Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/79

 visited southern India. In 1294, a date which does not coincide with the date given for her husband's death and the length of her reign, she is said to have abdicated in favour of his grandson Prataparudradeva II, who was evidently the son of a son of Ganapati who had predeceased his father. In the year given as that of the accession of Prataparudradeva II the dominions of the Kakatiyas extended as far westward as Raichur, for in that year the fort of Raichur was founded by Gore Gangayya Ruddivaru, a servant of the family. Prataparudradeva II was reigning when Telingana was first invaded by Malik Kafur Hazardinari, entitled Malik Naib, the general of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji of Delhi, and was still reigning, though nominally as a tributary of the emperor of Delhi, when Muhammad bin Tughlaq invaded Telingana in 1321 and was forced to retire to Deogir. Later in the same year or, according to another account, in 1323, Muhammad bin Tughlaq returned to Warangal, on which occasion the city was captured and Prataparudradeva II was sent as a prisoner to Delhi, whence, however, he was allowed to return to Warangal where he reigned, as a vassal of Delhi until his death in 1325, when he was succeeded by his son Virabhadra or Krishna, who retired immediately after his accession to Kondavir, after which event the Kakatiya dynasty is believed to have disappeared from history; but, as will be seen, the Hindus of Telingana rebelled in 1343-44, towards the end of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign, and one Kanya or Kanhayya Naik, who may possibly have been identical with Krishna the Kakatiya, recaptured Warangal while one of his relatives, who had accepted Islam and held Kasupala for the emperor of Delhi, recanted and declared himself independent.

Some of the monuments of the Kakatiyas are still to be seen at Warangal, and at Hanamkonda, their earlier capital. The earliest of these, so far as legend helps us, is the magnificent temple of the thousand pillars at Hanamkonda. This temple, which, as has been said, was built by Prataparndradeva I, is probably one of the finest examples of Chalukyan architecture now extant, and exhibits the best characteristics of that style. It is dedicated to the god Rudra, the thunderer, who seems to have been the tutelary deity of the Kakatiyas, and contains, carved on a square pillar in what is now an outlying portion of the temple, a long Sanskrit inscription in the old Kanarese