The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s8.28

v1.c6.s8.28

The market-towns on the coast mentioned by the classical writers include two groups, namely, those on the east coast and the emporia on the west. The eastern cities lay close to the mouths of the Kṛṣṇā and the Godāvari, the Lān̄gulinī, and the Vamaśadharā. The most important amongst them is apparently mentioned as the point of departure for ships bound for Khryse. Pliny mentions Cape Calingon and the town of Dandagula which were probably situated close to Chicacole at the mouth of the river Lān̄gulinī or Lān̄guliya in the northern part of the Vizagapatam District. Twelve hundred years after Pliny, Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveller, found to the south-west of the mouth of the Kṛṣṇā a famous port which he calls Mutfili, represented by the modern Motupalli. ‘It belongs to a queen (Rudramma or Rudrāmbā), a woman of great wisdom. . . . She has ruled her kingdom most justly and equitably . . . in this kingdom there are many mountains in which diamonds are found.’ The story of these diamonds reads like some of the tales of the Arabian Nights. Rudramma was evidently carrying on the traditions of her father Ganapatideva, whose Matupalli edict (*abhaya śāsana*), dated A.D. 1244-5, assured safety to foreign traders by sea whose ships might be wrecked on the Andhra coast. Moṭupalli or Moṭṭuppalli was also known as Deśyūyakkoṇḍa-paṭṭana.² It lies in the Bāpaṭla *tāluk* of the Guntūr District.