South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

stated in the inscription, the public exercise of Hindu religion, and subjected its followers to inhuman tyranny. The Hindus could not dress well, live well, and appear to be prosperous. Vexatious taxes were imposed on them ; their seats of learning were destroyed ; their temples were plundered and demolished ; and the images of their gods were defaced and broken and used as building material for erecting prayer houses for the faithful. That this is not an exaggeration but genuine truth is proved by independent accounts of the condition of the Hindus in other parts of South India subjugated by the Mussalmans. Gaṅgādēvī, the queen of Kumāra Kaṁpaṇa (1340-74 A.D.), presents in her Madhurāvijayaṁ, a harrowing picture of devastation caused by the Muhammadans in the Tamil country. ‘ The temples in the land ’, says she ‘ have fallen into neglect as worship in them has been stopped. Within their walls the frightful howls of jackals have taken the place of the sweet reverberations of the mṛidaṅga. Like the Turushkas who known no limits, the Kāvērī has forgotten her ancient boundaries and brings frequent destruction with her floods. The sweet odour of the sacrificial smoke and the chant of the Vēdas have deserted the villages (agrahāras), which are now filled with the foul smell of the roasted flesh and the fierce noises of the ruffianly Turushkas. The suburban gardens of Madura present a most painful sight ; many of their beautiful cocoanut palms have been cut down ; on every side are seem rows of stakes from which swing strings of human skulls strung together. The Tāmraparṇī is flowing red with the blood of the slaughtered cows. The Vēda is forgotten and justice has gone into hiding ; there is not left any trace of virtue or nobility in the land, and despair is writ large on the faces of the unfortunate Drāviḍas.’^[1]

Unable to bear the grinding tyranny of the Musalmans, which was set on foot to wipe out their race, religion and culture, the Āndhras as a people joined together and rose up in revolt. Nobles and common folk, if we can trust the evidence of the inscription under consideration, voluntarily flocked to the standard of Prōlaya-nāyaka to rid the country of the barbarous hordes of Islām, which by the decree of an evil fate descended on their native land. The Brāhmaṇas and the farmers of the soil paid, of their own free will, taxes to enable the leaders to carry on the struggle for freedom successfully. It was the first national movement in Indian history ; and the Āndhras showed to the rest of India how a people could, by their united effort, expel the enemy and regain their lost freedom.

This was no easy task. Muḥammad bin Tughluq was a powerful monarch, who was cruel and merciless in crushing his enemies. No Hindu ruler of the South, however strong and warlike, was able to resist the irresistible advance of his armies. It is noteworthy that in that deplorable state of utter helplessness, the Āndhras were able to organise themselves into a confederacy, strike a blow to gain independence, and successfully accomplish their purpose.

The information furnished by the grant under review about the Musunūri family is very meagre. It simply states that king Prōla of the Musunūri family was born in the fourth caste ; he headed the movement to free the country from the Muslim yoke, and having successfully driven them out, he made Rēkapalli on the Gōdāvarī at the foot of the Mālyavanta mountain his capital and entrusted the administration of the country to his younger brothers, such as Kāpaya-nāyaka, devoting himself entirely to the performance of charitable and meritorious deeds. Nothing is known from this grant about Prōlaya-nāyaka’s history and career, except that he had many younger brothers, of who Kāpaya-nāyaka was one. This dearth of information about his family is made up by the Prōlavarma grant of Kāpaya-nāyaka,^[2] dated in the Śaka year 1267, expressed by the chronogram giri-tarka-bhānu, in the cyclic year Pārthiva. As he is also stated in the grant to have belonged to the Musunūri family and as the date of the grant is very near to

_________________________________________________

^[1] K.A.N Sastri, The Pāṇḍyan Kingdom, pp. 242-43.
^[2]A. R. Ep., 1934-35, C. P. No. 3. Cf. JBORS, Vol. XX, pp. 260 ff.