Rudradeva
Rudra-deva (r. c. 1158-1195) was a Kakatiya king, who ruled parts of the present-day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
Rudra proclaimed sovereignty around 1163 CE, and conquered the coastal Andhra region by defeating several local chiefs, amid the decline of the Velanati Choda power.
The earliest extant record from Rudradeva's reign is the 1158 CE Daksharamam inscription issued by his minister Inangala Brammireddi.
It is possible that the inscription mentions Rajaraja II's regnal years, simply because it was customary to do so in the Daksharamam area:[3] the Cholas were traditionally regarded as the overlords of the Vengi kingdom, although their power was not completely effective in this region.
[3] The Thousand Pillar Temple inscription credits Rudra with several victories that ultimately led to the establishment of Kakatiyas as a sovereign power.
[5] During the time of Rudra's father Prola II, Kumara Tailapa, a younger brother the Chalukya king Someshvara III, governed the Kanduru-nadu province, with the Choda chiefs as his subordinates.
According to the Thousand Pillar Temple inscription, Tailapa "died of dysentery caused by the terror of Rudra", and subsequently, the Choda chief Bhima II declared himself the king.
[8] According to the Thousand Pillar Temple inscription, Rudra invaded Bhima's town of Vardhamana (present-day Vaddaman or Vaddemanu).
[11] Historian M. Somasekhara Sarma theorizes that at the time of Rudra's attack, the town of Chododaya was a part of Bhima's territories.
[11] The Thousand Pillar Temple inscription states that Rudra became "the resort of the shining lotus (padma) born of the milky ocean of the dynasty" of Chododaya.
[16] According to the Thousand Pillar Temple inscription, Rudra subdued the prowess of Meda, defeated the confederacy of the rival kings, and acquired the wealth of Poalvasa-desha (territory).
The brother and the son of the Kalachuri king Bijjala II were both named Mailigi, and either of these may have led an army against Rudra.
[19] E. Hultzsch identified Mailigi with Mallugi, the predecessor of the Yadava king Bhillama V, but this can be dismissed on phonological grounds.
Since Rudra was the most prominent king of the Andhra region, it appears that he made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Kalachuri capital Kalyani, probably as an extension of the campaign against Mailigi and other chiefs.
[21] According to Rudra's inscription, at this time, his kingdom extended from Godavari River in the north to Srisailam area in the south, and from Kataka (Kalyana-Kataka or Kalyani) in the west to the ocean (Bay of Bengal) in the east.
The claim about the western boundary probably refers to his march up to Kalyani in the west during his campaign against the Kalachuri general Mailigi.
[4] The Velanati Choda king Kulottunga Rajendra II appears to have captured the Daksharamam area in 1163 CE, as attested by an inscription of his minister Devana-Preggada.
Rudra appears to have recaptured the area sometime later, as suggested by the 1168 CE Daksharamam inscription of his queen Dannama-devi, which records her gift of a lamp to the temple of Bhimeshvara.
[26] Other parts of coastal Andhra were under the control of various chiefs, some of whom were involved in the battle that resulted in the death of Rudra's father Prola II.
Rudra's subordinates - the chiefs of Vipparla, Komaravelli, and Pempala - assumed the title Dodda-Bhimani-shirash-chchhedaka, which suggests that Bhima died in this battle.
[30] In 1184 CE, the Velanati Choda ruler Prithvishvara, who had lost control of his ancestral territory, attempted to capture the Prolu-nadu region (Pithapuram-Kakinada area).
Mallapa-deva, a member of the Vengi Chalukya family, had carved out an independent kingdom in this area after the death of Rajaraja II.
The Kukanuru inscription of the Chalukya chief Kusumaditya states that he had to seek shelter in other territories for 12 years because of an upheaval in his own kingdom.
A 1213 CE inscription of the Kakatiya general Recherla Rudra states that he forced Kusumaditya's brother Nagati-raja to flee.
In this description, Hemadri states that Jaitrapala (Jaitugi) sacrificed a human in the shape of Raudra, the lord of Tilinga region.
[34] According to historian A.S. Altekar, "Raudra" may be a mistake by a scribe, the verse describes Jaitugi's killing of the Kakatiya king Rudra.
[23] An 1185 CE Tripurantakam inscription records Rudra's grant of the Revuru village on the Krishna River to the god Tripurantaka Mahadeva.
[27] Malli Nayaka, Rudra's minister of war, made a gift to a temple in Panugallu to acquire merit for the king.
