________________
232
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXIX from Kōsala, planted a pillar of victory (jayastambha1) at the meeting place of the boundaries of Odra and Andhra countries in order to proclaim the glory and fame of his overlord, RajendraChōda. Devendravarman may be identified with Devendravarman the usurper who, taking advantage of the infancy of Anantavarma-Chōdaganga on the death of Rajaraja-Devendravarman in 1077 A.C., occupied Kalinga; he was the donor of the Kambakaya plates, dated Saka 1003 expired, and he was the same as king Devendravarman mentioned in the Gära stone record.3
It is not known when Rajendra-Chōda I died; he was certainly living on the date of the Draksharama inscription of Pallavaraja, wherein he is referred to as living at that time. His death may have occurred, therefore, about 1104 A.C. Rajendra-Chōda ruled over Vengimandala from about 1094 to 1104 A.C. He was a devotee of Mukunda or Vishnu according to the present record (v. 49) and the Pithapuram inscription (v. 36), unlike his natural father Goňka I and his adoptive parent, the emperor, who were both parama-maheśvaras, i.e., staunch worshippers of Siva. Rājēndra-Chōda I married Gundambika and had two sons by her, Gonkarāja II, who resembled Guha or Kumārasvāmin, and Panda IV. On the death of Velananți Rajendra Choda I the emperor was once more confronted with the problem of finding a successor to administer Vengi. Kulōttunga-Chōla I did not, however, nominate Gonkarāja II but appointed another trusted and powerful vassal, Kōna Rajendra-Chōda, the Haihaya ruler of Kōnamandala, the territory that lay between the two branches of the lower Godavari, the Vasishṭhi and the Gautami.
The next important member of the family, perhaps the most illustrious of all, mentioned in the present plates is Velananți Goňka II, or Gonkarāja II, Kulottunga-Choda-Goȧkarāja or Kulottunga-Chōda-Gangeya-Gonkarāja as he is also called in some inscriptions. He appears as the foremost soldier and powerful vassal in the kingdom during the viceroyalty of prince Parantaka. A stone record from Tripurantakam dated Saka 1028 in the cyclic year Sarvajit, of Mahamandaleśvara Velanaṇṭi Gonka II, registers the gift of the village of Chetlapadu in Kammanadu on the banks of the river Gunderu, to the god Tripurantakēśvara-Šiva, on the occasion of the full-moon day of Karttika. The record is interesting: it gives Goňka II the title Chalukyarajya-bhavana-mülastambha, "the chief pillar supporting the edifice which is the kingdom of the Chalukyas ", and the epithet, Samadhigata-pañcha-mahāśabda, 66 one who has attained (the status of having) the five great sounds", and speaks of him as the ruler of the Trisat-ottara-shat-sahasr-avani-vishaya, i.e., "the six-thousand and three hundred country". The date is irregular; the cyclic year Sarvajit did not coincide with the Saka 1028 expired, but with the following year 1029 expired, corresponding to 1107-08 A.C. Be that as it may, from this date roughly till the day of his death half a century later, Gonkarāja II remained the most important person in the kingdom. He was the de facto ruler of the kingdom which extended from the Mahendragiri on the north to Kalahasti on the south, though he aknowledged the nominal suzerainty of the Chōla-Chalukya emperor. The kingdom of Vengi which almost slipped out of the hands of the Chalukya-Chōlas after the death of Kulottunga-Chōla I would appear to have been re-conquered by Velananți Gońkaraja II from the commanders of the Western Chalukya emperor Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya VI who had earlier occupied the country, after a protracted struggle, towards the close of the reign of Vikrama-Chōla.
1 Perhaps it is the same as the one mentioned in SII, Vol. V, Nos. 1351 and 1332.
* Bharati, Vol. VII, No. 5, pp. 115 ff., where Mr. M. Somasekhara Sarma edits the record, C.P. No. 9 of 1927-28. The chronogram recorded in the inscription has to be interpreted as yielding the Saka 1003 and not 110? as Mr. Sarma believes.
No. 391 of 1932-33: ARSIE, 1932-3, p. 56, para, 9. See also ARSIE, 1936 p. 64.
SII, Vol. IV, No. 1137 text lines 4 and 16, and the present plates.
Above, Vol. IV, pp. 83, text line 48.
811, Vol. X, No. 63.
