Page:Gódávari.djvu/270

244 Chálukya kingdom and 'the central gem of the Vengi country.' Rájamahéndra was a title borne by two of Rájarája's predecessors, namely, Amma I (918-25) and Amma II (945-70), and the town was perhaps founded by and called after one or other of these kings. But one of the Mackenzie MSS. attributes its foundation to an earlier king named Vijayáditya Mahéndra. The extension of the Eastern Chálukya dominions into the kingdom of Kalinga on the north must have rendered Rajahmundry an important strategical point. It is described in comparatively recent times as ' the barrier and key to the Vizagapatam country'.1 On the downfall of the Kákatíya dynasty of Warangal before the armies of the Muhammadans in 1323, the conquerors made their way as far as Rajahmundry, and the 'Royal masjid' there contains an inscription dated 1323-24 which mentions Muhammad Tughlak of Delhi. Local tradition says that this building was formerly a Hindu temple and was converted to its present use by these Musalmans. Rajahmundry next comes into prominence as the capital of one of the lines of Reddi kings.2 Its first independent sovereign of that line has left inscriptions in it the dates of which range from 1385 to 1422. By 1458-59 a minister of the Gajapati king Kapilésvara was ruling at Rajahmundry; and in 1470-71 the town was captured by the armies of the Muhammadan Sultan of Kulbarga. About 1478 the Hindus revolted and the Muhammadan garrison was besieged and perhaps reduced. The Vijayanagar chieftain Narasimha seems to have occupied the town at this time and to have been driven thence by a relieving force from Kulbarga. In any case the Muhammadans soon recaptured Rajahmundry and king Muhammad of Kulbarga made the town his head-quarters for some three years (1478-80). Soon after, during the dissensions among the Musalman powers in the Deccan, Rajahmundry was taken by the king of Orissa. About 1515, however, the town was captured by Krishna Déva, the king of Vijayanagar, in the course of his campaign against the Orissa dynasty.

By 1543 Rajahmundry was the frontier town of the Orissa country and lay on the borders of the new Muhammadan conquests south and west of the Gódávari river. It was ruled by a prince of the Gajapati house, one Vidiádri, who seems to have affected independence. He was ill-advised enough to join in an attack upon his Muhammadan neighbours some time between 1550 and 1564, and paid a heavy penalty. Defeated in