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No. 2.) RAJAHMUNDRY MUSEUM PLATES OF TELUGU CHODA ANNADEVA.
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The Delhi Sultan, Firüz Tughluq made an attack upon Jäjnagar in 761 A.H. (October-November, A.D. 1360); he marched upon the city of Banārasi (Cuttack), the capital of the Gajapati. On the approach of Firüz, the Gajapati, Vira-Bhanudēva II, crossed the Mahanadi and retreated towards Tilang. The Sultan pursued him for a day, but giving up the pursuit busied himself in the neighbourbood. Though the Sultan himself abandoned the pursuit, be might have entrusted the task to Zafar Khān, the pretender to the throne of Lakhnauti, who appears to have accompanied him during the expedition. It is not unlikely that this Muslim chief should have advanced as far as the Gödāvari where he might have been opposed at Pedakonda by Bhaktirāja and repulsed. This is one possibility. The other is that Bhaktirāja might have come into conflict with the forces of the Babmani Sultan, and won a victory over them near Pedakonda. The Bahmani armies invaded Tilang during the period of Bhaktiraja's rule on two occasions, once during the reign of 'Alā-ud-din Hasan and then again in the time of his son and successor Muḥammad Shah I. As the second invasion did not proceed beyond Filampatan or Vēlampatan, a place which is said to bave been at a distance of eight days' journey from Kalyan,* the army could not have reached Pedakonda on the eastern bank of the Godavari in the Ghats. But the invasion which was led by 'Ali-uddin himself in person in A.D. 1357, appears to have swept over the whole of Tilang. Sayyid Ali gives a brief account of the invasion in his Burhān-i-Ma'āşir. ** After spending some time in pleasure in his capital, he (the Sultan) was again desirous
of conquering the country of Tilang........ For nearly a year he travelled through the country of Telingana, and having taken possession of the district of Bhonāgir,
he overthrew the idol-temples and instead of them built mosques and public schools." Sayyid 'Ali's account is corroborated by the evidence of the contemporary inscriptions. An epigraph of Pillalamarri near Warangal which may belong to A.D. 1357 records that the temple of Erukēsvaradeva which was destroyed by Sultan 'Alā-ud-din was rebuilt by a certain Erapotu Lernka, a servant of Kapaya-Nayaka, the lord of the Andhra country. The invasion did not stop with Bhõnāgir but spread south-eastwards towards the sea, and reached Dharanikõța on the banks of the Krishņā. An epigraph in the temple of Amarēgvara at Amarāvati in the Guntur District dated 22nd July A.D. 1361, describes how Kētays Vēma, an officer of king Anavõta of Kondavidu, repulsed the Muslim cavalry and re-installed the image of Amarēsvara, which had evidently been destroyed by the invaders. Kētaya was assisted in the battle by Malla, one of king Anavõta's paternal uncles. In an unpublished copper-plate charter of Sivalinga Reddi, a descendant of Malla, dated A.D. 1413, it is said that Malla defeated 'Alā-ud. din and other Turushka warriors. Therefore, the Bahmani invasion was checked by the Reddis at Dharaņikota and turned back. Though 'Ala-ud-din's activities in other parts of Tilang are not known, he appears to have reduced the country from Bhònägir to the banks of the river Gödāvari to subjection. His dominions', according to Sayyid 'Ali, extended from the east side of Daulatābād to Bhönägir and the river Gödāvari both north and south sides--to
The Tarikh-s-Mubarak Shahi (G. O. S. LXIII), PP. 135-38. • Briggs : Ferishta, Vol. II, p. 303. * Ind. Ant., Vol. XXVIII, p. 152. • Telingana Inscriptions, p. 163. $8.1. I., Vol. VI, No. 226. • Local Records, Vol. III, p. 469.
Vemadhipasyavarajo='pi MallaBharallabho'sau jagan-obba-gandah Allávadin-adi-Turushka-mallan Aamullasad-bhalla-ganan vijitya |
