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APRIL, 1909.]
ANOIENT HISTORY OF THE NELLORE DISTRICT.
97
with the king. Neither of the two brothers is mehtioned in the Nellore volume. A certain Bâcharusayya was the governor of Kondavidu daring the reiga of Achyuta (O. 23). During the time of Sadasiva, Siddhiraju Timmarâjayya was the governor in A. D. 1558-59 (O. 31) and Tirumala I. in A. D. 1565-66 (0.29).
Finally, a few remarks have to be made about the family of the Venkatagiri Zamindars which played an important part in the history of the Nellore district during the Vijayanagara period. "By tradition," the editors of the Nellore volame remark, “the family owes its elevation to the patronage of the Orangal Kakatiya dynasty." Some of the inscriptions say that the family belonged to the Rêcherla-gôira (R. 18) and to the race of Padma-Nayakas (A, 35). The family name Vêlagoți which is retained to this day occurs also in inscriptions. The district of Podila (Podili) was granted to Kumara-Timma by Srirangadeva-Mahârâja apparently in A. D. 1875-76 (P. 97), while the Udayagiri province (or Rápûr-sma) seems to have been granted to Venkatapati-Nayanivára, son of Amma(Timmá nayanigâra and grandson of Kondama - Nayanigâru in A. D. 1590-91 (N. 46).7 The earliest inscription of the family is dated in A. D. 1528-29 (KG. 5) and mentions Timana yaningåru, son of Véligoti-Ranganayadu. Venkatapati, whose inscriptions range from A. D. 1612-13 to 1688-33, deserves to be remembered on account of his efforts to encourage irrigation. Either Venkataputi himself or one of his predecessors must have taken part in an expedition against the Påndyas. Accordingly, Venkatapati bore the surname Pancha-Pandiya-dala-vibhaľundu, "the conqueror of the army of the five Pandyas" (A. 35). The pedigree of the family derived from inscriptions does not agree with that published by Mr. Sewell in his Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II, Inscriptions which mention members of the Venkatagiri family have been found in the Kanigiri, Nellore, Âtmakûr, Gadar, and Ongole Talukas and the Podili and Salárpát Divisions,
The Musalmân inscriptions of the Nellore district deserve also some notice. The earliest of them is from Mashyapêta in the Kanigiri talaka and is dated in Saka-Samvat 1508, the cyclic year Vyaya corresponding to A. D. 1586-87 (KG. 92). It is in the Telugu language and character and records the gift of a village to three Brahmaņas by « Muhammadan named Lal[am] Khân for the religious merit of the Golconda king, Mahamandu Kuli Pata Saha), i, o, Muhammad Quli Qatb Shah who reigned from A. D. 1581 to 1611. The document is instructive as it evidence the feeling of religious toleration practised by the early Muhammadan rulers of Southern India. About this king it is said that he was constantly at war with the Vijayanagara kings and that the province of Kondavidu was held by him. In 1589 he founded the present city of Hyderabad then called Bhaghnagar. It is also believed that he conquered Gandikota, Caddapah, and all the country south of the Pennar. A namber of inscriptions of his successor Abdalla have been found ranging in date from A. D. 1640-41 (KR. 20) to 1661-62 (U. 96). The big mosque on the Udayagiri hill was built by Ghazi Ali, apparently a general of the Goloonda king. The work was begun in A. D. 1642-3. He captured the fort of Udayagiri and "with the fire of his sword be burnt in one moment the idol of idol worshippers" (U. 39). The little mosque on the same bill was built in A. D. 1660-61 by Husain Khan, who destroyed a temple and constructed the House of God" (U. 36).
The latest inscription in the volume is dated in A. D. 1802.08 when John Benward Travers Was Collector of Nellore and Ongole (KR. 42).
58 Krishộarlys ruspected that his only son died from poison administered by SAlva-Timma and his sons and Accordingly cast Silva-Timms in prison and eventually put out his eyen; Mr. Bewell's Forgotten Empire, pp. 359–61,
" The editore suspect that the date of this inscription has been incorrectly transcribed; see p. 1463 of the Nellore volume.
# Mr. Sowell's List of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 168.
