Inscriptions of The Kakatiyas of Warangal (A.D. 1050-1326)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Prof. S. S. Ramachandra Murthy (b.1939) did M. A. in Telugu from the Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam and M.A. in Ancient Indian History and Epigraphy from the Karnatak University, Dharwad. His doctoral thesis A Study of Telugu Place-names (based on inscriptions) (since published) is acclaimed as first of its kind in the Dravidian languages. He served the Epigraphy branch of the Archaeological Survey of India at Ootacumand and Mysore (1965-1982), first as Epigraphical Assistant and later as Deputy Superintending Epigraphist (1978). He joined the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati in 1982 as Reader in Epigraphy and later was elevated to the post of Professor in the same University in 1989. He retired from this post in 1999, July. He contributed many research papers to the journals of repute like Epigraphia Indica and Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India and presented research papers in many national conferences and seminars. He was elected as General President of the Andhra Pradesh History Congress of the 2004-05 Session. He is presently working on the Project entitled Epigraphical Glossary of Andhra Pradesh, financially supported by the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.

Inscriptions are an indispensable source for students of Indian history, especially for the early period. From the days of the Mauryas to as late as the 16" century, numerous major and minor ruling dynasties that held sway over different regions of the country issued thousands of inscriptions in their period of rule. These provide rich and varied information on various dimensions of the history and culture of the land. Several of them have found their way into different volumes of inscriptions published long back such as Indian Antiquary, Epigraphia Indica, South Indian Inscriptions, Epigraphia Carnatica, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Series and the like Many State Governments, Universities and Research Institutes have also brought out volumes of inscriptions pertaining to their regions, for example the Andhra Pradesh Government Epigraphical Series, Kannada University Epigraphical Series, Karnatak Inscriptions, etc. Some institutions have also published volumes of inscriptions in regional languages. Moreover, a number of individual scholars have published inscriptions in different research journals and periodicals. But these are scattered in different publications, with many of them now out of print. So it was considered advisable to collect and compile these inscriptions in handy volumes with proper annotations, under the Inscriptions of India Programme to make them readily accessible to scholars.

I am glad that this programme is making steady progress and as many as 18 publications relating to the different dynasties and regions have so far been brought out A list of these publications is appended at the end of this volume. Inscriptions of the Kakatiyas of Warangal is a welcome addition to this Series. The Kakatiyas were a significant dynasty who, with their capital at Warangal, now a district headquarters of the same name in Andhra Pradesh, ruled for over two centuries in Andhra Commencing their career as subordinate of the Chalukyas of Kalyana, they carved out a principality of their own around Warangal and gradually built up a large Kingdom covering the whole of Andhra. In addition to display of political power they promoted the growth of different religions, languages, literature, art and architecture and in their region.

It is heartening to note that the Inscriptions of India Programme so thoughtfully planned and executed by the ICHR is making steady progress pertaining to South Islia four volumes of Inscriptions of Vangara Rulers were published in the recent years. The volume of The Inscriptions of the Calukyas of Raedited by De SVPadigar was brought out only a few months ago Happily, one more volume in the Series, the present one, containing the inscriptions of the Kakatiyas of Warangal is seeing the light of the day now I am thankful to De SSRamachandra Murthy, Professor of Ancient Indian history (Retd.), Shri Venkateshvara University, Tirupati, for undertaking this work and successfully completing it in good time The volume contains as many as 367 inscriptions covering the whole period of the Kakatiya rule with their capital at Warangal. They were scattered in different source books like the volumes of inscriptions, journals and other periodicals. They are now put together in one volume so as to facilitate the scholars and researchers. I am sure the academic community welcomes this useful volume. Indeed, many of these inscriptions have been studied earlier by several scholars and are used in their writings. Nevertheless, their utility is not diminished. It is the experience of every researcher that a restudy of inscriptions gives rise to new ideas and scope for new interpretations. The learned Introduction' to this volume justifies this statement.

The Kakatiyas occupy a distinguished place in the history of South India, particularly that of Andhra. Their reign-period spanned over more than two centuries. No doubt a few other dynasties had ruled over parts of Andhra earlier, but the Kakatiyas were practically the first dynasty in Andhra to bring the whole of the Andhra region under one rule. The political consolidation brought with it an all sided development of the region Different religious faiths, languages, literature, art and architecture received due encouragement. By using extensively the Telugu language in inscriptions, the Kakatiya rulers and their subordinates contributed considerably to the development of the Telugu script, language and literature. This is very well vouchsafed by the inscriptions in this volume.