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THE KAKATIYAS
Gaṇapati, and the Kēsari-gadya mentioned in the inscription may have been
issued from a mint empowered by the royal authority.
The coin Kesari-gadya.
17. We know from the seal of the Garavapāḍu grant of Gaṇapati and the Pratāparudrīya of Vidyānātha (verse 7) that the boar was the emblem of the
Kākatīyas. The coins of the dynasty must
naturally have borne this emblem on the
obverse. Sir Walter Elliot mentions in his Coins of Southern India (p. 85), a
few Kākatīya coins on which, he says, a couchant bull is found. R. Srinivasaraghava Ayyangar on the other hand has noticed a coin of Kākati-Gaṇapati with
the legend kati at the top and Gaṇa at the bottom in old Telugu script, the interspace being filled by the ‘ figures of what may either be a lion or a tiger, with open
mouth, raised paw, twisted tail, all these very crudely represented by dots and
lines.’ (Journal of Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. I. p. 139.) The coin
is stated to weigh 56∙25 grains, which is approximately the weight of a gadyāṇa in the pre-Vijayanagara period. (Coinage of the Vijayanagara dynasties in the
Vijayanagara Sex-centenary Commemoration Volume, 1936, p. 106.) The mention of Kēsari-gadya in the present record lends for the first time an epigraphical
confirmation to the Kākatīya coinage being struck with the lion-emblem, of which
only one specimen is so far known. It may, however, be remarked that it was
not an absolute rule in the coinage of the Deccan and South India that the royal
emblem on the seals of copper-plate grants alone must be represented on the
coins as well. The Vijayanagara coins are known to bear on the obverse about
a dozen emblems severally, though the royal seal invariably contained the figure
of a boar (ibid). It is, therefore, not impossible that the coins referred to by Elliot
as containing the bull-emblem were also genuine issues of the Kākatīya mint.
It is possible that in India, from the earliest period of the punch-managed mints
simultaneously with the state-managed ones, which had been empowered to issue
coins with distinguishing emblems (ibid., p. 117) , and, this would explain the
diversity of emblems on the Elliot’s and S. R. Ayyangar’s Kākatīya coins noticed
above.
The Rājaguru Viśvēśvara-śiva and his disciples.
18. In No. 293 which bears a date in Śaka 1165, it is stated that Paripūrṇa-
śiva, son of Viśvēśvara, who was a pupil of Dharma-śiva made a gift of land
for the merit of his father ; the same per sonage figures as a donor in two other
epigraphs (Nos. 301 and 294) both dated in Śaka 1174. In all these inscriptions Viśvēṥvara-śiva is called the guru of Gaṇapatidēva-Mahārāja. We know from
the Malkāpuram inscription of Śaka 1183 (No. 94 of 1917) that the Kākatīya
Gaṇapati was first initiated into the Śaiva faith by this pontiff (dīkshāguru), and
since the earliest known inscription mentioning this guru as the preceptor of
Gaṇapati is dated in Śaka 1174, the dīkshā or initiation has been ascribed to
or a little earlier than this date, i.e. Śaka 1174 , (A.D. 1252) (Ep. Rep. for 1917,
p. 126). Now that an earliest record of Śaka 1165 refers to this fact, we may
have to take back the date of the initiation to some time before A.D. 1243.
In my Report for 1935 (Part II, para. 34), I have suggested from the epi-
thet Parama-Māhēśvara applied to Gaṇapati in one record dated in Śaka 1140
that the king might have received Śaiva-dīkshā from Viśvēśvara-śiva by that
year. In the Malkāpuram inscription referred to above we are furnished with a
lineage of Śaiva teachers of the Gōḷakī-maṭha from Sadbhāva-śambhu to Viśvēś-vara-śiva covering seven generations with a short interval between Varṇa-śambhu
and Kīrti-śambhu. To this is now added, the name of Paripūrṇa-śiva, son of
Viśvēśvara, who figures for the first time in the inscriptions of Śaka 1165 and 1174
cited above. From Nos. 169 and 171 of 1905 it is learnt that Viśvēśvara called
here by the name Viśvēśāchārya had another son named Śānta-sambhu, who
also figures as Sānta-śiva in a record of Vijayagaṇḍagōpāla dated Śaka 1185 (No.
272 of 1905), in which he is called the disciple of Rājagurudēva, evidently Viśvēś-vara-śiva presiding over the famous Gōḷakī-maṭha, whose spiritual influence ex-
tended over three lakhs of villages
The guru Uttama-siva in Rudrambaâs reign.
19. No. 307 belonging to the reign of Rudrāmbā and bearing Śaka date 1193
refers to Uttama-siva, as the son of Rājagurudēva. Rājagurudēva mentioned
in this record was most probably Viśvēś-
vara-śiva himself, for he is referred to as such
in two Malkāpuram inscriptions dated in the cyclic year Vibhava (i.e., Śaka 1190)
and Śaka 1204 (Nos. 95 and 96 of 1917). This would give him a long period of
pontificate from at least before Śaka 1165, if not from Śaka 1140 as stated above,
to Śaka 1193. A certain Śrīkaṇṭha-śiva, probably of the Gōḷakī-maṭha, figures in
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