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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Potnuru

Village on the Chittivalasa river north of Visakhapatnam, near Simhachalam. According to his court poets and the Telugu chronicles, the Vijayanagara king Krishnadeva Raya set up a pillar of victory here over the Gajapati Prataparudra about 1515–16. The pillar had disappeared by 1907. Later in the seventeenth century the ancestors of the Rajas of Vizianagaram lived here.

The village

The Vizagapatam gazetteer of 1907 describes Potnuru as a village twelve miles from Bheemunipatnam (then Bimlipatam), on the bank of the Chittivalasa river, with 2,834 people.1 It says: “At present insignificant enough, it was formerly of importance.”1

Krishnadeva Raya’s pillar of victory

The gazetteer calls Krishnadeva Raya “the Vijayanagar king who conquered Orissa about 1515”.1 According to the gazetteer, he chose Potnuru as the place to plant a pillar of victory recording his conquests.1

The gazetteer cites the Manucharitra of the poet Allasani Peddana.1 Peddana says that the king destroyed Jami, Kottam, Vaddadi and Potnuru.1 In Potnuru he planted a pillar “as high as a palm-tree”, carved with the story of his victories over the Kalinga king.1 The gazetteer also cites a passage of the Amuktamalyada, the poem attributed to Krishnadeva himself.1

The Godavari gazetteer says that Krishnadeva advanced as far north as Potnuru, “where he set up a pillar of victory”.2 From there he challenged Prataparudra to battle.2

The Telugu sources

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s extracts tell the story more fully. In the Rayavachakamu, Krishnadeva crossed the passes and encamped at Potnuri Simhadri.3 When the Gajapati fled from his capital, “he planted a pillar of victory at Pottunuri Simhadri”.3 The Amuktamalyada says that he planted a tall pillar with inscriptions at Potnuru, to commemorate his victory over the Gajapati.4

A verse attributed to Peddana reminds the Gajapati that Krishnadeva “put up his triumphant inscription at Simhadri”.5 The Achyutarayabhyudayam names the place of the pillar as Patupettanurpura.6 Aiyangar read this as Pottunurapura near Simhadri.6

The pillar did not survive. The gazetteer noted that it “has now disappeared, but frequent discoveries in Potnuru of fragments of sculptured stones and gold coins bearing a bull upon them” strengthened the traditions.1

The Portuguese chronicler Nuniz says that Krishnadeva had an insulting inscription cut at “Symamdary”.78 The gazetteer discussed this, and observed that if such an inscription was ever made, it is not now to be found at Simhachalam.78 See Simhachalam, Prataparudra and the Gajapatis.

Later history

The gazetteer says that in the late seventeenth century Sitaramachandra, an ancestor of the Rajas of Vizianagaram, established himself at Potnuru.9 Later his descendant Viziarama Razu I built the fort at Vizianagaram in 1713–14.9

Footnotes

  1. Francis, Vizagapatam Gazetteer, Vol. I (1907), p. 230 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), pp. 115–116, extract from the Rayavachakamu (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 133, extract from the Amuktamalyada (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 153, verses of Peddana (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 158, extract from the Achyutarayabhyudayam (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 28 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Francis, Vizagapatam Gazetteer, Vol. I (1907), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Francis, Vizagapatam Gazetteer, Vol. I (1907), p. 339 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

People

Krishnadeva Raya

1509–1529 CE

King of Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529, of the Tuluva dynasty, and the most famous ruler of the empire. In 1512–16 he took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli from the Gajapati Prataparudra. He marched to Simhachalam and married the Gajapati's daughter. In 1520 he defeated the Adil Shah at Raichur. He wrote the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada, in which the god says Telugu is the best of the languages of the land. His court, with Allasani Peddana and Nandi Timmana, began the age of the Telugu prabandha (long narrative poem).

References

Sources (3)
  1. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 28, 230, 339. [Public domain]
  2. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 27. [Public domain]
  3. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1919, pp. 116, 133, 153, 158. [Public domain]

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