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94.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1891.
capital was removed to Rajamandri or Rajamahendrapuram, on the north bank of the Godavari, in Lat. 17°, Long. 81° 48', and about forty-five miles in a north-easterly direction from Pedda-Vogi; possibly this city was first occupied, under the Eastern Chalukyas, by Amma I., who had the biruda or secondary name of Raja-Mahendra and was named after him. Dr. Burnell (loc. cit. note 5 above) tells us that in the Telugu Mahabharata, which belongs to the twelfth century A. D., Rajamahendrapuram is called the nayaka-ratna or "central gem" of the Vengi country; this description of it supports, not only. the removal of the capital, but also the inclusion before this time, in the original Vengî country, of a good deal of the territory on the north of the Gôdavari. The land of Vengi, or the Andhra kingdom, was described by the Chinese pilgrim Hinen Tsiang, in the seventh century A. D., under the name of An-to-lo; and it is supposed that he mentions Vengi as its capital, by the name of Ping-ki-lo (Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II. p. 217).7 The earliest epigraphical mention that we have of Vengi, is in the Allahâbâd pillar inscription, in which the name of Hastivarman, king of Vengi, occurs in the list of Samudragupta's conquests in Southern India (Gupta Inscriptions, p. 13); this reference belongs to the fourth century, A. D. And to some time between that date and the Eastern Chalukya period, we have to refer the mention of the town of Vengipura in the grant of the Salankayana Maharaja Vijayanandivarman, who issued his charter from that place (ante, Vol. V. p. 177). Also, to some date in the same interval belongs the grant of the Pallava Maharaja Simhavarman, who, issuing his charter from the town of Dasanapura, granted to some Brahmans the village of Mangadûr in Vengorashtra (ante, Vol. V. p. 157); this record seems to give a variant of the name of the Vengi country, and to supply a link in its early history, before it passed into the hands of the Eastern Chalukyas. In the records of the Eastern Chalukyas themselves, the first use of the word Vengi is in L., of the time of Amma I., which calls Vijayâditya II. "the lord of Vengi (Veng-isa) ;" and M., of the time of Chalukya-Bhima II., contains the first explicit statement, that the territory over which reigned Kubja-Vishnuvardhana I. and his successors, was the Vengi country.
The course of events which led to the establishment of the Eastern Branch of the Chalukya family in Vengi, seems to have been this. Pulikėsin II. succeeded to the Chalukya sovereignty in A. D. 609 or 610 (see page 3 above). From Hiuen Tsiang's account (Buddh. Rec. West. World, Vol. II. p. 256, and Life, p. 146 f.) we know that he was at the head of a powerful and warlike nation. And from the Aihole inscription (ante, Vol. VIII. p. 245) we learn that his conquests in Southern India extended right across the peninsula ; he reduced the strong fortress of Pishtapura, which is the modern Pitțâpuram in the Gôdâvarî District, near the coast, and about eighty miles to the north-east of Pedda-Vêgi; and he caused the leader of the Pallavas to shelter himself behind the ramparts of the city of Kâñchî, which is the modern Conjeeveram, about forty miles south-west of Madras. In leading his armies so far away from home, he would need someone invested with authority to represent him fully in his own hereditary dominions. And for this purpose Vishnuvardhana I., his younger brother, was appointed Yuvaraja. This appointment was made in A. D. 615; and Vishnuvardhana I. was still holding the same post in A. D. 616 or 617. Probably during the campaign which included the conquest of Pittâpuram, and which must have taken place at this time, the Vergi country was made a part of the Chalukya dominions; and the reference to the Pallavas, immediately after the mention of Pishṭapura, has been understood as indicating that it was from their possession that Vengi was taken. On the return of Pulikêsin II. to Badami, he would naturally depute Vishnuvardhana I. to administer the newly acquired
Mr. Sewell (loc. cit. p. 22) mentions two traditions about the origin of Rajamahendrapuram; one conuects it with Mahendradeva, son of Gautamadêva, a supposed early king of Orissa, and states that the city was then the southern capital of Orissa; the other connects it with a Chalukya king named "Vijayaditya-Mahendra."
Dr. Barnell (loc. cit.) considered that the last syllable in the Chinese representation of the name is " merely the locative suffix of the Telugu nouns, naturally mistaken by the worthy Chinese pilgrim monk for a part of the word. So the Portuguese called Salayam, - Chaliatta, using the inflected form of the name."
rashtra, usually translated by 'country,' is another territorial term. It occurs also in Maharashtra ; an! it seems to belong properly to only rather extensive areas.
