NAME - ANKUSH

COURSE- MEDIEVAL DECCAN

INSTRUCTOR- Prof. UMESH ASHOK KADAM
(Professor of Medieval Indian History)
Centre for Historical Studies
School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
&
Member Secretary, Indian Council of Historical Research
An Autonomous Body under the
Ministry of Education, Government of India
&
Editor
Studies In History
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sih#
&
Indian Historical Review
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&
Member,
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National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

ROLL NO.- 22/61/HH/003

TITLE- KAKATIYAS OF WARANGAL

 KAKATIYAS OF WARANGAL
HISTORY OF THE “LION THRONE”
This was a period in Andhra Pradesh when an indigenous dynasty, the Kakatiya of Warangal,
gained control over most of the contemporary state's area and made significant contributions to
the establishment of a regional Telugu identity and culture. As the never-ending battle under-
mined the once-mighty imperial Chalukyas of Kalyani in the west and the imperial Colas of
Tamil Nadu in the south, the smaller subordinate kings and chiefs of Andhra began to act more
aggressively. The coastal Velanati Codas seceded from the imperial Colas, while the Warangal
Kakatiya line, once servants of the Karnataka monarchs, established their own authority over
Telangana.1 When the Kakatiya dynasty of Warangal established the state's hegemonic power in
the thirteenth century, the political centre of Andhra migrated away from the lush deltaic plains
for the first time in its history.

The Kakatiya ruled over much of current Andhra until 1323, when their city was sacked and the
final monarch was taken prisoner by an army from the Delhi Sultanate. 2 Warangal, in the south
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is best known as the capital of the Kakatiya dynasty. Because of
the previous Kakatiya capital's imperial connections, Warangal became a highly publicised polit-
ical prize, passing back and forth between opposing parties in the Telangana area. The develop-
ment of improved irrigation systems and the resulting gains in agricultural output were factors in
the growth of Kakatiya in inland Andhra. Irrigation was restricted in this barren region before to
the second half of the twelfth century, but several tanks were erected during the next five years,
many of which are still in use today. 3 Traditional chronicles also attribute the clearance of enor-
mous wooded regions and the founding of several new communities to the Kakatiya kingdom.
Coin evidence provides more proof of economic expansion: a flood of cash was issued in Andhra
throughout the twelfth and thirteenth century.

The Sultanate of Delhi (1323-1331), the Musunuri leaders (1331-1368), the Recerla Nayakas of
Racakonda (1368-1424), the Bahmani Sultans of the Deccan (1424-1504), Shitab Khan of the
Bhogi Kula (1504-1529), and the Qutub Shahis of Golconda all controlled the old Kakatiya capi-
tal (1579-1687).4 Malik Kafur succeeded in seizing Warangal's inner stone fort after a months-
long siege, prompting Kakatiya monarch Prataparudra (1289-1323) to submit and promise to de-
liver annual tribute to Delhi (1310). By 1318, Prataparudra's tribute payment had fallen behind,
and Alauddin's successor, Qutb al-Din Mubarak Shah Khilji (1316-1320), dispatched an army
led by Khusrau Khan to collect it. Prataparudra was again in arrears when Ghiyath al-Din Tugh-
luq (1320-1324) ascended to the throne of Delhi, prompting the Tughluq Sultan to dispatch his
son, Ulugh Khan, to collect the payment. Ulugh Khan came to Warangal in 1323 and this time
1Nilkantha, K. A. Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijaynagar,
1958, Oxford University Press
2ibid.
3ibid.
4ibid.
succeeded in capturing Prataparudra, who was brought to Delhi but died en route. The Kakatiya
line was extinguished with Prataparudra's decisive defeat in 1323, and Warangal was taken by
Tughluq troops, who renamed the city "Sultanpur" and raised it to the position of a provincial
capital and mint-town for the Delhi Sultanate.5

ORIGIN
The lords of the Telugu-speaking Kakatiya tribe declared their independence from their
Chalukya master in 1163. In acknowledgment of Telangana's vernacular language, the inscrip-
tions were changed from Kannada to Telugu. Prola II, the Kakatiya emperor, visited the place
and discovered a linga sprouting from the rock. 6 He erected a temple around the linga, which be-
came known as Swayambhu. Rudradeva, Prola's son and successor, is reported to have created
and utilised the town of Orugallu (previous name of Warangal) as a significant centre during his
reign.7 Ganapati Deva, Rudradeva's nephew and one of the finest Kakatiyas, moved the capital
from Hanamkonda to Warangal between 1252 and 1254 CE. Rudrama Devi and Pratap Rudra
Deva, his successors, continued to govern from the city.

RUDRADEVA (1158-1195 C.E.)

Rudradeva, also known as Prataparudra I, succeeded his father Prola II in 1158 C.E. He was the
first monarch of the dynasty to overturn the Kakatiyas' submissive position as feudatories of the
Western Chalukyas of Kalyani and achieve independence. 8 He established Kakatiya imperialism,
which resulted in the expulsion of non-Telugu kings and the political unity of Andhra. The politi-
cal situation in the western Chalukyan kingdom was serious when Rudradeva came to power. In-
vasion of Kanduru - After consolidating his power in Northern and Western Telangana,
Rudradeva shifted his attention to Kanduru (Nalgonda) and Palamuru. 9 Udayachoda, the chief of
Kanduru, made peace with Rudradeva by marrying his daughter Padmavati to him. Rudradeva
delegated authority to his father-in-law over Kanduru. Rudradeva named a large irrigation tank
Rudrasamudram after this triumph.

In 1195, the Yadava monarch Jaitrapala invaded the Kakatiya domain as Rudradeva was estab-
lishing his kingdom in coastal Andhra. Rudradeva was killed while fighting the invaders. He was
succeeded by his younger brother, Mahadeva, because he had no issue. Rudradeva was an avid
supporter of art and literature. He built the magnificent Rudreswara temple at Anumakonda. 10
Vellaki Gangadhara, his trusty minister, constructed the Prasanna Kesava temple and excavated a
tank near Anamakonda. Rudradeva was the Sanskrit author of Nitisara. He also supported Saivite
academics such as Palkurki Somanatha.11

GANAPATI DEVA (1199-1262 C.E.)

5ibid.
6ibid.
7ibid.
8ibid.
9Catherine B Asher.; Cynthia Talbot, eds. (2006), "The expansion of Turkic power, 1180–1350", India
before Europe, Cambridge University Press
10ibid.
11ibid.
As his father Mahadeva stormed Devagiri, the Yadava capital, Ganapatideva followed him. Out-
side the gates of Devagiri, Mahadeva was murdered, and Ganapatideva was taken prisoner by the
Yadavas.13 The news of Mahadeva's death and Ganapatideva's incarceration shook the Kakatiya
kingdom to its core. Numerous feudatories of the Kakatiyas rose in revolt and attempted to de-
clare their independence, but Racharla Rudra, the Kakatiyas' faithful commander, put down these
revolts and protected the kingdom. King Ganapati Deva of the Kakatiya dynasty encouraged
merchants to bring greater money through international commerce. 12 He reigned for more than
63 years, constructing the city's ancient stone fortifications and establishing royal temples. He
promoted his kingdom's trade relations with the rest of the globe. He eliminated all taxes save a
set duty (Kupa Sulks) and promised assistance to people who embarked on perilous journeys
even at the risk of their lives. 13 Wealth was seen to be more essential than even life. The elimina-
tion of taxes must have motivated traders to build wealth and expand their savings capacity.
Ganapati Deva, the Kakatiya ruler, urged individual entrepreneurs to import money or riches
from outside, or in current economic terms, to have a balanced foreign exchange. Ganapati was
succeeded by his daughter Rudrama Devi.14

Ganapatideva was the Kakatiya dynasty's greatest monarch. He had a complex personality. He
was a terrific commander who only lost one war, and it was at the conclusion of his career. He
spread his kingdom in all ways. Despite his involvement in multiple conflicts, he did not over-
look administration. In reality, he implemented several reforms in village government. Village
accountants (Karanams) belonged to the Viswabrahmin (goldsmith) caste till his time. Ganap-
atideva expelled them and replaced them with Brahmins because they interfered in religious and
political problems. The Brahmins who were so appointed were known as Niyogi Brahmins. Until
recently, the Niyogi Brahmins served as Karanams in the majority of Andhra villages. Ganap-
atideva was also concerned with the advancement of trade and commerce. In this regard, it is
worth noting his proclamation of "abhayasasana" in the port of Motupalli. Motupalli was a major
port in ancient and mediaeval Andhra. 15 This harbour used to see a lot of foreign ships. There
was turmoil in the mid-coastal area of Andhra after the collapse of the Velanadu dynasty. Taking
advantage of the misunderstanding, the local chieftains began collecting extortionate customs
and other charges from foreign ships and local merchants. As a result, the port fell out of usage,
and trade slowed. Ganapatideva issued the "abhayasasana" in Motupalli after subjugating the Ve-
lanadu district, guaranteeing the protection of all ships and abolishing several vexatious customs
taxes.16

RUDRAMADEVI (1262-1289 C.E.)

One of the several inscriptions unearthed at Uma Maheswaram mentions Queen Rudrama Devi.
According to this 1280 C.E. report, Né Ramayyangar, accountant of the Queen's treasury, estab-
lished a number of temples and Mathas for Saiva followers. Rudramadevi breaks the enclaved
control of landed nobility by installing their own soldiers. 17 In the 13th century, Marco Polo vis-
ited the Kakatiya empire and wrote extensively about her authority. King Ganapati Deva had no
12ibid.
13ibid.
14-Cynthia Talbot; Temples, Donors and Gifts: Patterns of Patronage in Thirteenth-Century South India,
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1991, Association for Asian Studies
15ibid.
16ibid.
17V. R. M. Desai (1962), "Savings in Ancient Hindu Polity", The Indian Journal of Political Science
sons to succeed him on the throne. He picked Rudrama Devi, his eldest daughter, to be his suc-
cessor and heir to the Kakatiya kingdom in the lack of a male heir. The nobility, on the other
hand, was violently opposed. Ganpati Deva was required to execute a unique ritual, the Putrika
ceremony, in which a father may nominate his daughter as the "male heir" in the absence of a
boy. Rudrama Devi was declared his son and given the name Rudra Deva. 18 Rudrama Devi's as-
cent to the Kakatiya throne was hampered by squabbles and protests.

Warring neighbours saw her as a weak monarch, including the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Gangas
of Kalinga, and the Pandyas of Tamil Nadu, to mention a few. She, on the other hand, rose to the
occasion and demonstrated that she was no less than a male heir. She vanquished Yadava king
Mahadeva and drove the invading Yadava army from Devagiri. Following this significant vic-
tory, she took the title Raya-gaja-kesari, which means "the lion who rules over the elephant
kings," and built a commemorative pavilion in Warangal's Swayambhu temple, depicting herself
as a woman warrior mounted on a lion with her sword and shield in hand, evoking the fierce
goddess Durga.19 She began a number of new projects, including the completion of the Warangal
Fort, which her father had started. She fortified the fort's defences by building a second wall and
a moat, making it extremely sturdy and impregnable. She had only daughters and raised Pratap
Rudra Deva as her son and successor to the kingdom.

PRATAPARUDRA DEVA (1289-1323 C.E.)

Prataparudra once his grandmother died in 1289, Prataparudra came to the throne. His immediate
challenge was to put down Ambadeva's uprising, which was supported by the Pandya and Se-
vana monarchs. To do this, he launched a three-pronged assault against Ambadeva. One column
marched directly against Ambadeva, while the second marched towards Nellore and the third
against the Sevana kingdom.20 Tripurantakam was taken in 1291 by Induluri Annaiah, who
headed the first column. At the same time, the second column, commanded by Adidam Malla,
captured Nellore. On the western front, the third column headed by Gona Gannayya, son of Gona
Buddha Reddy, took the Sevana forts of Adoni and Raichur. Consequently, Prataparudra was
successful in restoring the Kakatiyas' dominance.21

Prataparudradeva, the last Kakatiya monarch, repulsed seven Muslim invasions between 1302
and 1323 C.E., but was defeated on the last occasion by Prince Ulugh Khan. According to some
reports, he returned to his country and died on the banks of the Godavari, while others claim he
died on the banks of the Narmada while being transported to Delhi .22 Prataparudra had the fewest
landed nobility serving him and the most officers promoted from low beginnings. Prataparudra
ascended to the Kakatiya "lion throne" in 1289. 23 Alauddin Khilji dispatched his slave general
Malik Kafur into the Deccan in 1309 with orders to assault the Kakatiya empire. Malik Kafur
was given the order to make Prataparudra a subservient ruler. When Malik Kafur assaulted the

18ibid.
19ibid.
20P.R. Rao, Ancient and Medieval History of Andhra Pradesh, 2018, Sterling Publishers (P) Ltd.
21ibid.
22ibid.
23ibid.
fortress in 1310, Prataparudra sued for peace and sent 23 elephants as a gift. Malik Kafur sent a
robe (Khil'at) to the king. In Perso-Islamic culture, the robes represented political dominance. 24

In 1311, the Kakatiya ruler attacked the Pandya kingdom, using the chance to quash his own vas-
sal's uprising in the Nellore district. He personally commanded his army against the Pandya at
Kanchi and served as both Kakatiya ruler and Delhi's auxiliary ally. In 1318, Prataparudra failed
to pay the king's yearly tribute. Khusrau Khan, the Sultan's commander, was dispatched. 25 Ac-
cording to Amir Khusrau's account of the fight, the most advanced military technique seen by
Telugu warriors was transferred to north India from the Iranian plateau (Nuh Siphir).26

TEMPLE ECONOMY
The great majority of inscriptions from thirteenth-century Andhra are found on stone within the
confines of a temple complex, either on the walls of a main shrine or on stone slabs and pillars
within the temple grounds. The unequal geographic distribution of the corpus of temple inscrip-
tions from thirteenth-century Andhra is a notable feature: the majority of the records are located
along the state's coastal strip. Coastal temple structures that attracted an unusually large amount
of endowments. There are 335 sites with intact inscriptions from the years 1175-1325 C.E.,
which indicates that little less than 3% of the sites account for more than one-quarter of the
whole record.27

The immense religiosity of the main temples, gained through the ages and justified by their
deities' relationship with pan-Indic mythology, afforded them a distinctive position and the
power to draw religious offerings. A number of the smaller local temples built during the
Kakatiya period have been abandoned, suggesting that their patronage was primarily responsible
for their survival28 Long-distance merchants patronised such important temples in order to
broaden the geographic reach of their alliance network, thanks to special endowments provided
to coastal temples. The newly established temples aided in the expansion of agricultural cul-
ture.The majority of the maharajas mentioned in the inscriptions were not independent sover-
eigns, but rather subordinate chiefs to Warangal's Kakatiya royal line 29 The name Rudresvara
was derived from the personal name Rudra and the title Isvara, designating a Saivite god, and
was dedicated in 1194 C.E. in honour of the Kakatiya emperor Rudradeva. 30The title Rudresvara
means Rudra's Lord or Rudra's God, meaning that it was Rudra's preferred deity rather than
Rudra himself being a god.31

The five nayakas brothers, who claim to have been ruled by Kakatiya Ganapati, built a triple
temple in Nalgonda district, with deities named after their father, mother, and Ganapati. A patron
24ibid.
25ibid.
26ibid.
27Cynthia Talbot; Temples, Donors and Gifts: Patterns of Patronage in Thirteenth-Century South India,
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1991, Association for Asian Studies
28ibid.
29ibid.
30ibid.
31ibid.
of a tiny local temple may thus not only be strengthening his personal reputation and legitimacy
in the community through a religious payment, but also establishing his involvement in a power-
ful political network often led by the Kakatiyas of Warangal. 32 The Kakatiya monarchs made few
presents themselves, and their patronage was divided among a variety of temples, most of which
were located in freshly captured regions.

This might be attributed to the Kakatiya state system's weakness, which lacked even the few cen -
tralised qualities provided by the Chola kingdom. It was the Kakatiya subordinates, not their
overlords, who engaged in religious gifts, and their goal was in cementing their standing in the
community.33 According to various inscriptions and secondary literature, several Hindu struc-
tures in Andhra were razed during the first Turkic conquest and shortly thereafter in the four-
teenth century, most notably the temples in the Kakatiya capital, Warangal.

SWAYAMBHUSIYA TEMPLE
The patron deity of the Kakatiya dynasty was placed at the Svayambhusiva temple. The four
kirti-toranas are the only buildings that exist in the Svayambhusiva region today. The demolition
of the Warangal temple follows this pattern exactly. 34 On the one hand, the historical environ-
ment in which the deed happened was that of the Kakatiya kingdom's final and conclusive sub-
mission. The literary evidence clearly shows that Svayambhusiva, "the self-born Siva," was not
simply any arbitrarily picked form of Siva, but rather the Kakatiyas' family deity, who was
specifically recognised to be the defender of their country.35

The Prataparudra-yasobhusana, a Sanskrit text on poetics written in the early 14th century by
Prataparudra's court poet Vidyanatha, refers to "the god Svayambhu, the family deity of the
Kakatiyas, divinity who brings sanctity to the town Ekasila (Warangal) and looks after the des -
tiny of the inhabited world".36 Svayambhusiva is recalled as "the wish-fulfilling jewel for the
protection of the Kakatiya family" in a Warangal post-Kakatiya inscription from 1504. The pic-
ture of Svayambhusiva would have been a "Four-faced Linga," rather than an ordinary abstract
Siva-linga. Prataparudra Caritramu, a 16th century Telugu historiographic work, reports that
when Svayambhusiva showed himself from the earth as "a golden linga full of light,".37

VILASA GRANT
Prolaya Nayaka's Vilasa Award, a lengthy copper-plate grant written in Sanskrit and granted
probably around 1325 but before 1350 C.E. The inscription begins by extolling the magnificence
of Andhra's preceding Kakatiya dynasty and its final ruler, Prataparudra. 38The chronicle then
goes on to detail the wars between Prataparudra and Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Turkish
monarch. Prataparudra was kidnapped and killed on the banks of the Narmada river in central In-

32ibid.
33P.R. Rao, Ancient and Medieval History of Andhra Pradesh, 2018, Sterling Publishers (P) Ltd.
34ibid.
35ibid.
36ibid.
37ibid.
38ibid.
dia while being transported to Delhi as a captive after successfully repelling the Sultan's army
seven times. The forces of evil rose after the demise of the virtuous ruler, Kakatiya Prataprudra.

Brahmins were forced to stop their sacrifice ceremonies, Hindu temple statues were toppled and
shattered, tax-free Brahmin villages were taken, and cultivators were denied access to their
crops.39 It is alleged that the Turks who invaded mediaeval Andhra mistreated Brahmins and cur-
tailed religious practise. When the Kakatiya monarchy was abolished, the violent invasions of
the Delhi Sultanate brought down the highest echelon of the governmental order. In the final
days of the kingdom's resistance, the main Kakatiya military leaders either perished or were cap-
tured. Prolaya Nayaka, the author of the Vilasa gift, was the first member of the Musunuri family
to leave historical traces. In the instability that followed the Delhi Sultanate's invasions, he built
up a substantial territory for himself.40Vema Reddi, a second male, is also the first historical
character in the Kondavidu Reddi dynasty. Both of these individuals claimed past ties to the
Kakatiya kingdom.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Another element is the vitality of the Kakatiya polity. Telugu inscriptions began to occur in loca -
tions where other epigraphical languages had previously been prevalent as the sphere of
Kakatiya influence expanded. In early fourteenth-century inscriptions, Kakatiya Prataparudra
was proclaimed lord of Andhra. When the Kakatiyas stopped accepting Chalukyan supremacy,
they stopped publishing Kannada inscriptions.41 The Kakatiya change to Telugu and Sanskrit in-
scriptions had political importance, but it was also a symbol of Telugu ethnicity cementing. De-
spite the development of an Andhra identity based at least in part on linguistic unity, the area of
Telugu speakers was politically fractured with the fall of the Kakatiya capital, Warangal, in
1323.42 During the time of the Kakatiyas, the Telugu language and its literature began to develop.
The earliest extant work in Telugu is Nannaya's Andhra Mahahharatamu. The work was under-
taken during the reign of the Eastern Chalukyan king Rajaraja Narendra (1019-61). Nannaya
could not complete the work.43 Tikkana, the court poet of Manumasiddi II of Nellore, completed
the translation of the fifteen cantos (parvas) of Mahabharata into Telugu at Warangal. He went
there to persuade Ganapatideva to help his patron Manumasiddi who had been driven out of his
kingdom by his kinsmen. The other work of Tikkana was Nirvachanottara Ramayanamu.44

The Telugu language and literature began to emerge under the reign of the Kakatiyas. Nannaya's
Andhra Mahahharatamu is the earliest existing Telugu work. The construction was completed
during the reign of Eastern Chalukyan monarch Rajaraja Narendra (1019-61). 45Nannaya was un-
able to finish the task. Tikkana, the court poet of Manumasiddi II of Nellore, finished the transla-
tion of the Mahabharata's fifteen cantos (parvas) into Telugu at Warangal. He went there to con-
vince Ganapatideva to assist his patron Manumasiddi, who had been forced out of his realm by
39K. Lakshmi Ranjan, Some Unpublished Inscriptions of Telangana, 1953, Proceedings of the Indian
History Congress, Vol. 16, Indian History Congress
40ibid.
41ibid.
42ibid.
43ibid.
44ibid.
45K.A Nilkantha Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijaynagar,
1958, Oxford University Press
his kinsmen. Tikkana also wrote Nirvachanottara Ramayanamu. This is when the popular book
Bhaskara Ramayanamu, credited to Mantri Bhaskara, was written. Rudradeva's feudatory, Gona
Buddha Reddi, was the first.46

Andhra warriors increasingly depended on the legacy of the Kakatiyas to build a legitimizing
past that gave them with both power and a sense of community in the absence of a regional
monarchy that was entirely and distinctively Telugu. The Telugu ancestors led directly back to
the Kakatiyas. The guy known as Chittapa Khan plays the role of the Kakatiyas in Andhra histor-
ical knowledge. Chittapa Khan attempted to replicate the magnificence of the Kakatiyas - the
Golden Age of Andhra warriors - in a sort of cultural renaissance. 47 The inscription concludes
with a vision of Chittapa Khan regularly worshipping the Warangal god, who was the Kakatiya
dynasty's protector.

RELIGION
When the Kakatiyas came to power in the 11th century A.D., Jainism was the dominant religion
in Andhra. Saivism came in second, but within two centuries, Jainism had almost totally van-
ished from Andhra, and Saivism had replaced it as the major religion. 48Three people, Sripati,
Sivalanka Manchana, and Mallikarjuna Panditaradhya, were responsible for popularising the
Siva cult in Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, Vira Saivism grew extremely rampant, resulting in
numerous religious confrontations and carnage. This had an impact on Andhra as well. The
Saivites and Jains had several disagreements. Numerous Jain temples, including Anamakonda's
famed Padmashi temple, were turned into Saivite shrines. With Prola II, the Kakatiyas became
strong Saivites.49 To their credit, though, they never became religious zealots. They did try to
keep the religious animosities between the Jains and the Saivites in control. In a nutshell, the
Kakatiya reign gave Andhra Pradesh and the Telugu language its own distinct identity.

ECONOMY
The epigraphic evidence of Kakatiyas shows the development of Telangana region economically
by the steps taken by the rulers of the dynasty. The vision of the rulers in the promotion of agri-
culture and trade and commerce with special emphasis on the trade with far-flung areas made the
region economically prosperous in all spheres of economy. 50 It is rightly remarked by a prolific
writer that the region became financially sound due to undertaking the activities like conversion
of barren and un-cultivatable lands into agricultural lands; development of irrigational sources
enhanced the crop productivity which in turn enhanced the overall rise in trade and commerce in
which the temple as an institution was ultimately intertwined. 51The monarchs made various ef-
forts to make agriculturists self-sufficient in all respects, despite the region's harsh environment

46ibid.
47ibid.
48ibid.
49ibid.
50P.V Parabrahma Sastry.'Sanigaram Epigraphs of the Early Kakatiyas, Epigraphia Andhrica,
Hyderabad,1975
51ibid.
and rainfall. Furthermore, they supported creative approaches to increase agricultural production
and productivity.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS
The Warangal Kakatiyas were the most powerful kings of Andhra Desa, or the eastern Deccan,
reigning during the 11th and 14th centuries. Warangal, also known as Orugallu-Vorungallu,
Varungallu, Ekotpala, Ekasilanagara-Akshalinagara- Omtikonda, Andhranagari, and Urangai-
General Cunningham dubbed it Varankoi and connected it with Ptolemy's Vorunkula. 52 The
Kakatiya period, which saw the establishment of a distinct sociocultural-religious formation and
politico-administrative unity. The Kakatiya polity was founded on the 'Nayankara System,'
which included non-Brahmin Sudra nobles known today as Velamas and Reddies. 53 They served
as warriors, military commanders, and had local dominance under the Kakatiyas. Telangana's re-
gional social formation process deviated from the Indo-Gangetic Varna/Jati paradigm. Unlike the
Dwijas, the major social groupings of the Chaturdakuljas played an important role in the state-
society interaction. When it comes to the social position of the Kakatiyas, there is no mention of
Varna in the corpus of inscriptions that chronicle the Kakatiya ancestry. Nonetheless, when
Varna affiliation is assigned to them, the majority of the time, kakatiyas are said to have been
born in the fourth class. The four-faced Brahma, who sprung from the navel-lotus of Vishnu and
formed the heavenly creatures, is credited with the origins of Varna civilization. Then he created
the Brahman, the monarch, the Vaisya, and the Sudra from his own lips, arms, thighs, and lotus-
feet.

The family is the fundamental element of every civilization. Foreign visitors found that familial
bonds were stronger among family members, relatives, and friends in South India. All of these
were regarded as a single family. Extended families were commonly mentioned in epigraphic
and literary sources throughout the Kakatiya period. In an inscription at Papayapalem and In-
ugurti, for example, the donor is listed along with all of his blood relatives. 54 Virtually all of the
inscriptions from the time attest to the emotional bonds that existed between family members.
The society of the period was patriarchal. The ideal was father who should be respected as the
head of the family. He managed the family and all members of the family obeyed him in every
respect. For example, an inscription dated AD. 1219 states that Ganapambika gave the village
Mogulutal to a Brahmin with the permission of her father Ganapatideva.55

The Kridabhiramam refers to the fact that the father was head of the family and he took all re -
sponsibilities for his family. The society of the Kakatiya period as known form epigraphical and
literary sources indicates that they were familiar with joint family system. According to an in-
scription at Duppalli, Ramannapettaluq, Nalgonda District, the benefactors divided the hamlet in
a 1:3 ratio following their father's death. Many polygamous households were observed in the
Kakatiya period civilization, where a person's sons and brother shared property. According to an
inscription from 1280, Karanam Rammayya had two wives, Mallasani and Ganga Sani.

52ibid.
53ibid.
54 R.V Rama Rao, The Fall of Warangal and After, 1947, Proceedings of the Indian History of Congress,
Indian History Congress
55ibid.
DECLINE
The demise of Andhra's indigenous Kakatiya monarchy as a result of continuous military pres-
sures from the Delhi Sultanate, culminating in the extinction of Andhra's last major Hindu dy-
nasty. At the end of the thirteenth century, Sultanate expeditions began to penetrate South India.
The greatest significant period of contact between Islamic and previous Indian subcontinental
peoples thus happened between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. The most scathing depic-
tions of Muslims in Andhra records emerge in the immediate aftermath of the 1323 C.E. disaster,
when military troops of the Delhi Sultanate marched across the Andhra area, causing the fall of
the indigenous Kakatiya royal dynasty. During the past twenty years, Andhra troops united under
the Kakatiya banner had regularly defeated the Turkic forces of Delhi. Peninsular India's four re-
gional kingdoms - the Yadavas, Kakatiyas, Pandyas, and Hoysalas - collapsed under the Sul-
tanates' attack.56

Malik Kafur resumed his march back to Delhi a month later, and Pratapa Rudra faithfully gave
Delhi a substantial yearly tribute for several years. But, in 1318, the king failed to submit his cus-
tomary tribute. As a result, the Delhi Sultan dispatched general Khusrau Khan to collect the un-
paid debt. The attackers quickly took control of the main bastion of Warangal's outer wall. They
next made their way to the city's most powerful and deepest fortifications. According to the great
poet Amir Khusrau, the Telugu soldiers defending the citadel against the Sultan's army had to
encounter some of the deadliest and most modern military equipment in the combat that oc-
curred.57 A political upheaval in Delhi in 1320 replaced the Khilji dynasty with the Tughlaq dy-
nasty, and Pratap Rudra took advantage of the disarray by dodging tribute payment. After this, a
Northern army led by Muhammad bin Tughlaq stormed Warangal for the third and last time in
1321, laying siege to the city for six months. Muhammad bin Tughlaq was unable to successfully
end the siege and was forced to flee to Devagiri. Muhammad ibn Tughlaq returned to assault
Warangal in 1323 after spending many months relaxing and fortifying his soldiers in Deva-
giri.58Warangal was prey to unrestrained pillage and devastation this period. The Kakatiya
monarchy was destroyed, and its lands were taken by the Delhi Sultanate.

56ibid.
57ibid.
58ibid.
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