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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA tha bālō=’pi saṁgrāma-raṁga-saṁhṛita-yavana-ādhipa-subhaṭa-ghōṭak-āṭōpaḥ), i.e. king of the Musalmans. Prōlaya-nāyaka, son of Pōchi-nāyaka, is no doubt, identical with his namesake of the Musunūri family, the donor of the grant under review. The Peṇṭapāḍu grant referred to above, not only confirms the account of the liberation of the coastal Āndhra country furnished by the grant under review, but also reveals to us the names of two of his associates, Vēṅga and Bhaktirāja─ the former his elder and the latter a younger contemporary─ who played an important part in the war of independence, even though their achievements are unknown to us from that grant. It is probable that Pōchi-nāyaka, the father of Prōlaya-nāyaka, also lost his life during this memorable war. The unnamed vana-durga to which Prōla and Vēṅga repaired, may be safely identified with Rēkapalli, the capital of Prōlaya-nāyaka, situated near the Mālyavanta mountain mentioned in the present grant. Nothing more is known about either Vēṅga-bhūpati or his ancestors. Some more information about the achievements of Clōḍa Bhaktirāja such as the defeat of Boggara and other Muhammadan warriors in the battle near Gulapūṇḍi, his conquest of the demoniac forces of Dabaru-khānu and others near Pedakoṇḍāpurī may be gleaned from the undated Rajahmundry Museum plates[1] of his son, Annadēva-chōḍa.
As has already been stated, the Kaluvachēru grant of Anitalli[2] also attests to the fact of the liberation of the Triliṅga country by Prōlaya-nāyaka and of Kāpaya-nāyaka’s rule over it. This grant mentions Vēma of the Paṇṭa community, as one of the seventy-five Nāyakas that served Kāpaya-nāyaka. He was the son of Prōlaya-reḍḍi and the founder of the Reḍḍi kingdom of Koṇḍavīḍu. Vēma was thus a contemporary and loyal associate of the Musunūri chief, Kāpaya-nāyaka, and probably of his cousin and predecessor, Prōlaya-nāyaka. His Mallavaram stone record,[3] dated in Śaka 1247 (October 7, 1325 A.D.), describes him as the very Agastya to the ocean, namely, Mlēchchas (Mlēchchh-ābdhi-Kuṁbhōdbhava), and indicates the region of his activities during the period of this war. As he is stated to have re-granted the agrahāras to Brāhmaṇas which were foremerly taken away by the Muslims, after rescuing them from the enemy, on the banks of the three important rivers, the Gautamī, the Kṛishṇā, and the Brahmakuṇḍī or Kuṇḍiprabhā, i.e. the Guṇḍlakammā, he must have participated in the war against the Muhammadans in the region through which these rivers flow. Vēma’s victory over the Yavanas, i.e. Muhammadans, the protection by him of Madhy-Āndhra-dēśa, i.e. the Middle Āndhra country, and the patronage of Brāhmaṇas are also referred to by his court poet Yarrā-Preggaḍa in his Harivaṁśaṁ.[4] He loyally co-operated with the Musunūri chiefs, Prōla and Kāpa, during the early post-Kākatīya period and contributed to the success of the war of independence. It seems strange that the Kaluvachēru grant mentions Vēma as the subordinate of Kāpaya-nāyaka and not of Prōlaya-nāyaka, though his contemporaneity with the latter is indubitable. This was probably due to the fact that the administration of the country was left in the hands of Kāpaya-nāyaka by his cousin Prōla, after the conquest of the country, as has been stated in the grant under review. This record registers, on the occasion of a lunar eclipse, the grant of Vilasa, the best of the fertile villages of the Kōna-maṇḍala on the banks of the Gōdāvarī, as an agrahāra to Vennaya, the elder brother of Gaṇapay-ārya and son of Annaya, grandson of Vennaya and great-grandson of Annaya of the Bhāradvāja gōtra and Yajur-vēda. The donee is described in high sounding terms as a learned scholar of note and a well-to-do person of charitable disposition. Several yāyajūkas of blemishless conduct, who had performed many sacrifices with the money given by him, are said to have shone like the flags of fame, etc. When Prōlaya-nāyaka, ____________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XXVI, No. 2.
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