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Pithapuram

Town in the Godavari country, about twelve miles north by east of Kakinada (Cocanada). It has been identified with Pishtapura, the fortress taken by the Chalukya king Pulakesin II according to his Aihole inscription of 634–35. It has also been identified with the Pishtapura of Samudragupta's Allahabad inscription.

A tall painted temple gateway tower and a colourful shrine on the edge of a large water tank, with railings and a notice board in front and palm trees behind.
A tall painted temple gateway tower and a colourful shrine on the edge of a large water tank, with railings and a notice board in front and palm trees behind. · Adityamadhav83 (opens in a new tab) · CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

Pithapuram is the Pishtapura of the Aihole inscription of the Chalukya king Pulakesin II. In F. Kielhorn’s translation, “hard pressed (pishta) by Him, Pishtapura became a fortress not difficult of access”.1 Kielhorn identified it with Pithapuram in the Godavari district. The next verse names “the water of Kunala”, which he took to be the Kolleru lake to the south.23 So he argued that the poem follows Pulakesin’s march down the coast from north to south.23 See the Aihole inscription.

J. F. Fleet described Pittapuram as the chief town of an estate of the same name, about twelve miles north by east of Kakinada (then Cocanada) in the Godavari district. He noted that a king Mahendra of Pishtapura is named in the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta.4 Fleet thought that the Vengi country probably became part of the Chalukya kingdom during the campaign in which Pithapuram fell. Pulakesin’s brother Vishnuvardhana later ruled it as the first of the Eastern Chalukyas.5

Robert Sewell describes the taking of Pithapuram as part of the campaign that drove the Pallava Mahendra I out of the northern Telugu country.6

Seat of the first Eastern Chalukya king

Pithapuram, the ancient Pishtapura, was the residence of Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, founder of the Eastern Chalukyas, in the years after his brother’s conquest of the coast. His Timmapuram plates were dug up in Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district in 1907.78 They were issued “from (his) residence in the prosperous Pishtapura”.78 They were then the only grant of the king that names his residence.78 E. Hultzsch identified Pishtapura with Pithapuram.78

The pillar in the Kunti-Madhava temple

A pillar at the entrance of the Kunti-Madhava temple carries four inscriptions. E. Hultzsch edited them for Epigraphia Indica in 1896–97. They are in the Telugu alphabet, in Sanskrit with passages of Telugu.910

The second, dated Saka 1117 (1194–96; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), records a grant to the temple by two joint rulers, Mallideva and Manma-Satya.911 They were chiefs of Konamandala, a name that Hultzsch connected with Konasima, the Godavari delta.911 Its account of the Eastern Chalukyas adds a statement missing from other records.911 Kirtivarman I had two sons.911 The elder, Satyasraya (Pulakesin II), took the kingdom of Kuntala, and the younger, Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, took the country of Vengi.911

The third inscription is the one most used by historians of the dynasty. It belongs to Mallapadeva, a descendant of the Eastern Chalukyas, who was anointed in the temple of Kunti-Madhava “at Pithapuri or Sripithapuram”. Hultzsch, with Kielhorn’s calculation, dated the anointing to 1202. On the same day the king gave a village to the temple.1213

The inscription gives the line of kings with the length of each reign.1014 It says that the king Narendra fought 108 battles and founded 108 temples on their sites.1014 It also says that Chalukya-Bhima founded a Shiva temple named after himself.1014 Hultzsch identified this temple with the Bhimesvara temple at Bhimavaram near Samalkot.1014 See Samalkot and Gunaga Vijayaditya III. The record was written by Kantacharya of Sripithapuram, who had also engraved the first two inscriptions on the pillar.13

Other records

The Godavari gazetteer of 1907 counted these four inscriptions as the town’s chief historical records.1516 It said that they give “the genealogies of three lines of chieftains who ruled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries”.1516 It added that a small mosque in the bazaar street had been built with the materials of an old Hindu shrine.1516 Its pillars were locally said to have come from the Kunti-Madhava temple.1516

The town’s sanctity is also attested in the late 11th century, in the Chellur plates of the Chola-Chalukya viceroy Vira-Choda, which praise a certain Medamarya.17 He founded feeding houses for Brahmins “at holy Draksharama and at the sacred place of Pithapuri”.17

Sewell worked from imperfect copies in 1882.18 He had already noticed long inscriptions “on the Dhvaja Stambha of the principal temple”, dated in 1186 and 1202.18 Their genealogies ran “through all the Eastern Chalukyas to the Cholas”.18

Footnotes

  1. Kielhorn, “Aihole Inscription” (1901), p. 11, verse 27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  2. F. Kielhorn, “Aihole Inscription of Pulikesin II”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1901), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Kielhorn, “Aihole Inscription” (1901), p. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 350 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 352 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 22 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  7. E. Hultzsch, “Timmapuram Plates of Vishnuvardhana I Vishamasiddhi”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 317 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1907–08 (G.O. No. 574, Public, 17 July 1908), Part II, paras. 11–13, p. 49 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  10. E. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 226 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II” (1897), p. 84 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva” (1897), p. 228 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva” (1897), p. 230 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  14. Hultzsch, “Pithapuram Pillar Inscription of Mallapadeva” (1897), p. 227 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  15. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 238 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 239 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  17. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), No. 39, Chellur plates of Vira-Choda, p. 61 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains, Vol. I (1882), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

Photos

People

Pulakesin II

c. 609–642 CE

Chalukya king of Badami (609–642), the son of Kirtivarman I. His Aihole inscription of 634–35 says that he humbled the Kalingas and Kosalas, took the fortress of Pishtapura (Pithapuram), ravaged 'the water of Kunala' (taken to be the Kolleru lake) and drove the Pallava king behind the walls of Kanchi. He gave the conquered Vengi country to his younger brother Vishnuvardhana, the founder of the Eastern Chalukyas. His Kopparam plates of about 631 grant land in the Guntur country. He died when the Pallava Narasimhavarman I took Badami, probably in 642.

Mallideva of Kona

c. 1155–1195 CE

Haihaya chief of Konamandala, the Godavari delta. He ruled jointly with Manma-Satya II, a great-grandson of his uncle Satya I. In 1195 the two gave the village of Odiyuru to the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. Their inscription traces the family from the legendary Kartavirya and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry held that Mallideva and a Satya of the Kona family took part in the battle in which the Kakatiya Prola II was killed.

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.

Kataya Vema

c. 1386–1415 CE

Minister and brother-in-law of Kumaragiri of Kondavidu. He received 'the eastern country' with Rajahmundry as its capital in the 1380s, and ruled the Godavari delta and the coast to Simhachalam until about 1414–16. A grandson of Prolaya Vema through his mother, he was also a Sanskrit scholar. He wrote the Kumaragirirajiyam, a commentary on Kalidasa's plays.

Inscriptions

Pithapuram inscription of Prithvisvara

1186 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1108 (1186) on the pillar at the entrance of the Kunti-Madhava temple at Pithapuram. It records a village given to the temple by Jayambika, mother of the Velanati chief Prithvisvara. Its long family history in verse is the main source for the history of the Velanati Chodas.

Pithapuram inscription of Mallideva and Manma-Satya II

1195 CE

A Sanskrit and Telugu inscription of Saka 1117 (1195) on the Kunti-Madhava pillar at Pithapuram. In it the Kona chiefs Mallideva and Manma-Satya II grant the village of Odiyuru, near Draksharama, to the temple. It gives the family tree of the Haihaya chiefs of Konamandala and praises the Velanati queen Jayamamba.

References

Sources (9)
  1. E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VI (1900–01) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1901, pp. 2–3, 11. F. Kielhorn, Aihole Inscription of Pulikesin II. [Public domain]
  2. J. F. Fleet, R. G. Bhandarkar and others (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II: History of the Konkan, Dakhan and Southern Maratha Country (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay, 1896, pp. 350, 352. J. F. Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts. [Public domain]
  3. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 22. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  4. E. Hultzsch and Sten Konow (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IX (1907–08) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 317. E. Hultzsch [Public domain]
  5. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1906-07 to 1909-10 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1910, pp. 49 (report for 1907-08). [Public domain]
  6. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 83–84, 226–228, 230. E. Hultzsch [Public domain]
  7. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 238–239. [Public domain]
  8. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I: Tamil and Sanskrit Inscriptions (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1890, pp. 61. E. Hultzsch [Public domain]
  9. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1882, pp. 24. [Public domain]

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