Social and political conditions in medieval Andhra: With special reference to Kakatiyas

Abstract

Tughluqs managed to hold Sultanpur (the former Warangal) until 1335, they had been unable to consolidate their authority along the Andhra coast or in the contested borderlands between these regions. Their hold was tenuous even in Sultanpur's immediate hinterland, where a number of upstart chieftains seized effective power and strove to legitimate their new-found ruling status. From a stone inscription dated 1330, we hear of one Prolaya Nayaka, an otherwise obscure chieftain with no record of service in the former Kakatiya state. After condemning the Turks for the devastation they had brought to Andhra, the inscription proclaims Prolaya Nayaka as the restorer of an orderly status quo ante, a time still very fresh in people's minds, when Pratapa Rudra reigned and ruled.