Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/81

 besides temples, the palaces of the Raja and his nobles. There is yet another outer wall, also of earth, the remains of which are distinctly visible, enclosing an almost circular area, the diameter of which varies between 8½ and 9 miles. The use of this outer rampart can only be conjectured, for it is obvious that it cannot have been the wail of a fenced city. The defence of more than 29 miles of wall would have been a task beyond the capacity even of those vast armies which the Hindu rulers of the south were able in old times to gather round themselves, and an urban area of more than 127 square miles would have been an extravagant allowance for the population of the greatest cities of antiquity. It may be conjectured that this outermost wall enclosed all the suburban villages and was no more than an unnecessarily costly suburban boundary ; but its existence has stimulated lovers of the marvellous to flights of fancy, and the modern inhabitant of Warangal will inform the visitor that the old city had no less than seven walls, of which three have already been mentioned. The remainder are said to have disappeared, but it is gravely asserted that the rock fortress of Bhongir was merely a bastion on the outermost wall, from which it may be roughly calculated that this mythical wall had a circumference of 373 miles and enclosed an urban area of 20,240 square miles; but the retailers of the legend have evidently not made this calculation.

One of the most interesting facts revealed by the Hanamkonda inscription is that the Kakatiya dynasty did not lay claim to independent kingship, for Prataparudradeva I refrains from styling himself by any title higher than that of Mahamandaleshwara, or "great lord," a style used by rajas who were admittedly vassals. Prola Raja, who was reigning in 1 1 50 and was the father of the author of the inscription, was a feudatory of the western Chalukyas of Kaliani, of whom nothing is known after the year 1183. It is evident that Prataparudradeva I acknowledged the supremacy of this dynasty, but the position of the Kakatiyas after its subversion is not clear. They probably assumed complete independence, but may have been beset by claims of overlordship put forward by the northern Yadavas of Deogir, the Hoysala Ballalas of Dwarasamudra, or both, but there is not sufficient evidence to show that such claims were ever admitted. The attitude of the Yadavas towards the