South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.5

c9.s2.5

The Kākatīyas : Gaṇapati and Rudrāmbā.—During this period the Kākatīyas of Warangal made an effort at extending their territory southwards, and, on occasions, were in occupation of Kāñchī. The first Kākatīya intervention comes along with the advance of the Telugu-Choḍa chieftains to the south. It is king Gaṇapati of the dynasty that made this advance towards the south, and we have an inscription of his in the Viṣṇu temple at Kāñchīpuram.¹ This advance seems to have been at a time when the throne of Rājarāja III had passed on to Rājendra III, and Kopperunjinga dominated the whole of the northern division of the Chola empire. Kopperunjinga at any rate claims to have defeated the Kākatīyas, and we have already noted that Rājendra Chola, the successful rival of Rājarāja, also lays claim to conquests in the Telugu country reaching at least as far as Cuddapah and Nellore. During the last years of the reign of Gaṇapati, the great Pāṇḍya ruler, Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāṇḍya I, marched northwards, and his victorious advance up to Nellore and his coronation there made the Kākatīyas withdraw into their own territories. Gaṇapati's successor Rudrāmba, who ruled from A.D. 1260 to 1291 succeeding her father Gaṇapati, had apparently enough to do to keep her own kingdom without thinking of extending her territory. There is, however, a statement in one of her inscriptions that one of her officers, Amba Dēva by name, destroyed the Kāḍava Rāya. The same chief is also said to have established at Nellore, Manma Gaṇḍagopala who was dispossessed of his kingdom. These are all the glimpses that we get of Kākatīya activity in the south during the long reign of Gaṇapati and that of his daughter, which together practically cover the century, from A.D. 1200 to 1291-2, soon after which Marco Polo visited the Coromandal Coast of India.