The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t3.66

v2.c15.s2.t3.66

Gaṇapati in Western Andhra. The victory obtained in the battle of Palaiyāṟu and the capture of Kāñchī by Sāmanta Bhōja in A.D. 1250 do not seem to have produced any permanent results, since the provenance of Vijaya-Gaṇḍagōpāla’s inscriptions leaves no room for doubt that he soon recovered his hold over Kāñchī and its neighbourhood, and continued to rule there until A.D. 1282.¹ What enabled him to regain his authority without difficulty was doubtless the preoccupation of Manuma Siddhi II and Gaṇapati with the affairs of the Western Telugu country. Rakkasa Gaṅga had, as may be remembered, defeated Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi, the Kāyastha chief, whom Chōḍa Tikka had appointed as the commander of his forces in Upper-Pākanāḍu, and had seized the territory under his rule. He was supported in this enterprise by the Telugu Chōḍa chief of Jagatāpi-Gutti (the modern Gutti in the Anantapur district), who, as a consequence, assumed the title of Gaṇḍapeṇḍēra-Gaṅgaya-Sāhiṇi-sarvasva-bandikāra or ‘the plunderer of the entire property of Gaṇḍapeṇḍēra Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi.’² Manuma Siddhi and Gaṇapati, after their victorious campaign in the Tamil country, marched against him by way of Kāḷahasti in the Chittoor district and attacked him there. In the war that followed Rakkasa Gaṅga was worsted and had to surrender the territories which he had wrested from Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi. Though Tikkana attributes the credit for the victory to the prowess of his master, Manuma Siddhi, the evidence of the inscriptions clearly shows that it was not achieved without the Kākatīya support. Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi, after his defeat at the hands of Rakkasa Gaṅga and his consequent loss of territory, joined the service of Gaṇapati, who conferred on him the high office of bāhattara-niyōg-ādhipati, or ‘the superintendent of seventy-two niyōgas’ at his court.³ In an inscription at Tripurāntakam, dated A.D. 1254, he claims to have vanquished Rakkasa Gaṅga and put him to flight.⁴ Gaṇḍapeṇḍēra Jannigadēva, a nephew of Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi, and a feudatory of Gaṇapatidēva and subsequently of Rudrāmbā, evidently assisted his uncle in the campaign against Rakkasa Gaṅga; for in a record dated a few years later in A.D. 1264 he is said to have pursued the latter after his defeat.⁵ It follows from this that Gaṇapati had lent support to Manuma Siddhi II and Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi to overthrow the power of the Vaidumba chief. His victory no doubt resulted in the reconquest of the territory seized by the Vaidumba; but Manuma Siddhi, to whom it had originally belonged, did not get it back again; he had to surrender it to Gaṇapati, who conferred it on Gaṅgaya Sāhiṇi, apparently with Manuma’s consent, as a family estate, a transaction which is euphemistically described by Tikkana in his Nirvachan-Ōttara-Rāmāyaṇam as a gift gracefully bestowed by his master on the Kāyastha chief to demonstrate his affectionate regard for his faithful dependant.⁶