Kakatiyas of Warangal

 Kakatiyas of Warangal

 

Their earliest known chief was Beta I, a feudatory of the Western Chalukyas in first half of the 11th century. He ruled over the Koravi country in AP Beta was succeeded by his son Prola I. The loyalty of Prola I to Chalukya Somesvara I earned for him Anumokonda-vishya, as a permanent fief. Prola I thus became the founder of the Kakatiya principality. Prola I was succeeded by his younger son Beta II, who was in turn succeeded by his son, Durganripati.

Prola II

The reign of Prola II, the next ruler, forms an important landmark in the history of the Kakatiya. He threw off the overlordship of the Chalukya and carved out for himself an independent kingdom which was destined to grow under his successors into a powerful kingdom embracing the whole of the Andhra country.

Rudradeva

His achievements are describe in his Anumakonda inscription. According to it, he defeated a number of neighbouring princes and extended his dominion right up to the banks of the Godavari. Turning to the south, Rudradeva defeated four kings of the Telegu Choda origin. He also invaded Vengi, but his authority in this area was challenged by the chiefs into conflict with the Seunas (Yadavas) of Devgiri which resulted in his defeat and death.

Rudradeva was a patron of art and letters. He built magnificent temples in his dominions, dedicated to the god Siva. It is probable that he built the famous Thousand-Pillar temple at Anumakonda. He founded near his capital Anumakonda, a new town called Orugallu, modern Warangal, which became the chief city under his successors.

Rudradeva was succeeded by his younger brother Mahadeva who enjoyed a short reign of about three years. He invaded the Seuna kingdom and perished in an attack on Devgiri while his son Gajapati was taken prisoner.

Ganapatideva

Though Ganapati began his rule under unfavourable circumstances, his reign was destined to become one of the most brilliant epochs in the history of the Andhra country. During his long reign of 63 years he swept over almost the whole land inhabited by the Telegu speaking peoples.

Ganapati invaded the coastal districts and captured Vijayawada and the island of Divi. After the death of Prithvisvara, the territory of the Velanti chiefs passed into the hands of the Kakatiya monarch. The expansion of the Kakatiya power in the Telegu Chodas of Nellore. Dissension in the family of Telegu Chodas induced Ganapati to march against Nellore where he installed Tikka on the throne of his ancestral kingdom. When Tikka died, the kingdom of Nellore was plunged into anarchy riven by the contending claims of Tikka's son Manuma Siddhi II and Vijaya-Gandagopala. At the instance of the poet Tikkana, Ganapati assisted Manuma Siddhi against his domestic enemies and seated him firmly on the Nellore throne.

Ganapati was the most powerful of the Kakatiya sovereigns who built up an extensive empire stretching from the Godavari district up to Chingelput, and from Yelgandal up to the sea. Ganapati was a good administrator and took measures for improving trade and agriculture. Motupalli, now in the Krishna district, was an important seaport in his kingdom, frequented by foreign merchants. Ganapati completed the city of Warangal by building two forts one inside the other, an shifted the capital to it. Ganapati had no son, but two daughters, Rudramba and Ganapamba. Ganapati chose as the heir-apparent Rudramba, who was married to Virbhadra, a prince of the Eastern Chalukya lineage.

After her accession she had to crush the rebellion of the recalcitrant nobles who could not reconcile to the rule of woman. But it was external danger that caused her serious trouble. The Yadava, Mahadeva invaded the Kakatiya kingdom, but Rudramba defeated him and compelled him to peace. The worst trouble came from the Kakatiya feudatory Ambadeva who re-established Manuma Gandagopala at Nellore. But the appearance of Kumara Rudradeva or Parataparudra, grandson of Rudramadevi and heir-apparent to the Kakatiya throne, completely altered the balance of power. Kumara Rudradeva made a three-pronged attack on Ambadeva's territories and at the same time dispatched separate expeditions against his allies. Rudramba herself led a large army, defeated Ambadeva and recovered Tripuraantakam and the surrounding country.

Rudramadevi was undoubtedly one of the greatest of the rulers of the Andhra country who took an active part in the government and led the army in person on occasions of emergency.

Parataparudra

The main event of Prataparudra's reign was the series of Muslim invasions of Warangal which began with an unsuccessful raid in 1303 and ended twenty years later with the eclipse of the Kakatiya kingdom.

Administration

Besides the inscriptions of the Kakatiya monarchs, two books- the Nitisastra-muktavali of Baddena, who was a feudatory of Ganapati and Rudramba, and the Sakalanitisammatamu of Madki Singana, written in the first quarter of the 15th century- throw light on the subject. A king should, according to the Nitisara of Prataparudra, grant frequent audiences to his subjects at prescribed times. The king was assisted in the government of the kingdom by a large number of ministers like mahapradhanas, pradhanas, preggedas, amatyas and mantrins.

Though the number of ministers in the service of the king is not know, it seems that the king was assisted by 18 tirthas or ministers, viz. mantrin, purohita, mantri-janadhyaksha, sainadhi-nayaka, sannidhatri, atavika, prasastra, ayudha-nayaka, vyavaharika, samahartri, karmantika, antarvamsikadhikara, yuvaraja and dauvarika. Officials of all class, both civil and military, were divided into niyogas or categories, 72 in number, referred to collectively as bahattara. They were under the supervision of a high-ranking officer of state called the bahatara-niyogadhipati.

The administration of the kingdom was organised on a military basis. The Kakatiyas divided their territories among a number of military chiefs known as nayakas. The nayakas obtained grants of lands from the Kakatiya monarchs to enable them to maintain their status. In addition to the annual payments of tribute to the king, the nayakas had to maintain for the service of the kingd a stipulated number of troops. This nayaka system became a characteristic feature of south Indian polity in the subsequent ages.

The existence of the offices of the gajasahini and the asvasahini indicates that they were employed for the training of elephants and horses respectively for the purpose of war. There was an officer called pattasahini attached to the royal establishment. The king was usually accompanied by a number of officers called angarakshas and a body of lenkas or companions-at-arms. The special duty of the angarakshas was to guard the person of the king, while the lenkas fought side by side with the king.

Besides the village, the administrative divisions fell into two main classes, the sthala and the nadu. The former consisted of a group of villages ranging perhaps from ten to sixty in number, while the latter was formed out of a combination of several sthalas. The villages were invariably looked after by village officials, called ayagars. In addition to the tax-free lands granted to them, the ayagars received allotments of grain, called meras, from the villagers. The ayagars were generally twelve in number, though this number occassionally varied. They were karanam, reddi, talari, purohita, blacksmith, goldsmith, carpenter, potter, washerman, barber, vetti and shoe-maker.

The karanam like the northern patwari kept the accounts and plans of the village including the area of the cultivable, the non-cultivable, the wastelands, gardens and pastures. He was closely associated with reddi in the administration of the village. The reddi was the headman of the village whose main duty was to collect the taxes due to the state. The talari was the village policeman, while the purohita was the village priest. The carpenter and the blacksmith made and the agricultural implements. The vetti or the waterman attended to various menial tasks and regulated the flow of water for irrigation. Most of the ayagars, excepting the karanam, reddi and talari, were primarily the servants of the village and had no direct connection with the state.

Revenue Administration

The government derived the bulk of its revenue from land tax. Next in importance were the taxes levied on trade and industry and the assessments of forests on their yield of timber. Land was divided into dry (veli-volamu or vlichenu), wet (niru-nela) and garden areas (tomta-bhumi) for purposes of assessment. The monarch had his own land, called racha-doddi or racha-polamu, in each village in the district. Tax was collected both in kind and cash but the tax on dry and garden land was always paid in cash. Tax collected from wet land was called para, i.e. one-eighth of the rent, and that from dry land known as pangamu which means one-fourth of the rent.

Sunkamu is a broad term used to denote taxes on garden lands, duites on exports and imports, custom duties on articles of merchandise and excise duties. These taxes or tolls were farmed out to merchant-guilds or associations on payment of a fixed sum to the government.. These tax-farmers had their own branches in different localities along with their own officials and establishments. The toll-farmers could exempt any dealer from paying the stipulated duty as a privilege for some important service which he might have done for the guild organisation. The merchat-guilds wielded unlimited management of their full autonomy in the internal management fo their own affaris. This was probably due to the help which they rendered to the Kakatiya monarch by furnishing forces (srenibala) at time of Muslim invasions.

Literature

The Kakatiya rulers extended liberal patronage to Sanskrit. Several eminent Sanskrit writers and poets authored inscriptions which must be regarded as kavyas in miniature. Of these writers Achintendra was commissioned by Rudradeva to compose the prasasti embodied in the Anumakonda inscription. The most famous of the prasasti writers of the time was, however, Isvarasuri, the author of the Bothpur inscriptions. Besides, the contribution of the Kakatiya poets to Sanskrit literature is considerable. A well-known scholar and poet, Sakalya Malla or Mullubhatta, lived at the court of Prataparudra, and composed the Udattaraghavakavya and the Niroshthya-Ramayana. In the field of alankarasutra, the Prataparudra-Yasobhushanam of Vidyanatha, is by far the best.

Telegu literature also flourished in the Kakatiya kingdom. Several inscriptions were composed partly or wholly in Telegu verse like the inscriptions at Gudur ( of Beta II), Karimnagar (Gangadhara), Upparaapalle (Kata) and Konidena (Opilishidhi). The new religious movements like Vaishnavism and Virasaivism gave a great impetus to Telegue literature. Several works on the two great national epics- the Ramayana and the Mahabharata- were produced during this period. The earliest and the most popular Telugu work on the Ramayana is Tikkana's Nrivachanoltara-Ramayana. Next in point of time come the Bhaskara-Ramayana (a composite work of five authors) and the Ranganatha-Ramayanam (Buddharaja). The Andhra Mahabharata, begun by Nannayabhatta in the 11th century AD, was completed by Tikkana Somayaji, the minister and poet laureate of the Telegu Chola king Manuma Siddhi II of Nellore in the middle of the 13th century AD.

Religion

Saivism in its various forms was the predominant faith during the Kakatiya period. There were various schools of Saivism like Kalamukha, Kapalika and Pasupata. Inspite of the predominance enjoyed by the Kalamukha doctrine at the beginning of the Kakatiya period, the Pasupata eventually secured the favour of majority of the common people as well as that of the kings.

Prola I and Beta II were followers of Saivism and their preceptor was Ramesvara Pandita, the Kalamukha Saiva saint. Like their grandfather, Beta II, Rudradeva and his brother Mahadeva were paramamahesvaras. The reign of Ganapatideva, whose preceptor was Visvesvara Sambhu, forms a brilliant period in the history of the Saiva religion. Pasupata Saivism continued up to the end of the reign of Prataparudra, the last Kakatiya, who was himself a paramamahesvara.

Besides Saivism there were other faiths such as the Arhatamata (Jainism) and Vaishnavism. A certain Apppayacharya, a follower of Jainism and resident of Warangal, wrote a work known as Pratishthasara during the reign of Prataparudra. The Kakatiyas built many temples at Anumakonda, Palampeta, Pillalamarri and several other places. These temples played important roles in the socio-religious life of the period.

HOYASALAS

Early Rulers

The home of the Hoyasalas lay in the hilly tracts to the north-west of Gangavadi in Mysore. They became prominent during the prolonged struggle between the later Chalukyas and the Cholas. They initially became feudatories of the Chalukyas, and after the decline of the latter they declared independence and asserted their authority over the southern territory of the Chalukyas.

The founder of the dynasty was Sala, also known as Nripankama. His son and successor, Vinayaditya, was a feudatory of the Chalukya, Vikramaditya VI. Vinayaditya was succeeded by his son Ereyanga who in turn was succeeded by Ballala I. He ruled over a small principality, with his capital at Belur, although Dvarasamudra (modern Halebid) was an alternative capital.

Bittiga or Vishnuvardhana

Ballala was succeeded by his younger brother Bittiga, better known as Vishnuvardhana. He was the real maker of the Hoyasala kingdom. He annexed the Chola province of Gangavadi and parts of Nalambavadi. He defeated the neighbouring chieftains and built up a little kingdom for himself.

Having secured the southern frontier against the Cholas, Vishnuvardhana turned against Chalukya Vikramaditya. But Vikramaditya drove the Hoyasala ruler back to his territory. But during the reign of Chalukya Somesvara III, Vishnuvardhana not only defied the authority of the Chalukyas, but tried to extend his dominions at their expense. Originally he was a Jaina, but later he became a Vaishnava when he was influenced by the Vaishnava teachings of Ramanuja.

Ballala II

Vishnuvardhana was succeeded by his son Vijaya Narasimha I who in turn was succeeded by his son Ballala II. In the first twenty years of his rule he had to fight hard against the feudatories of the Chalukya empire. He entered into protracted war with the Yadavas and fought successfully against the Kadambas. Emboldened by the decline of the Chalukya power he finally declared his independence. He helped the Chola Kulottunga III and Rajaraja III against Sundara Pandya. He was succeeded by his son Narasimha.

Narasimha II and Somesvara

Narasimha II had to intervene to save the Cholas from the Pandyas. He restored Rajaraja III to the throne. Narasimha's son and successor, Somesvara, established himself in the south and built a capital at Kannanur near Srirangam. He fought frequently against the Pandyas, but was ultimately defeated and killed by the latter who overran the Chola kingdom.

Narasimha III and Ballala III

Narasimha III was successfully held the Hoyasala frontier in the north against Yadava aggressions. Ballala III, the son of Narasimha III, while waging successful aggressive campaigns against the Yadavas, had to fight hard against the powerful rebellions of feudatories of the empire and the Pandyas in the south. He was able to protect the integrity of his kingdom till 1310 when he was over-powered by Malik Kafur, the general of Alauddin Khalji. For more than three decades, he maintained his precarious existence first against the Khaljis and then against the Tughiuqs. Finally he lost his life in a battle against the Madurai Sultan at Trichinapally. The Hoyasala dynasty came to an end with Ballala III's death.

Art and Architecture

In many cases, the Hoyasala temples are not single but double, having all essential parts duplicated. One more noteworthy feature is that the temple itself appears to be the work of a sculptor and not of a builder. This is best illustrated in the hoyasalesvara temple at Halebid, whose plinth consists of nine bands and each band has thousands of decorative figures in various postures. Hence the Hoyasala temples have been aptly described as sculptor's architecture.

There are a number of temples in the Mysore territory which exhibit amazing display of sculptural exuberance. The most typical and well-known examples are the temples of Kesava at Somnathpur, Chenna Kesava at Belur and Hoyasalesvara at Halebid. The Kesava temple at Somnathpur, near Seringapatnam, erected about 1268, is still in a perfect state.