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the cause of freedom. It is certain that it could not have been possible for Rudradeva to make this grant of a village as an agrahara while the coastal country was under the iron grip of the Mussalmans. These two facts mentioned above, namely, the title borne by Anna-mantri and the grant of an agrahāra to him by Kolani Rudradeva, clearly suggest the important role played by these two aged Andhra statesmen in the national movement started for the liberation of the Andhra
country.
Simgaya-nayaka, son of Era Dacha-nayaka of the Recherla family, was another survivor of the disaster. His father Era Dacha accompanied Muppiḍi-nayaka in his expedition against the Pandyas to Kanchipura in 1315 A.D. He is said to have "constructed a mandala with arrows and on the dias of the elephants made an offering of the pride of the Pandya king in the hōma fire of his valour and accepted the hand of the bride of victory." His son Simgaya also must have followed his father and taken part in the battle of Kañchi. All his activities described in the Telugu work Velugōṭiväri Vamsavali refer to the early post-Kakatiya period.
Kūnaya-nayaka, the son of Ganapati-nayaka and the grandson of Kesami-nayaka was another contemporary of Prōlaya-nayaka and Kapaya-nayaka. Kesami-nayaka who is said to have won a victory against the Pandyas according to the Kōrukonda inscription of Mummaḍinayaka," must have served Prataparudra and taken part in the expedition against Kanchi.
The Virasamanta chiefs, Kapaya-nayaka and Prōlaya-nayaka, also must have been the contemporaries of the Musunuri chiefs since the date of the Dōnepūḍi record of Namaya-nāyaka, grandson of Kāpa and son of Prōla, is dated in Saka 1259.
Similarly the Undirájas of the Solar race, Venga-bhūpati, king of Vengi, and his relations, the Telugu Chōda chiefs of Eruva, Gangadhara and his son Chōda Bhaktiraja, especially the latter, co-operated with the Musunuri chiefs in the war of independence.'
All the Nayakas and chiefs mentioned above, besides many others whose names are not known to us, must have formed into a confederacy, acknowledged the leadership of Prōlaya-nayaka and gathered under his banner to free the country from the foreign yoke. These confederates must have made the mountainous regions and forest areas on the banks of the Godavari and the Krishņā their rendezvous to put into action their plans to free the country, first the coastal plain below the Ghats and then the upland country of Telangana above the Ghats.
The various measures concerted by Prōlaya-nayaka and his associates to liberate the country from the Muslim yoke and how they accomplished their object are totally unknown to us. We know, however, for certain that Madhya-Andhradesa; as the coastal Andhra country was then called, very soon had regained its independence, almost within two or three years after its subjugation by the Muslims. Warangal fell in 1323 A.D.; but the whole of Telangana and Madhya-Andhradesa did not immediately come under the sway of the Muslims. There was strong opposition to the Muslim army. However, the coastal plain submitted to the arms of the conquering hordes within a year, that is, by the 10th September, 1324 A.D., the date of the construction
1A. R., Arch. Dept., Hyderabad, 1933-34, p. 29, App. C.
• Velugōtivări Vaméavali, pp. 16-17.
A. R. Ep., No. 44 of 1912.
Ibid., 1906, App. A. No. 21; above, Vol. XIV, p. 83. Ibid., 1948-47, App. A. No. 3.
