The Velanati Chodas of the Andhra coast

Who rules

Name

Prithviswara (Pruthviswara)

Title

Maharaja of Velanadu (Chola feudatory, 'Choda' king of the delta)

Since

1186 on the dating of Wikipedia's Velanati Chodas article (reign 1186-1207); other lists differ

Born

not known

Family

Velanati Choda: line of Gonka I (1076-1108); Rajendra Choda II (1161-1181) and Gonka III (1181-1186) precede him; his own parentage is not stated in what we read

Confidence

medium

Reigning on 1 January 1200 on the dating read; killed in battle by Ganapati about 1207, a later event (Wikipedia, Velanati Chodas). He ruled from Pithapuram according to that article; the older seat is Tsandavolu (Chandavolu).

Overlord

Kulottunga III Chola (nominal)

What the realm holds

• Chandavolu (Tsandavolu): old seat, a market town on the delta edge with a Chola name behind it
• Pithapuram and the Godavari delta country of Vengi (Samalkota's Kumararama, Draksharama's Bhimeswara temple) under Velanati overlordship, with Ganga and Kakatiya claims laid over it
• Velanadu proper and Kammanadu: the Guntur plain, the Krishna delta and the coast to the Gundlakamma, with the horse landings of the Kammanadu coast (Motupalli) and the salt pans
• Overlordship, of varying weight, over the Kota of Dharanikota, the Haihaya of Palnadu, the Konidena Chodas and the Ayya chief of Divi

How it was acquired

Chola feudatories from Gonka I (1076-1108); sovereign in fact since the later twelfth century. Gonka II (1132-1161) reached from Mahendragiri to Srisailam; Rudradeva took Srisailam to Tripurantakam; Rajendra II (1161-1181) is called 'Durjayakulaprakasa'.

Allies and rivals

Overlord: Kulottunga III Chola (nominal; the Telugu Chodas of Nellore are the other Chola clients). Kin: the Haihaya of Palnadu (Nalagama's mother was a Velanati princess, Palnadu article). Enemy: the Kakatiyas, from Prola II (killed 1158) to Ganapati. Ganga neighbour: Rajaraja III of Kalinga (frontier on the Godavari).

The realm that morning

The richest and least secure ground in the Telugu country. Prithviswara is a king in possession of everything the Kakatiyas want and weaker than he looks: the Palnadu war cost a generation of fighting men, and the Chola name behind him is distant. No Kakatiya army is in the delta on 1 January 1200. Across the sheet lines: the Nellore Chodas and the Chola (sit's ground) lie to the south, the Ganga kingdom of Rajaraja III (nin's ground) to the north-east.

Wealth

Rice and cotton on the silt, salt from the pans, the Kammanadu horse landings and the diamonds of the Krishna gravels upstream, the Panchrama temples (Draksharama, Samalkota, Amaravati) as banks and archives.

Military

Chola-style feudal levy under chiefs; Haihaya and Kota fighting men; no numbers. The Palnadu war thinned the Haihaya and Velanati ranks.

Threats

• Kakatiya attack from 1201: the Krishna delta, Divi (1203), the killing of Prithviswara about 1207 and annexation in 1209 (all per Wikipedia, Ganapatideva)
• Defection of the Kota, Haihaya and Konidena chiefs to the Kakatiya side
• Ganga pressure from the north on the Godavari

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. 1201 onwardKakatiya pressure on the delta; Nellore Chodas, as Kakatiya subjects, fight against Prithviswara (Wikipedia, Velanati Chodas).Depends on: The Kakatiya regency holding and the Yadava flank quiet. Stopped by: A Chola or Ganga intervention; a Velanati-Kota-Haihaya coalition.
2. about 1207Prithviswara is killed in battle by Ganapati; his successor Rajendra Choda III (1207-1216) loses the whole kingdom.Depends on: The earlier Kakatiya steps succeeding. Stopped by: A Chola army at the Krishna.

Places of note

• Chandavolu: Old Velanati seat on the delta edge (coordinates from the campaign board; gazetteer lacks it).
• Pithapuram: Seat in Prithviswara's time on the Wikipedia reading.

Where the sources disagree

• Board 'chandavolu-velanadu' says Pruthviswara holds Chandavolu and is killed in 1207, line finished 1216; this matches Wikipedia (1186-1207; Rajendra Choda III 1207-1216). The same article says he ruled from Pithapuram; the Telugu Cholas article says the capital was Dhanadapura, later Vengi and Pithapuram. Chandavolu as the earlier seat is the campaign board's and standard usage, not pinned in what we read.
• Board 'the-godavari-delta', 'bezawada-vijayawada' say the delta answers to Pruthviswara with Chola and Ganga claims over it: we follow that.
• Board 'samalkota-kumararama' and 'draksharama-bhimeswara' tag these shrines to the Kakatiyas as power; we place them in the Velanati delta with Kakatiya influence only.

Evidence: Only Wikipedia's Velanati Chodas, Telugu Cholas and Ganapatideva articles were readable; they give reigns without inscription dates. The Chola overlordship in the 1190s, Prithviswara's actual reach and the date and place of his seat are not pinned.

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

On the map: The Velanati realm is drawn as two blocks for legibility; in practice it is a king at Pithapuram or Chandavolu with chiefs at Dharanikota, Palnadu, Konidena and Divi who owe him what the year allows. The Ganga north (Tuni) and the Kakatiya west (Khammam, Nalgonda) edges are marches.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• 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