.1

Robert Sewell passed that way in the early 1880s.2 He noted that the level country “between the hill fort and the road to Faringipuram abounds in remains of archaeological interest”.2 At Phirangipuram itself there was a Roman Catholic establishment about two hundred years old.2 Near the church lay some roughly sculptured slabs, said to have been brought from Kondavidu.2

The tank inscription

A stone pillar in front of the temple of Virabhadra carries a verse inscription in Sanskrit and Telugu.13 It records the dedication of a tank called Santana-sagara in February 1410.13 The tank was built by Suramamba, queen of the Reddi king Peda Komati Vema.13 The last verse names the poet Srinatha as composer.13

At Aminabad, about two miles away, a verse inscription of 1415 records that Racha Vema dug a channel to feed his mother’s tank.456 Ramayya took this tank to be the same as the Santana-sagara.456 See the Phirangipuram inscription and Srinatha.

Footnotes

  1. J. Ramayya, Three Inscriptions of the Reddis of Kondavidu, Epigraphia Indica XI (1911–12), p. 313 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), Appendix, p. xi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Ramayya, Three Inscriptions of the Reddis of Kondavidu (1911–12), p. 314 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. J. Ramayya, Madras Museum Plates of Vema, A.D. 1345, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 835, Guntur No. 766 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. II (1919), p. 838, Guntur No. 803 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

People

Srinatha

c. 1365–1440 CE

Telugu poet of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, often ranked with the three translators of the Mahabharata. He served Peda Komati Vema of Kondavidu as vidyadhikarin and composed his grants and inscriptions. He then wrote for the Reddis of Rajahmundry. His Sringaranaishadham, Bhimakhandam and Kasikhandam are dedicated to Reddi kings and ministers, and they are a main source for their history.

Peda Komati Vema

c. 1402–1420 CE

Fifth Reddi king of Kondavidu (c. 1402–1420), a grandson of Prolaya Vema's elder brother Macha, known as a scholar-king. The Sringaradipika commentary on the Amarusataka and other works are ascribed to him, and the poet Srinatha served him as vidyadhikarin and composed his grants. His reign was spent in wars with the Rajahmundry Reddis, Vijayanagara and the Recherla Velamas.

Inscriptions

Phirangipuram pillar inscription of Peda Komati Vema (1410)

1410 CE

A verse inscription on a stone pillar in front of the Virabhadra temple at Phirangipuram near Guntur, composed by the poet Srinatha. It records the dedication in February 1410 of a tank, Santana-sagara, built by Suramamba, queen of the Reddi king Peda Komati Vema. Half of it is in Sanskrit and half in Telugu. It gives the king's descent from Macha, the elder brother of Prolaya Vema.

References

Sources (4)
  1. 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. 313–315. J. Ramayya (No. 33). [Public domain]
  2. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 835, 838. [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, p. xi. [Public domain]
  4. Archaeological Survey of India, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII (1905–06) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1906, pp. 13. [Public domain]

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