South Indian Inscriptions

THE REDDIS

Ana-Vōta-Reḍḍi.
  58. A copper-plate record (C.P.No.11) which comes from Kommuchikkāla in the west Godavari district is dated in Śaka 1344, expressed by the chrono- gram Vēdāmbudhiguṇaśaśi and belongs to Ana-Vōta of the Reḍḍi family of Rajahmundry. He was the younger son of Ana –Vrōla, who was the eldest brother of Allāḍa-Reḍḍi, and made a grant of the village Chikkāla renamed Prōlaya- Komaragiripuram situated on the bank of the Gautamī (river) and to the north of Kshīrārāma in Pānnāra –sīmā, to a Brahman named Pinnayārya, son of Śiṅgaya. An inscription from Tirupati in the Peddāpuram taluk of the Godavari district (S. I. I., Vol. V, No.104) mentions Kumāragiri and Ana-Vōta as the sons of Allāḍa along with Vēma and Vīrabhadra, who are definitely known to have been his sons. The present inscription is interesting in so far as it mentions the former two chiefs as the sons of Ana-Vrōla. Inscriptions of Ana-Vrōla extend up to A.D. 1422, and so Ana-Vōta, his son and donor of the present grant, seems to have been ruling over the Pānāra-sīmā in which the village granted lay, as a subordinate of his uncle Allāḍa-Reḍḍi who was alive till A. D.1431. This Pānāra-sīmā may be identified with Pāvanavāra-or Pāgunāra-Vishaya mentioned in inscriptions from Juttiga in the Tanuku taluk of the west Godavari district (Ep. Rep. for 1921, Part II, paragraph 83). As the villages Kommuchikkāla, which is identical with the grant-village Chikkāla alias Prōlaya-Komaragiripuram, and Kshīrārāma which is the sanskritised name of Pālakollu are also stated to have been situated in the same division, this sīmā must have comprised the present Tanuku and Narsapur taluks of the West Godavari district. A village named Ana-Prōlāreḍḍi –Komaragiripuram is already known to us from the Vēmavaram grant of Allaya Vēma-Reḍḍi of Śaka 1356 (Ep. Ind., Vol. XIII, page 240).

   The donor Ana-Vōta bears the characteristic Reḍḍi titles Rājavēśyā- bhujaṅga, Vasantarāya and Vīranārāyaṇa and calls himself a worshipper of god Mārkaṇḍēya at Rājamahēndranagaraī on the banks of the Gōdāvarī. His brother Komaragiri had probably predeceased him, as the grant-village was named after him for his merit. The donee Pimnaya, son of Śiṅgaya and grandson of Piṁnaya of the Kāśyapa-gōtra, is described as well-versed in the Jyōtisha and Śakuna sciences and bore the titles of Śakuna-Brahmā and Jyōtirmārga-nirargaḷa. He divided the gift village into fifty shares among 25 Brahmans of several gōtras, and thus earned the title Bandhuchinbtāmaṇi. The composer of the record was Śrīvallabha, son of Śrivallabha of the Kāṇvagōtra.

   Incidentally it may be remarked that Dr. L. D. Barnett who has edited the Vēmavaram grant of Allaya-Vēma-Reḍḍi in the Epigraphia Indica (Vol. XIII, page 237 f) does not illustrate clearly the relationship between Kāṭaya-Vēma and Kāṭaya II, in the genealogical table given on page 239 of that journal. From the statements made in the connected records but not noticed by Dr. Barnett, it is clear that Kāṭaya Vēma, the husband of Mallāmbikā, must be shown as the son of Doḍḍāmbikā and Kāṭaya II of the table. From the genealogy of the Reḍḍis given in an inscription at Śrīśailam (No. 20 of 1915, Ep. Rep. for 1915, page 115, paragraph 59), we find that Prōla, the son of Pōla, married Annamāmbā, a daughter of Doḍḍaya, and begot through her five sons, viz., Mācha, Vēma, Doḍḍa, Anna and Malla. It is clear that the first two of these sons, viz., Mācha and Vēma, are respectively identical with Mācha and Vēma, sons of Prōla, given in Dr. Barnett’s table above referred to.

   Our grant says that Kōṭa, the first member of this family, was ‘Lord of Dūvūru’ on the Pinākinī. The village Dūvūru is evidently identical with the modern village Duvvūru in the Kovur taluk of the Nellore district lying not far from the northern bank of the river Pennār. It is therefore clearly established that this branch of the Reḍḍis should have migrated originally from the Nellore district. It must also be mentioned here that Addaṅki, the earlier capital of the Reḍḍis of Koṇḍavīḍu, lies on the borders of the same district and was originally included in this district. The grant under review has been published in the journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society (Vol. III, pages 223 ff.) by Mr. B. V. Krishna Rao. The text given by him is inaccurate in some places and seems to require emendation.