Epigraphia Indica Vol 26

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 42

No. 2.] RAJAHMUNDRY MUSEUM PLATES OF TELUGU CHODA ANNADEVA.
of the family. Bhaktiraja was probably dead by this time; and differences seem to have arisen between his sons regarding succession. Taking advantage of this, Anavēma entered into an alliance with his son Bhima or Bhimalinga, and secured his support and loyalty permanently by bestowing on him the hand of his daughter in marriage.1 Annadeva must have felt helpless against this combination, and sought refuge in his ancestral estate of Eruva, where he seems to have kept up a precarious existence up to 1388 A.D. The expansion of the Vijayanagara kingdom towards the east seems to have ousted him even from this place of refuge, and he became a wanderer seeking his fortunes in the courts of the Deccan. This accounts for the inveterate hostility which he displayed in later life towards the Reddis and their allies, the Rayas of Vijayanagara.
3. The first achievement of Annadeva that is described in these plates is the assistance which he rendered to the Turushka king in defeating the king of the Karņāta at Sagara. This statement clearly indicates that Annadeva entered into an alliance with the Bahmani Sultan. The Karnata army that is mentioned in the inscription is the army of Vijayanagara; and Sagara is a city of that name on the northern bank of the Krishna in the Gulburga District of the Nizam's Dominions. It stood on the frontier between Gulburga and Vijayanagara, and constantly figured in the wars between the two kingdoms. It follows from this that the Turushka king who was engaged in fighting with the Karnataka army was the Bahmani Sultan. Now between A.D. 1388, the date of Annadeva's Tripurantakam record, and A.D. 1416 when he appears to have died,
1 The marriage of Bhimalimga with the daughter of king Anavēma is referred to by contemporary Telugu writers. According to Niééamku Kommana, Allaḍa married Vēmāmbika, the daughter of Bhimalimga who was the son of Chola-Bhakti-kshitiévara:
Ma: Bharita-brinidhi-yam-mahiramanud-oppen-Jola-Bhakti-kshilisvara-sunumd-agu Bhimalimga-manujesa-breshthu sat-putri bhasvara-karunya-dasa-jan-avana-vidha-samdhatri Vêmämbikan variyiñchen-bati-bhakti-gaurava-dridha-vyä para-nity-ambikan || (Sivaliläviläsam, canto 1.) Srinatha states that Vêmämbika was a grand-daughter (i.e., daughter's daughter) of king Anavěma of Kondavidu :
Ma: Anavema-kshitipälu-pautri-yagu-Vemamba-Mahādēvikin
29
ghanud ayy-Allaya-bhumi-pälunaku samgrama-sthali-gamḍīvul
tanayul Vema-vibhundu Vira-vasudh-adhyakshundu Dodda-prabhu
dunun Annayyayu bahu-vikrama-kal-ätöpa-pratap-öddhatul || (Käsikhandamu, canto 1, v. 32).
It is obvious that Vêmamba's parents were Bhimalimga, the son of Chōla Bhaktiévara and an unnamed daughter of king Anavēma.
Chola Bhaktiśvara
Bhimalimga m.
Anavema
I
daughter
T
Vēmāmbika m. Doddaya Alla
2 An epigraph (S. I. I., Vol. V, No. 113) at Palivela dated January A.D. 1417 states that Doddama-Reddi Allada destroyed the family of Kataya-Vema's enemy completely and restored the kingdom to his children. These were Kataya-Vema's son Kumaragiri who succeeded him on the throne of Rajahmundry, and daughter Anitalli who married Virabhadra-Reddi, the second son of Allaḍa (Journal of the Telugu Academy, Vol. II, p. 108). Now, the present grant makes it quite clear that Annadeva was fighting with Kataya-Vema's family about A.D. 1416. So far as we are aware, the only enemy of Kataya-Vēma who having displaced the latter's children occupied their kingdom was Annadeva. Therefore, the enemy of Kataya-Vema whom Allada-Reddi destroyed with the whole of his family before January A.D. 1417 in order to restore Kataya-Vema's children to their paternal kingdom must have been none other than Annadeva. Any doubt that may still linger in our minds is completely set at rest by the poet Srinatha who flourished at the court of Vema and Virabhadra, sons of Allada-Reddi. He states that Allada destroyed the overweening pride of Virabhadra and Annadeva of the Solar family:
Bhanumat-kula-Virabhadr-Annadev-ādi-garva-samrambhambu-gāku chēsi (Bhīmēśvara-púrāņam, 1: 62).
It is therefore certain that Allaḍa-Reddi came into conflict with Annadeva-Choda and his sou Virabhadra and killed them before January 1417 A.D.