Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.472

c7.472

Pīthapurī.—It is the same as Pittāpuram, a sacred place containing the residence of a rājā in the east Godāvarī district (S.I.I., I, pp. 53, 61; cf. E.I., XII, p. 2). The Tāṇḍivāda grant of Pṛthivī Mahārāja refers to Piṣṭapura which is the ancient name of Pīthāpuram (E.I., XXIII, Pt. III, July, 1935, p. 97). Piṣṭapura formed part of the kingdom of Devarāṣṭra during the reign of its king Guṇavarman (E.I., XXIII, 57). Pīthāpuram is a provincial town in the Godāvarī district. It contains a Vaiṣṇava temple named Kuntimādhava. At the eastern entrance of this temple, in front of the shrine itself, stands a quadrangular stone-pillar bearing four inscriptions of different dates. The kings belonged to a dynasty which Hultzsch calls ‘chiefs of Velanāṇḍu’. The chiefs of Velanāṇḍu trace their descent from the fourth Śūdra caste. A distant ancestor of Pṛthvīśvara named Malla I subdued the kings of the Gaṅgas, Kaliṅgas, Vaṅgas, Magadhas, Andhras, Pulindas, etc. (E.I., IV, 32ff.).