Nellore Chodas

Who he is

Name

not pinned: Nallasiddha (who held Kanchipuram from 1192 or 1193 until Kulottunga III drove him out in 1196) or his successor; Tammusiddhi is named by the English Wikipedia as a Choda leader against Kulottunga III and follows Nallasiddha in the family list

Title

Telugu Choda ruler of Nellore (mahamandaleshvara), a branch of the Cholas claiming descent from Karikala

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

The family list on the English Wikipedia (Telugu Cholas) runs: Bijjana, Manumasiddhi I to III, Dayabhima, Nallasiddha, Errasiddha, Tammusiddhi, Tikka I and II, Allutikka, Vijayagandagopala, Manumagandagopala, Rajagandagopala and Viragandagopala, with no dates. Tikkana the poet-minister belongs to the 1250s, a later event.

Confidence

low

Dated only by the Kulottunga III campaigns: Nallasiddha at Kanchi 1192 to 1193, driven out in 1195 to 1196. The English Wikipedia on Nellore says the Tamil inscriptions show Nellore in the Chola kingdom until the Cholas declined in the thirteenth century.

Overlord

Kulottunga III Chola; the Kakatiyas of Orugallu are the rising power behind them

What it holds

• Nellore (Vikramasimhapuri), the capital
• The Nellore coast and the Penner delta ports (Krishnapatnam, Motupalli to the north is Velanadu's)
• The inland country toward Venkatagiri and Udayagiri
• The Telugu march toward Kanchi (shared with the Chola)

How it was acquired

Ancestral lordship of the Telugu Choda family; the war of 1192 to 1196 gained and lost Kanchi.

Allies and rivals

Chola vassal and rival; allied with the Velanati Chodas and the Pandyas against Kulottunga in some accounts; a target of the Kakatiyas about 1210 to 1220 (later).

How things stand that morning

After the defeat of 1196 the house is quiet under the Chola; the name of its king on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Wealth

Paddy of the Penner delta, salt, cotton cloth, coastal trade, the road tolls toward Kanchi.

Military

The retinues of a Choda ruler; a record of beating a Chola garrison at Kanchi and losing the field in 1196. No numbers.

Threats

• A Chola reprisal
• Kakatiya pressure (later)
• Velanati Choda quarrels

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. about 1210 to 1220 (outside 1200)Kakatiya Ganapati takes the Telugu coast and makes the Nellore Chodas vassals.Depends on: A Kakatiya king restored and free; none of it has happened. Stopped by: Chola or Hoysala help.

Places of note

• Nellore (Vikramasimhapuri): Capital.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry the-telugu-march says Nallasiddha 'held Kanchipuram from about 1192 until Kulottunga III drove him out in 1196': agreed, and the English Wikipedia (Kulottunga Chola III) gives the same years. The assignment lists the Telugu Chodas among the Chola feudatories and the campaign board puts Nellore on the Telugu march; we keep Nellore as 'pledged' to the Chola.
• The English Wikipedia on Kulottunga III says Nallasiddha and Tammu Siddha 'acknowledged Chola sway from 1187 to the end of the reign' and also that the Velanadu and Nellore Chodas had declared independence. That sits oddly with the war of 1192 to 1196 (Nallasiddha at Kanchi from 1192 or 1193, driven out in 1195 or 1196). We read it as an acknowledgement in 1187 that lapsed in 1192 and was restored by the Chola victory, so Nellore is a client in January 1200; the exact terms are not shown. The Telugu Chodas are beaten by the Kakatiya Ganapatideva in 1216 (a later event).

Evidence: Two names and four dates from the Chola side; no Telugu inscription read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The north edge toward Ongole belongs to the Telugu sheet; the Kakatiya and Velanati line is not drawn.

Primary sources for Chola empire

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.

• The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
• History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
• The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
• 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
• Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
• Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. 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
• Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online

4 more in the sources library for Southern India and Sri Lanka.