________________
272
Gängeya-Sahini (Saka 1172, 1176, 1179)
born Gangeya; after him came his sister's son' Janarddana (udabhavat-tad-anu dvibhujō nṛipa[ḥ*] svasur-apatyam-amushya Janarddanaḥ 11. 8 f.), his younger brother Tripurarideva and the latter's younger brother Ambadēva as Upendra was of Indra'. The names of the sister of GangeyaSābiņi and her husband are furnished here for the first time. Rangachari and Sewell have misunderstood the relationship between the several chiefs of the Kayastha family and have thus given a wrong genealogy.
It may be noted that the Tripurantakam inscription as well as the present record specify without ambiguity the connection between the four members of the family which put together stands as follows:
Brahma
Kayastha family
Saka 1166
Saka 1172
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
Jannigadeva (Saka 1180-1190)
Saka 1176-79
Chief.
Tripuraridava (Saka 1190-1194)
The Kayasthas were a powerful family of feudatory chiefs who played a prominent part in the politics of the medieval period in the Telugu country. They started their career as cavaliers (Turaga-sadhanikas) under Kakatiya Ganapati and styled themselves as Mahamandalesvara, Mandalika-Brahmarakshasa and Ganda pendara. Ambadeva the most powerful chief of the family assumed the epithet Ghandikōta-Manorathapuravar-adhiśvara and ruled from his capitals Vallurupaṭṭana and Ghandikota the former of which is Valluru near Cuddapah while the latter is the modern Ghandikōta in the Jammalmadugu Taluk of the Cuddapah District. In order to understand the extent of their power and territory, it is necessary to study their records critically, and to facilitate such a study, a classified statement of their principal dated records is given below specifying in each case the name of the overlord under whom the chief ruled:
Date.
Ambayyadeva Gängeya-Sahini Do.
Overlord.
[VOL. XXV.
Ganapati
Do.
Do.
Chandaladevi m. to Amba
kshmäpa I (Saka 1166)
(By different wife)
Ambadēva II (Saka 1194-1230?)
Provenance.
Satrasala (Palnad Tk., Guntur Dt.). Tripurantakam hill (Kurnool Dt.). Tripurantakam hill (Kurnool Dt.). Gangavaram (Cuddapah Dt.).
4
1 Though the Tripurantakam inscription contains the specific relationship namely sister's son' (svasur-apat. yam) between Gängeya-Sahiņi and Janarddana it has been missed by all writers on the Kayasthas who neverthe less proclaim that the inscriptions do not disclose the connection between them. See also Madras Epigraphical Report for 1905, Part II, page 63.
Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II, p. 932, n.
Historical Inscriptions of Southern India, p. 359.
No. 314 of 1930-31 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection.
* No. 283 of 1905 of the same collection.
Nos. 231, 176 of 1905 and 233 of 1937-38 of the same collection.
