Rayalaseema · Deccan Inland Plateau
Rayalaseema's periodisation follows the Penna basin and the plateau, not the national calendar. Its ancient period is one of small local houses under distant overlords — Renadu Cholas, Nolambas, Vaidumbas — and it produced the earliest inscriptions written wholly in Telugu. Its medieval period runs from the Kakatiya-period chiefships of the Kadapa country through Vijayanagara, and its decisive dates are 1565 and 1592 rather than 1526 or 1556, because after the defeat at Talikota the empire's court withdrew into this country and its last two capitals, Penukonda and Chandragiri, stood here. Its modern period begins in 1800, when the Nizam ceded these districts to the East India Company and Thomas Munro rebuilt the land revenue on the ryotwari principle, dismantling the palegar tenures in the process; that single administrative change, not 1857 and not 1858, is the hinge of the region's nineteenth century. Even the region's name is dated: it was the Ceded Districts until a conference at Nandyal in November 1928 resolved to replace the term. This entry ends in 1947.
Periodisation is regional, not national — the medieval period does not begin in the same century here as it does elsewhere in India.
The dry uplands between the Tungabhadra and the Penna were a corridor rather than a heartland, and the record reflects it. Ashokan rock edicts were cut here in the third century BCE, on the route between the Deccan and the southern kingdoms. For the next thousand years the country was held by small houses operating in the gaps between larger powers: the Renadu Cholas of the Kadapa and Kurnool tract between the Pallava and Chalukya spheres, the Nolambas from Hemavati in the Anantapur country under Ganga and Rashtrakuta overlords, and the Vaidumbas in the Kadapa and Chittoor hills. Their importance is linguistic as much as political. The Renadu chiefs issued their grants in Telugu rather than in Sanskrit or Prakrit, and the stone at Kalamalla near Kamalapuram carries what is generally taken to be the earliest inscription written entirely in Telugu.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 3rd century BCE | Ashokan rock edicts are cut at Erragudi and Rajula Mandagiri in the Kurnool country, the southernmost of the major edict sites. |
| c. 575 | The Kalamalla inscription of Erikal Mutturaju Dhanunjaya Varma, near Kamalapuram in the Kadapa country, is generally identified as the earliest inscription written entirely in Telugu. |
| 6th–8th centuries | The Renadu Cholas hold the Kadapa and Kurnool country between the Pallava and Chalukya spheres, issuing their grants in Telugu. |
| 8th–10th centuries | The Nolambas rule from Hemavati in the Anantapur country under Western Ganga and then Rashtrakuta overlordship; the Siddheswara temple there dates from this period. |
| 966 | An endowment recorded in the name of Samavai at the Tirumala hill temple is among its earliest dated grants. |
| 9th–12th centuries | The Vaidumbas hold the Kadapa and Chittoor hill country, contested between Chola and Chalukya claims. |
Two things happened here that happened nowhere else in the Telugu country. The first is the Kayastha chiefship of Vallur, which began as a Kakatiya subordinate command in the Kadapa basin and under Ambadeva became effectively independent, leaving inscriptions from Tripurantakam to the Penna. The second, and larger, is that Vijayanagara ended here. The capital on the Tungabhadra lies outside this region and belongs to the Kannada plain, but after the defeat at Talikota in 1565 the court withdrew to Penukonda and in 1592 to Chandragiri, both in this country, so the last half century of the empire's building, painting and administration is on Rayalaseema ground. The murals at Lepakshi, the temple at Tadipatri and the Vijayanagara-period work at Ahobilam and Tirumala belong to that phase, and unlike the capital they are still in use. From the seventeenth century the northern districts were taken into Bijapur and Golconda, Kurnool was held as a jagir under a line of nawabs, Mysore contested the western uplands in the later eighteenth century, and the whole tract passed to Hyderabad before it passed on again.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 13th century | The Kayasthas, Kakatiya subordinates, hold Vallur and Gandikota in the Kadapa basin; under Ambadeva the chiefship acts independently, with inscriptions from Tripurantakam dated 1290. |
| from 1336 | Vijayanagara authority extends over the Penna basin and the Tungabhadra uplands. |
| 1530 | The fort at Kurnool is built during the reign of Achyuta Deva Raya. |
| c. 1530–1540 | The Veerabhadra temple at Lepakshi is built by the brothers Virupanna and Viranna, officers under Achyuta Deva Raya, and painted with the largest surviving programme of Vijayanagara murals. |
| 1565 | After the defeat at Talikota the Vijayanagara court withdraws from the Tungabhadra capital to Penukonda. |
| 1592 | The court moves again, to Chandragiri on the Tirupati slope, where the Aravidu line held out into the seventeenth century. |
| 17th century | Bijapur and Golconda absorb the northern districts; Kurnool is held as a jagir under a line of nawabs. |
| 1760s–1790s | Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan contests the western uplands; the districts are held by Hyderabad at the close of the century. |
In 1800 the Nizam ceded these districts to the East India Company to meet the cost of the subsidiary force, and they were administered for the next century and a half under the flat, unromantic name of the Ceded Districts. Thomas Munro, Principal Collector from 1800 to 1807, settled the revenue directly with the cultivator on the ryotwari principle and subdued more than eighty palegars, the fortified military tenure-holders who had run the uplands since Vijayanagara times. That change produced both a permanent fiscal structure and a permanent grievance: the rising of 1846 in the Kurnool country grew directly out of a lapsed palegar pension. The rest of the nineteenth century is written in water and its absence — a canal from the Tungabhadra in 1870, and the famine of 1876 to 1878, which fell harder on Bellary, Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur than on anywhere else in the presidency. Anti-colonial politics arrived late and inland. Without a coast there was no salt march here, so the civil disobedience years took the form of no-tax campaigns, forest satyagraha and picketing, and the region's other contribution was made through print, sedition trials and libraries.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1800 | The Nizam cedes the districts between the Tungabhadra and the Penna to the East India Company; they are administered as the Ceded Districts. |
| 1800–1807 | Thomas Munro, Principal Collector, introduces the ryotwari settlement and subdues more than eighty palegars, disarming and pensioning the tenure. |
| 1839 | The nawabi of Kurnool is annexed after the deposition of its last nawab, Ghulam Rasul Khan. |
| 1846–1847 | The rising of Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy in the Kurnool country; it ends with his execution at Koilkuntla in February 1847. |
| 1870 | The Kurnool–Cuddapah canal is opened by a private company and taken over by government in 1882, the first substantial irrigation work in the region. |
| 1876–1878 | The great famine of the presidency falls hardest on Bellary, Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur, with heavy mortality and lasting depopulation. |
| 1908 | Gadicherla Harisarvottama Rao is convicted of sedition over an article in the Telugu weekly Swarajya and sentenced to three years. |
| November 1928 | A conference at Nandyal adopts the name Rayalaseema in place of the administrative term Ceded Districts. |
| 1930–1932 | Civil disobedience in the inland districts takes the form of no-tax campaigns, forest satyagraha and picketing rather than a salt march. |
Rulers and commanders
The chief named in the Kalamalla inscription near Kamalapuram, generally taken as the earliest record written entirely in Telugu. The Renadu house is remembered less for its territory than for the decision to issue its grants in the spoken language.
Dynasty: Renadu Cholas. Seat: Renadu, in the Kadapa country
Rose within the Kakatiya system as a subordinate commander in the Kadapa basin and then acted independently of Warangal, leaving inscriptions across the Nallamala foothills, including at Tripurantakam in 1290.
Dynasty: Kayastha chiefs of Vallur. Seat: Vallur and Gandikota
Authority in the uplands was held by tenure rather than by dynasty. A palegar held a fort, a tract of villages and a body of armed retainers against a share of revenue and an obligation of service, first under Vijayanagara and then under its successors. More than eighty such holders in the Ceded Districts were disarmed and pensioned between 1800 and 1805, and the pensions that lapsed afterwards became the standing grievance of the region's nineteenth century.
Dynasty: An office, not a lineage. Seat: The fortified villages of the Penna and Tungabhadra uplands
Ruled from a capital in the Kannada plain, but his endowments belong here: repeated gifts to the hill temple at Tirumala, temple building along the Penna, and the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada, written in the language of the country his successors would retreat into.
Dynasty: Tuluva, Vijayanagara. Seat: The Tungabhadra capital, outside this region
With his brother Viranna, built the Veerabhadra temple at Lepakshi during the reign of Achyuta Deva Raya and had its ceilings painted with the largest surviving Vijayanagara mural cycle. The story that he was blinded for spending treasury money on it is a local legend attached to the village's name, not a record.
Dynasty: Vijayanagara administration. Seat: Penukonda and Lepakshi
Held the remnant of the empire together from the two Rayalaseema capitals after 1565, moving the court to Chandragiri in 1592. The southern nayaka houses and the early European coastal grants both date their standing from his reign.
Dynasty: Aravidu, Vijayanagara. Seat: Penukonda, then Chandragiri
Last of the line that held Kurnool as a jagir from the seventeenth century. He was deposed in 1839 and the nawabi annexed to the Company's Ceded Districts administration.
Dynasty: Nawabs of Kurnool. Seat: Kurnool
Settled the revenue directly with the cultivator on the ryotwari principle rather than through intermediaries, and disarmed the palegar tenure across the Ceded Districts. The land system he built here was later extended across the Madras Presidency.
Dynasty: East India Company administration. Seat: Anantapur
Led the armed rising of 1846 in the Kurnool country after the Company withheld the family's share of a lapsed palegar pension. His followers attacked the treasury at Koilkuntla before he was pursued into the Nallamala and taken.
Dynasty: The Nossam palegar family. Seat: Uyyalawada and Nossam, Kurnool country
The history of Rayalaseema from ancient through medieval to modern times, and the rulers, commanders and administrators who shaped it. (9)