South Indian Feudatory Dynasties

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The political history of thirteen minor ruling families of South India is presented in this book with the help of several newly discovered epigraphs.
These minor ruling families are acknowledged to have greatly contributed to the glory of the imperial powers of India, like Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas of Kalyana, and Hoysalas. They much depended on the integrity and the trustworthiness of these minor ruling families for the purpose of local administration and progress both in war and peace. Infact, these minor ruling families have played a major role in building the statecraft of the imperial powers.
The genealogy of these families is traced with the help of Epigraphs issued by them and their imperial overlords to provide authenticity to the work. The present book provides a micro level picture of the power politics of the period. Apart from layman the book will be of tremendous utility to the scholars and serious students of history.

Dr. Venkatesha (1946) obtained his M.A. in Ancient History and Archaeology (1971) and M.A. in Sanskrit (1984) from the University of Mysore, and Ph.D, from the same University in 1984.
He joined the Epigraphy branch, Archaeological Survey of India as Epigraphical Assistant and then held the posts of Assistant Superintending Epigraphist and Deputy Superintending Epigraphist. Before his retirement in 1994 he was the head of the North Zone Epigraphy branch of ASI.
Dr. Venkatesha is a life member of Place Name Society of India and Epigraphical Society of India. He has contributed many research papers in Epigraphica Indica, the Journal of Epigraphical Society of India and Place Name Society of India.

The writers of Indian History, from the beginning, have been concentrating on the study of the major ruling dynastics of the country and the contributions of the smaller ruling families are either ignored or summarily disposed off. But this practice has resulted in the distortion or imbalance of the contributions of regional units to the socio-cultural milieu of the country, though this imbalance may not be so obvious in the case of political and administrative arrangements. Hence a late, the historians, having released this lacunae, have changed their approach from macro-to micro level studies. Each region has its way of looking at the daily life of the people, their religious customs, food habits, dress or ornamentation which can be vividly understood by the study of the records regionally. Taking the history of Karnataka itself, for instance we notice considerable variations in beliefs and customs, food habits, dress and ornamentation etc., in Southern Karnataka (Mysore Country or Kaveri basin) from that of Northern regions (Dharwad-Bijapur or the Krishna basin).
Having understood this important fact, recent historians have undertaken the detailed studies of minor or regional dynasties and their contributions for understanding the comprehensive history of Karnataka. Notable among these workers, mention may be made of Dinakara Desai (1951) Govinda swamy (1965). V. Balambal (1978) and B.R. Gopal (1982). While these writers have taken up in depth studies of some individual or local dynasties, B.R. Gopal has attempted to study some of the more important of the feudetory states in Karnataka in his work But he has not covered all the dynasties in his study. Hence this attempt is made to provide a comprehensive picture as far as possible of all the minor dynasties of Karnatak, during the medieval period. It is important to note that the minor dynasties and their rulers have played a notable role in nation building activities, upliftment of the social institutions in general and, cultural development.

Dr Venkatesha's South Indian Feudatory Dynasties (5th Century A.D. to 1336 A D) is a welcome addition to the growing research writings on the political history of the lesser Indian dynasties: In compiling this well-documented work the scholar has not spared any effort and has thoroughly studied and analysed the contents of nearly six hundred and fifty stone and copper plate inscriptions which form the bulk of the available historical source material for this period Taking help and guidance from earlier research works on the subject and, more importantly, basing his conclusions on more recent epigraphical discoveries, Dr. Venkatesha has effected noticeable improvements in our understanding of the history of over a dozen minor ruling families of pre-Vijayanagara Karnataka in particular and South India in general.
This type of micro-study is an important prerequisite for the fuller understanding of Karnataka's political history. A large number of inscriptions bear witness to the fact that the imperial houses of Karnataka heavily depended upon their hereditary subordinates for their own stability both in times of war and peace. As the present author himself rightly observes it may not be an exaggeration to say that these feudatory powers as the back bone for the easy and smooth running of the administration and also for the realisation of the cherished ambitions of their overlords."
While it is true that the history of the minor dynasties of Karnataka had been engaging the attention of researchers and historians right from the days of John Faithful Fleet, the present work by Dr. Venkatesha makes use of numerous new epigraphs discovered as recently as until about a decade and a half ago and has thus updated our knowledge on the rulers belonging to these minor ruling houses and their dealings with their imperial overlords.

Historical researches in Karnataka based on epigraphs began on a sound footing with the advent of great savant Fleet who as early as 1896 remarked "The history of an Imperial dynasty without a detailed notice of at least the important feudatory families will be incomplete. His observation holds good even to this day if we consider the work done on the feudatory dynasties of India in general and of Karnataka in particular.
To begin with, Fleet was the first and foremost to write the feudatory dynasties and he stressed the importance of the study of these families Dinakara Desal's work in this field based on the epigraphs is worthy of note. Later, Ma lingam, Govindaswamy, Balambal, asan and other scholars worked on different feudatory dynasties of South India and have enriched our knowledge by their writings. Some scholars have quoted them occasionally, in the course of their researches. But on the whole, work on the history of the feudatory dynasties has remained incomplete and inadequate since enough attention has not been paid to it.
Recently, a laudable attempt has been made by B.R. Gopal to present a concise and connected history of some of the minor dynasties of Karnataka in the early and mediaeval periods, down to the sixteenth century from the available source materials. He himself claims that his work is not exhaustive in character.
In this thesis, it is our endeavor to present a systematic and comprehensive history of some feudatory dynasties of Karnataka on the basis of the epigraphs which have come to light in recent years. The recent discoveries which shed much light on various problems concerning the feudatory families, are also incorporated in the work.
The thorough examination and study of the epigraphs belonging to the feudatory families have thrown much light on their history. Their highlights are furnished below in brief.