THE KAKATIYAS

  7. This family of chiefs who ruled over portions of the Godavari district called Kōna-maṇḍala as subordinates to the Eastern Chāḷukyas, is represented by a copper-plate inscription (C. P. No. 4) of Kōna Manma-Malla, dated in Saka 1140, which secured from Kandikuppa In the Amalapuram taluk of the East Godavari district. It is important as being the only copper-plate grant of the family known 30 far. The genealogy of the chief is traced from Rājaparēṇḍu, ‘the hero of many battles’. In this genealogy, Manma-Malla is said to have had an elder brother by name Bēta or Manma-Bēta who is omitted in the table given in para.58 of the Epigraphical Report for 1932-33, wherein, however, his younger brother Sūrya is noticed, while he is omitted in the present grant. It records the endowment by the chief, of the village Kandikuppa separated from Pallamakurti in Guddeśa-Vishaya to the temple of Chōḍēśvara Mahādēva evidently in the same village for the merit of the donor’s father. This grant has been published in Bhārati for June 1938 (pp. 555 ff.).

Kākatīya Pratāparudradēva, his general, Dēvari-Nāyaka at Śrīraṅgam.
   8. There is a single records of the Kākatīya king Pratāparudradēva in the collection ( No. 79) which comes from Śrīraṅgam. It is engraved in Grantha script though the language is Telugu. It is highly damaged and the latter half containing the details of grant is completely lost. The prefatory portion states that while Kākatīya Vīrapratāpadēva Mahārāja was ruling from Oruṅgallu, his commander (Nāyaka) Dēvari-Nāyaka son of Māchaya-Nāyaka, who is given the tirudas ‘Kākatarāya-sthāpanāchārya and ‘Svāmidrōharagaṇḍa’ marched with an army to the South against the five Pāṇḍyas, defeated Vīra-Pāṇḍya and the Malayāḷa-Tiruvadi Kulaśēkhara at Tiruvadikuṇḍram and established Sundara-Pāṇḍya at Vīradhāvaḷam. The inscription is dated in Saka 12[39, Piṅgaḷa] and the astronomical details given work out correctly for A. D. 1317, March 28, Monday. The last two lines of the inscription suggest that the purport of the grant was probably some sarvamānya gift, evidently to god Raṅganātha of the place. A similar inscrip- tion still more damaged, is found at Jambukēśvaram close by (S. I. I., Vol. IV, No. 430). In the war of the Pāṇḍya succession which started between the brothers Sundara-Pāṇḍya and Vīra-Pāṇḍya when their father Māravarman Kulaśēkhara overlooked the claims of the former and was murdered by him in consequence, both the Travancore king Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara and later, the Muhammadans, took part, Taking advantage of the weakness of his ally Vīra-Pāṇḍya, Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara seems to have marched as far north as Conjeevaram where he crowned himself on the banks of the Vēgavatī in A. D. 1312-13 (Ep. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 146). The present inscription is important in this connection as it reveals the part played in this war by Pratāparudra who sent an army to the South under Dēvari-Nāyaka which as stated above, estab- lished Sundara-Pāṇḍya at Vīrudhāvaḷam. The village Tiruvadikuṇḍram may be identified with Tiruvadikunram in the Ginjee taluk of the South Arcot district,

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