The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s3.t5.3.2

v2.c15.s3.t5.3.2

Bēta II is the first Kākatīya monarch whose name is associated in our records with the construction of tanks. He appears to have undertaken the building of two tanks called Seṭṭi-kere and Kēsari-samudra and to have performed in that connexion the ceremony of Varuṇa-pratiṣṭhā or the installation of Varuṇa, the presiding deity of the waters, to ensure that his reservoirs might always be full.³ Rudra constructed an enormous and wonderful tank in the centre of the city of Chōḍōdaya which he had destroyed.⁴ Gaṇapati, if the Pratāpacharitra can be trusted, built several tanks in different parts of his kingdom, at Nellore the Telugu Chōḷa capital in the south, at Ellore in the Kṛiṣṇā-Gōdāvarī delta, at Gaṇapuram on the banks of the Gaṅgā (i.e., the Gōdāvarī), at Gaṇapuram in the south-west of Ekaśilānagaram (Warangal), and at Vidasa to the west of the same city. Similarly, Pratāparudra is credited with the construction of a big tank somewhere in the region about Pākhal.⁵ This last statement, however, is not borne out by evidence of a trustworthy character. Even more than kings and royal personages did the nobles and officials in their service take great interest in promoting irrigation schemes. Two noble families of Teliṅgāṇa, viz. the Malyālas and the Rēcherlas, deserve special mention in this connexion, since many of the surviving tanks which secured the name of the ‘tank-district’ for the region in later ages were the fruits of their enterprise and activity.