Page:Gódávari.djvu/48

24 1130 to 1232; the chieftains of Ellore, whose records date from 1139-40 to 1211-12; a family whose inscriptions are found in several places in the delta, who claim descent from the Eastern Chálukya king Amma I (918-25) and the best known of whom is Mallapa III who seems to have ruled from 1173 to at least 1223; and Annala Reddi of Kórukonda (in Rajahmundry taluk), who is stated in one of the Mackenzie MSS. to have ruled over the greater part of the lowlands of district 'for a long time' till he was 'succeeded' (i.e., ousted) by king Pratápa Rudra of the Kákatíya line of Warangal.

These Kákatíya kings had by now begun to lay the foundations of their empire on the ruins of the western Chálukya kingdom. As early as 1162 their king Rudra Déva boasted* that he had conquered the whole country as far as Srísailam (in Kurnool) in the south, and up to the salt sea on the east. The first indubitable inscription of the dynasty found in the Vengi country is one of Rudra Déva's son Ganapati at Chebrólu (in the Kistna district) dated 1213-14;† and that this king overcame the Vélanándu chieftains is indicated by the existence of an inscription of his at Chandhavólu, their capital. When the Kákatíyas first crossed the Gódávari is doubtful. An inscription at Drákshárámam mentions king Ganapati (1213-53), but it is fragmentary and undated, and may belong to the time of his successor; and the first record in this district which can be unhesitatingly ascribed to the dynasty is one of Pratápa Rudra, dated 1317, at Palivela in the Amalápuram taluk. Ferishta moreover speaks of the king of Rajahmundry as an independent prince in 1295.‡ It would thus seem that the Kákatíyas did not cross the Gódávari till some time after their conquest of Vengi proper, and that this district did not fall under their dominion until the end of the thirteenth century. One of the Mackenzie MSS.¶ which (where it can be checked) agrees in its facts and dates with local inscriptions and is thus presumably trustworthy, throws an interesting side-light on Pratápa Rudra's rule of the district. His local viceroys were two brothers named Pedda Malla Rázu and Chinna Malla Rázu, who held their court with great pomp and luxury at Bendapúdi in the Tuni division. They were most oppressive in their rule, and a long list is given of the enormities they perpetrated. Finally, in 1322-23, Pratápa