Part 19 - The Haihayas of Palnad (A.D. 1100-1481)

A branch of the Haihayas ruled over the Palnad tract, at present forming the Palnad taluq of Guntur district, during the 12th Century A.D.,with its capital at Gurizala alias Madhavipattana. In common with the Haihayas of Konamandala, Panchadaraia and Vardhamanapura, the Haihayas of Palnad claimed to belong to Haihayavamsa, traced ancestry to Kartaviryaijuna and were lords of MahiVelanandu Chodas, except when they were forced to submit to Chalukyan suzerainty.

South India at the beginning of the 12th century A.D. roughly comprised of three major kingdoms—the Kalinga, Chalukya and Chola ruled over by Anantavarman choda Ganga, Vikramaditya VI and Kulottunga I respectively. The history of Vengi, in main, was the struggle between the Cholas and the Chalukyas for hegomony over it, in which success was with the Cholas.

Location of Palnad and Sources for the Period

“Palnad lies on the right bank of Krishna commencing from a point 120 miles from the sea bounded on its north and west sides by 75 miles length of the river. Having its south and east sides shut in by hills and forest land...Palnad measures 1090 square miles in Area.” Thus on the north and west, Palnad is separated from the Nizam’s dominions by the Krishna, and the jungles on the south, divide it from the more open plains of Virukonda, Narasaraopet and Sattenpalle taluqs of Guntur district.

Inscriptions of the Haihayas and Palnativiracaritra from the main sources. Some records of the Chalukyas of Kalyani and the Velanandu Chodas form the supplementary sources. Palnativiracharitra of Srinatha and Virabhadrakavi are of much later origin written after two and seven centuries—respectively, after the battle of Karampodi and narrate only the details of the battle and the civil war. Recorded tradition is of indispensable value.

Origin and Rise of the Dynasty

A palm leaf Ms of Viracharitra begins the ancestry of the Haihayas of Palnad with Brahma. Brahma’s son was Narada in whose lineage was born Kritavirya. Kritavirya’s son was Kartavirya. Moon does not find place in this. But the Gurizala epigraph of Beta II says that Kartavirya was born in the lunar race. According to the above Virakamendra was sixth in descent from Kartavirya and the names of the five intermediaries are not mentioned.

The time and the circumstances under which the Haihayas came and settled down in Palnad, it is not easy to see. But the close similarity between the introductory passage in the Bhnguvanda inscription dated A.D. 1118 describing the family of these chiefs, and that in the two inscriptions of Konahaihaya Satya and the prevalence of joint rule in Palnad as in Konamandala perhaps point to the conclusion that the Palnad Haihayas branched off from the Haihayas of Konamandala towards the close of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century A.D. though the exact relationship between the two dynasties is not traceable.