Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/46

VIZAGAPATAM. this connection that (see p. 320) the Mádgole zamindars venerate fish, being installed on a fish-shaped throne and using as their signature a symbol representing a fish; that they claim to be descended from 'the rulers of Matsya Désa' and bear the title of 'chiefs of Vaddádi'; that Vaddádi (just south of Mádgole) is locally derived from Odda-Vádi, meaning 'the beginning of the Uriya land'; and that in the country round Mádgole legends are still recounted of a line of local Golla chieftains who gave their name to Golgonda and built the forts of which traces still survive in those parts.

The Simháchalam temple contains inscriptions of several of the later Ganga kings, but few details regarding them survive. In 1267-68 one of them, Narasimha I, built the central shrine, mukhamandapam, nátyamandapam, and enclosing arcade of that temple (see p. 324) in black stone. Their power, however, was on the wane. Narasimha I and two of his successors are mentioned as having had to resist attacks from the Muhammadans of Bengal and Delhi. Firoz Shah of Delhi (1351-88) invaded Orissa; other Musalman raids into that country took place; the Reddi kings of Kondavídu in Guntúr district penetrated to Simháchalam (where stands an inscription of one of them dated 1385-86); and on the death of the Ganga king Bánudéva IV, his minister usurped the throne and in 1434-35 founded the Gajapati ('lords of elephants')dynasty of Orissa under the title of Pratápa Kapilésvara.

His capital was at Cuttack, and he expanded his dominions until they stretched from the Ganges to the Kistna. His whole reign was spent in warring with the Hindu kings of Vijayanagar in the Bellary district, who by now were extremely powerful in the south, or with the Musalman Báhmani dynasty of the Deccan. His son Parushóttama reigned from 1469-70 to 1496-97. He is declared to have conquered Vijayanagar, to have brought thence a jewelled throne which he presented to the Puri temple and to have led an expedition against Conjeeveram.

In the time of his successor, Pratápa Rudra (1496-97 to about 1539-40), Orissa was raided by the Bengal Musalmans, who sacked Puri and destroyed many temples.

Pratápa Rudra also suffered reverses at the hands of the Vijayanagar king Krishna Déva, the greatest of his line. In 1515 that monarch seized Udayagiri in Nellore, Kondavídu (taking prisoner Pratápa Rudra's son), Kondapalli in Kistna, Rajahmundry and other fortresses, halted at Simhádri (Simháchalam) and set up the pillar of victory at Potnúru referred to in the account of that place on p. 230 below. The Simháchalam 28