Introduction (Kondapadumati Dynasty)

The Giripaschimasasanas or the Kondapadumatis held the Kondapadumati or Sallapaichalya vishaya the, country to the west of the Kondavidu range of hills, Corresponding to the eastern portion of Sattenapalla taluq (of Guntur district) for one and a half centuries. They had their capital at Nadendla not far from Tsandavole, the Velanandu capital. To begin with, they were subordinate to the Chalukyas of Vengi and later on owed allegiance to the Chalukya Cholas. The Kondapadumatis secured an importantynilitary success over the Kalingas and the Telugu chodas and were allied to the Velanandu Chodas by marriages. A branch of the Kondapadumati family was the parichchedis of Kollipaka. There is no evidence for the statement that the Kondapadumatis were connected by blood with the Telugu chodas and the Dallavas. It is not correct either to say that all the Velanandu queens were of the lineage of Buddha of the Kondapadumatis.

Origin and Early History

Those of the Kondapadumati records except the Chabrole one, giving the early history of the dynasty trace the Chalukyas genealogy up to Kubjavishnu and then pass on to Buddhavarman the first ancestor of the dynasty. But the Chebrole inscription says that Brahma was born from the navel lotus of Vishnu, and in the caste born from the fact of Vishnu was born Buddhavarman who was valiant, served Mukkanti Kuduvatti faithfully and secured Omgerumargatrava from him. According to other inscriptions Buddhavarman an ornament of the fourth caste was to Kubjavishnu, as Anjaneya to Rama, Vain at ey a to Vishnu, served like an armour, his lord in the battlefield, and received from him the country to the west of the hill which contained seventy three villages along with royal emblems. As Kubjavishnu, the founder of the chalukyas of Vengi flourished between A.D. 615 to 633, his subordinate Buddhavarman must have flourished in that period. Buddhavarman’s allegiance to Hukkant Kaduvetti does not help us to fix his c hronology for the historicity of Tril-ochanapallava—though the epigraphist ascribes him to the 6th country of A.D.—is still a problem in south Indian History. Buddhavarman kingdom-—Giripaschima vishaya comprising trisapati villages—formed the beginnings of the Kondapadu-mati kingdom. Probably Orugenemargatraya formed part of the Kondapadumati kingdom.

No immediate successors of Buddhavarman find place in the Kondapadumati records till we come to Manda I. The Tsandavole inscription says “after some ancestors had passed away, there was born from that family king Manda I, the crest ornament of the rulers of Provinces.” Similar statements are found in other records of the dynasty. Perhaps the insignificant intermediaries between Buddhavarman and Manda I continued in the service of the Chalukyas and as rulers of Kondapadumati and Ongerumargatraya.