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THE VELANANDU CHIEFS
enemy Goṅka II. Under the considerations explained above, we cannot get over
the difficulty by supposing that the whole record was re-engraved during the time
of Kākatīya Gaṇapati with the new names substituted for the old temples and the
additional gift made by the Ekkaṭis to the Sānis and Mānis appended thereto.
So far as we can make out from the form and wording of the record, it is a composite one and must have been issued and engraved at one and the same time.
A composite record of his time.
It may be pointed out that in Śaka 1151,
exactly 100 years after the date of the
present record, there flourished a Velanāṇḍu chief named Velaṇāṇṭi Chōḍa as a
subordinate of Kākatīya Gaṇapati (No. 322). But the numerical figures of the
dates of this as well as the next record (No. 302) are clearly Śaka 1050 and 1064
and so, this chief, i.e., Kulōttuṅga-Chōḍa Goṅka cannot be assigned to the period
of Gaṇapati. We must therefore await further discoveries to enable us to solve
this apparent discrepancy, in an otherwise regular and genuine stone inscription.
The other record (No. 302) begins with the same invocatory verse, for the prosperity of Goṅka II and is dated in Śaka 1064, in which year the chief is stated to
have made a gift of land for the temple of Viṭṭīśvara at Bhaṭṭiprōlu. Both
the records must be taken to belong to the same chief, viz., Goṅka II, son of
Kulōttuṅga-Chōḍa.
Kulōttuṅga Rājēndra-Chōḍa, Śaka 1085.
14. His son Kulōttuṅga Rājēndra-Chōḍaya is mentioned in the current
year’s collection in another record from Bhaṭṭiprōlu (No. 299) which bears
the Śaka date 1085 and refers itself to
the 18th year of Tribhuvanachakravartin
Rājarājadēva. These dates, i.e., Śaka 1050 and 1064 for Goṅka II and Śaka
1085 for his son Kulōttuṅga Rājēndra-Chōḍaya, help us in revising the chronology of the Velanāṇḍu chiefs which has not been properly worked out till now.
I have stated in my Report for 1935 that Dr. Hultzsch’s assignment of dates between
Śaka 1085 and 1102 to Pṛithvīśvara (Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 38-39) has to be modified
in view of copper-plate No. 23 of 1916-17 which belongs to his grandfather Rājēndra-Chōḍa and bears the date Śaka 1091 coupled with the 23rd regnal year
of the Eastern Chāḷukya king Rājarāja, and in view of the discovery of the Sarripūḍi inscription of the chief dated in Śaka 1094 and the Tripurāntakam inscription of Śaka 1095 (No. 264 of 1905) which is the latest date known so far for him.
In the same Report I have shown that Chōḍa, son of Goṅka I, succeeded his father
sometime between Śaka 1028 and 1030 and was called Rājēndra-Chōḍaya in a
record of Śaka 1042 (S. I. I., Vol. IV, No. 1228). The next certain dates in the
Velanāṇḍu chronology are Śaka 1054 (No. 645 of 1920) and Śaka 1055 (S. I. I.,
Vol. IV, Nos. 804 and 1138) for Goṅka II, who in one of them is called the son of
Chōḍa and Guṇḍāmbikā and in the other the son of Chōḍa and husband of
Sabbamā. But in S. I. I. Vol. V, Nos. 160-161, his father Velanāṇṭi-Chōḍa
son of Goṅka I and husband of Guṇḍāmbikā, figures as a donor of some gift
in Śaka 1058. This shows that Goṅka II was associated with his father in
the administration of the velanāṇḍu country at least since Śaka 1054. This
date of co-regency is now carried back by four more years by the Gūḍavalli inscription under notice which bears Śaka 1050, during the time of Goṅka II. Now
that we definitely know that Kulōttuṅga Rājēndra-Chōḍaya, son of Goṅka II,
ruled from at least Śaka 1085 (No. 299) till Śaka 1095, and the latest certain date
for Goṅka II is found to be Śaka 1065 from No. 647 of 1920 according to which
the chief appears to have been called Rājēndra-Chōḍa, all the dates from Śaka
1060 to Śaka 1079 assigned to Goṅka III by Dr. Hultzsch (Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 38)
must now be shifted to the time of his grandfather Goṅka II. It may be noted
that in none of these inscriptions is found a definite datum to assume the chief to
be Goṅka III to the exclusion of Goṅka II, except one, i.e., No. 231 of 1892 (S. I. I.,
Vol. IV, No. 681), in which he is called the son of Rājēndra-Chōḍa by which name
Chōḍa, the son of Goṅka I, and father of Goṅka II was also known. It may therefore
Chronology of his family.
be assumed that Goṅka II ruled till
at least Śaka 1079 and died some time
before Śaka 1085, in which year the Bhaṭṭiprōlu record of his son is dated. As
we know that the Velanāṇḍu country was conquered and annexed to the Kākatīya
dominions by Gaṇapati between Śaka 1121, the last known date of the Velanāṇḍu
chief Pṛithvīśvara and Śaka 1123 (Ep. Rep., 1909, p. 120), the remaining two chiefs
of the family, i.e., Goṅka III and Pṛithvīśvara, must be accommodated between
Śaka 1095 and 1123. If, on the other hand, the date Śaka 1102 (No. 413 of 1893 :
Ś. I. I.., Vol. IV, No. 1335) were to belong to Velanāṇṭi Kulōttuṅga Rājēndra-Chōḍaya, i.e., father of Goṅka III, instead of to Pṛithvīśvara as presumed by
Dr. Hultzsch, the interim period will have to be narrowed down to Śaka 1102 and
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