The Mallikarjuna temple, a jyotirlinga and a Shakta pitha (the goddess Bhramaramba), stands on the Nallamala plateau above the Krishna gorge and is the greatest pilgrimage of the Telugu country (Srisailam article, read; the page gives no dated history).
Rudradeva took Srisailam and Tripurantakam from the Velanati Chodas (Velanati Chodas article, read), so the temple and the forest road are Kakatiya in 1200. The Dravidian structure the page describes shows Vijayanagara work: the steps, the mandapas and the Pathalaganga path are later than 1200. The Veerashaiva teacher Mallikarjuna Panditaradhya (a twelfth-century Telugu poet: Draksharamam article) is tied to Srisailam in tradition; we could not confirm the link.
The temple holds the forest rather than farmland.
Who holds it
- Title
- Temple trustees and priests of Mallikarjuna
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No head is named in any source we read. The Chenchu forest people are the guides of the pilgrim road (general).
What it holds
- The temple precinct and its endowments
- The forest pilgrim road from Atmakur and from Alampur
How things stand that morning
Kakatiya since Rudradeva; a pilgrim and forest sanctuary, with a Kakatiya claim over the road from Alampur.
Wealth
Pilgrim offerings and endowments of the kings of the Telugu country; no figures.
Military
None; the Chenchu forest people and the Kakatiya post guard the road.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The Srisailam article (read) has no history for 1100 to 1300; the capture comes from the Velanati Chodas and Rudradeva articles; the rest is general knowledge.
Primary sources for Kakatiya kingdom (Orugallu)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Various (Kakatiya chancery and temple scribes), edited by P. Sreenivasachar (inscriptions of the 10th to 15th centuries; edited 1940 to 1942). The Kakatiyas of Orugallu (Warangal) are known for 1200 almost entirely from inscriptions, and this Hyderabad Archaeological Series corpus is the main printed collection. Read online
- Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions relating to the Yadava Kings of Devagiri, Various (Yadava chancery), edited by J. F. Fleet (inscriptions of the 12th and 13th centuries; edited 1876). The first collected edition of the Yadava (Seuna) records, with texts and translations, from the Indian Antiquary. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Srisailam (read this session)
- Wikipedia: Velanati Chodas (read this session)
- Wikipedia: Rudradeva (read this session)
- General knowledge of the medieval Deccan (Bhandarkar, Altekar, Sastri, B. R. Gopal, Suryanath Kamath): from memory, not re-read
- OMNIA board notes for this place (a lead only, checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.