Page:Gódávari.djvu/49

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POLITICAL HISTORY.
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Rudra had himself to interfere, since 'the cultivators refused to follow their occupation and fled the country.' The MS. describes at length the rules he then laid down for the revenue administration of the province. The two viceroys eventually fell foul of the 'Rája of Cuttack' (the Ganga king of Kalinga), Pedda Malla Rázu having kidnapped the bride of one of that potentate's relatives as she was passing through the district. The Ganga king sent an expedition to revenge the affront; and, after a long siege, Bendapúdi was taken and the two brothers were captured and beheaded.

The Mughal emperor of Delhi had long been jealous of the growing power of the Kákatíyas. In 1303 he had unsuccessfully attempted to crush their kingdom; in 1310 his general Malik Káfur captured Warangal, but Pratápa Rudra soon recovered his independence; but in 1323 the Delhi heirapparent, Muhammad Tughlak, took the town again and carried off its king to Delhi.

Muhammad Tughlak seems to have penetrated as far as Rajahmundry itself, for an inscription, dated 1324, on a mosque there describes its erection by him in that year. The tide of Muhammadan invasion receded almost at once, but from this point the influence of the kings of Warangal in the Telugu country disappears, and Vengi was ruled by the Reddi chiefs of Kórukonda, Kondavid and Rajahmundry.

A history of the Kórukonda Reddis is given in the Mackenzie MS. already quoted. The founder of the line was Kóna or Kúna Reddi, 'a good Súdra,' who built the fort at Kórukonda and made the place into a big town. His son Mummidi Reddi succeeded him, and (along with his two brothers) is said to have ruled as far as Tátipáka (either the village of that name in Nagaram island or its namesake in Tuni division) and to have founded one of the Kórukonda temples in 1353. Mummidi Reddi was followed by his son Kúna Reddi, and he by his two brothers Anna Reddi and Kátama Reddi, one after the other. Their reigns are said to have lasted 40 years. The latter was succeeded by his son Mummidi Náyak, by whom another of the Kórukonda temples was repaired in 1394-95.

The Reddis of Kondavíd were Súdra cultivators; but the family seems to have been in the service of the kings of Warangal and no doubt derived the beginnings of its power from this circumstance. They apparently ruled side by side with the Kórukonda Reddis, for the inscriptions of the two overlap. Their earliest extant record is dated in 1344. Their original capital was at Addanki in Guntúr, but they subsequently moved to Kondavid. The founder of the dynasty