KRISHNA, Andhra Pradesh

Main Attraction: Kondapalli Toys

Kondapalli a village at about 15 Kms. distance from Vijayawada city is reputed world wide for its exquisite wooden toys known as Kondapally Toys. The Toys are as old as the human race. From his inception man has been enchanted by the splendid manifestations of the nature unfolded before him and his elated soul longed to express the experiences and emotions in some form of art or craft. Toy carving is one such art evolved through the inspiration from nature and social environment.

Toy making flourished here mainly due to the abundant availability of raw material, a soft variety of wood called “Tella-Ponuku”. These toys depict mainly the folk traditions and cultures like Dasavatarams, Mahout mounted elephant, Toddy tapper, Gopika Krishna, Cow and Calf, Band of musicians, Birds and Animals, Craftsmen at work etc.

Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation has been marketing these toys through their nation wide network of Lepakshi Emporiums and also exporting to other countries.

Brief History

The earliest rulers of the district known to History were the Andhra Kings or the Satavahanas styled as Buddhist kings. Simuka was the first king reputed as the founder of the great Satavahana dynasty. With his conquest of the Deccan (Kalinga) in 260 B.C. the great Ashoka Maurya claims to have subdued the Andhra Kings. However, his conquest of the Andhra Kings by no means terminated their existence as Simuka was contented with semi-independent status. Even Kanha the successor of Simuka continued to rule as his predecessor has done. But at this time the Magadha Empire was tottering to its fall owing to its vastness and for want of an able ruler after Ashoka. 

As such internal dissensions cropped up besides the external invasions. In such a situation of political confusion and chaos, Gautamiputra Satakarni ascended to the throne and was considered as the greatest of the Satavahanas and champion of Andhras as he protected their interests by destroying the Sakas, Yavanas and the Pallavas of Malwa, Gujarath and Kathiawar respectively. He soon proposed an alliance with the powerful Amgiya family in the west and married Naganika in order to make his empire safe from further incursions in the west and thereby restored glory to the Satavahana family. The Satavahanas subsequently ruled over a wide empire gradually extending their political sway from the Krishna delta towards Nasik.

Even the inscriptions at Amaravati and Dharanikota, besides the coins which have been found in the Andhra regions, indicate their greatness. But the last rulers of the Satavahana dynasty were weaklings and their rule was of little significance. The rise of the Chutus in the western and southern districts of the Abhiras in the Nasik area and of the Ikshvakus in the east and the relentless pressure of the Sakas of Ujjain sounded the death knell of the Satavahana Empire. This too went the way of all empires through valour, greatness, discord, degeneracy and decay.

But, while it lasted for more than four and half centuries, it imparted more stability and security to the life of the people, the inhabitants of regions of the Deccan, than any other Indian power had ever done. Many empires had come and gone, the Mauryas, Sungas and Kanvas in Magadha, the Chetis in Kalinga and the Bactrians, Sakas and Pallavas in north and northwestern India. Yet the Satavahanas ruled on, strong in will and stronger in action and before they fell, made weak by time and fate, they had already saved the Deccan from the aliens for more than three centuries.

The next rulers to appear on the scene were the earliest Pallavas and we read about Mukkanti Pallava as the king of Dharanikota which immediately adjoins Amaravati. The Pallavas (250-340 A.D.) consequent on the decline of Satavahana rulers, were the direct inheritors of parts of the Andhra Empire which stretched from the Krishna to the Tungabhadra and included Amaravati in the east, Bellary in the west and Kanchipuram (Conjeevaram) in the south. 

They were originally officers and governors of the southeastern portion of the Satavahana Empire, who later became independent and extended their power southwards. The Pallavas were also known as the Andhra feudatories who rose into prominence and conquered Kanchi region. The copper plate grants at Mydavolu (Guntur District) represent Sivaskandavarman as the maker of the Pallava greatness and as a great conqueror. Indeed he ought to have been the ablest of the early Pallavas and assumed the title of Dharmamaharaja and performed the Asvamedha sacrifice. The Pallava chieftains had two of their capitals at Venginagar near Ellore and at Pithapuram, both in "Vengidesha".

The next dynasty of importance is that of Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi who were a branch of the Western Chalukyas of Badami (or Vatapi) in Bijapur district. Pulakesin-II of the Western Chalukyas was a great conqueror as his very name which means either tiger haired or the great lion also indicates his conquest of Pithapuram, the old capital of Pallavas and Vengi desha proper, then in the hands of Vishnukundies, brought the entire Andhra country under his control in about 615 A.D. As such he appointed his younger brother, Vishnuvardhana surnamed "Kubja" (or "the hunch-back") as the Viceroy of the newly conquered possessions. Kubja Vishnuvardhana remained loyal but on the death of Pulakesin-II he automatically declared himself as an independent sovereign of the Kingdom of Vengi and thereby founded the Eastern Chalukya dynasty which subsequently became great and popular.

The kingdom lasted upto 1070 A.D. when it was absorbed into the Chola dynasty through the intermarriage between Vimaladitya, the brother of Saktivarma one of the Eastern Chalukya Kings and Kundavai, the daughter of Rajaraja the great, of Chola dynasty. Thus a union was brought about between the Chola and Eastern Chalukya Kings though they were at war with each other quite naturally in the early stages. In the early part of the 8th century, Udayachandra, the General of Pallava King, Narasimhavarman, claims to have subdued Vishnuvardhana-III of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty but this reconquest by the ancient owners of the country seems to have been short lived. The Eastern Chalukyas were credited with the excavations of the cave temple at Undavalli and other rock-cut shrines.

At the end of the 10th century the mighty Rajaraja-I, who had laid the foundations of the great Chola Empire with its capital at Tanjore, conquered the Eastern Chalukya country and appointed the defeated Sakthivarman (999-1011 A.D.) as king or perhaps a feudatory in Vengi. His brother and successor, Vimaladitya (1011-22 A.D.), though he had married a Chola princess apparently attempted to throw off his allegiance, for Rajaraja's son Rajendra Chola (1011-44 A.D.) again invaded the Vengi country and advanced as far as the hill called Mahendragiri in Ganjam where he planted a pillar of victory. Vimaladitya was not deposed, however, and was succeeded by his son, Rajaraja (1022-62 A.D.), who also married a princess of the Chola royal house. 

This king fixed his capital at Rajahmundry and it was during his reign that the Mahabharata was translated into Telugu. He is well known to local tradition to this day under the name Rajaraja Narendra who is generally regarded as a national hero of the Andhras and was a patron of the great Telugu poet, Nannaya Bhattu who began the translation of Mahabharata into Telugu. When the Chola power began to decline Vengi fell first under a number of petty chiefs.

The district then at the end of the 13th century came under the political sway of the Ganapathi dynasty of Telangana, popular as Kakatiya Kings. This fell before the Muslims who obtained a brief foothold in the country in 1324 A.D. but the invaders were soon driven back.

The first appearance of the Muslims in the Deccan was in 1296 A.D. when Alla-uddin assassinated his own uncle Jalal-ud-din and seized the throne and then made a singularly bold incursion against the Hindu Raja of Deogiri. He had also long been jealous of the growing power of the Kakatiyas. In 1,303 A.D. he had unsuccessfully attempted to crush their kingdom. But in 1,310 A.D. an army was despatched from Delhi against Warangal. Pratapa Rudra summoned the neighbouring Rajas to the assistance of their suzerain but in vain. The Muslim General, Malik Kafur, took the city by assault and Pratapa Rudra was besieged in the citadel, purchased peace by a payment of 300 elephants and 7,000 horses and a promise of an annual tribute. 

This tribute was paid regularly until 1312 A.D. but the confusions in the following year at Delhi emboldened Pratapa Rudra to withhold it which was the reason why the Emperor Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluk on his accession in 1321 A.D. lost no time in sending to Warangal an army under the command of his eldest son, Prince Alaf or Jorah Khan. The Hindus fought with desperate valour and drove the Muslims as far back as Deogiri but reinforcements were obtained from Delhi and in 1323 A.D.Warangal was taken with great slaughter and the ill fated Pratapa Rudra was carried as captive to Delhi.

In 1344 A.D. the capricious cruelty of Prince Alaf Khan, later on Muhammad-I, had so disgusted his subjects that Virabhadraya, son of Pratapa Rudra, seized the opportunity to assert his independence at Warangal and, aided by the Raja of Vijayanagar, made a successful stand against the Muslims. This was followed by the revolt in 1347 A.D. of the Muslim officers in the deccan and Virabhadraya made common cause with them against Delhi and sent 15,000 infantry who took part in the great battle near Bidar but failed to regain the lost dominions of his father. However, it enabled Hassan Shah Gangu, to assume the regal style and to found the dynasty at Gulbarga known as the Bahmani Kings of the Deccan. 

The kings of this dynasty were so called in memory of the Bahmani Gangu in whose service Hasan, the founder of the race, had discovered the hidden treasure and who was afterwards the trusted minister at Delhi Sultan's court. The Bahmani kingdom extended from Berar in the north to left bank of the Tungabhadra in the south and from Dabal on the west coast to the Telangana tract in the east. The Muslim Kingdom of Gulbarga steadily advanced until in 1425 A.D. Warangal was included within its limits.

The captivity of Pratapa Rudra in 1323 A.D. left his kingdom without a ruler. The northern provinces probably fell under the sway of the Odisha(Orissa) Rajas. Along side it, in the south the district acknowledged the authority of a line of cultivators who rose to considerable power and are known to history as the "Reddi Kings". The founder of this family was Donti Aliya Reddi, a cultivator of Hanamkonda who amassed enormous wealth, tradition says by discovering the alchemists' secret of the process of transmuting metals into gold, and migrated to Kondavidu. On the downfall of Pratapa Rudra, the eldest son Pulaya Vema Reddi found himself independent and established himself in the hill fort of Kondavidu, which had doubtless been a stronghold for some centuries previous to this date. He also possessed himself of the fortress of Bellamkonda, Vinukonda and Nagarjunakonda in the Palnad. His brother, Anavema Reddi, extended his dominions to Rajahmundry on the north, Kanchi on the south and Srisailam on the west. Kondapalle hill fort is said to have been built in his reign. The Kondavidu Reddis were great patrons of Telugu literature. The poet Srinadha and his brother-in-law Bammera Pothana flourished at this court. 

The ruins of their fortresses at Kondavidu, Bellamkonda and Kondapalli are still to be seen. On the extinction of the Reddi dynasty the Gajapathi Kings of Odisha(Orissa) extended their power over the district. The name of Kapileswara Gajapathi is preserved by the village Kapileswarapuram (now in Pamidimukkala Mandal). He was succeeded by Vidyadhara Gajapathi who built Vidyadharapuram and constructed a reservoir at Kondapalli. His wife Bhavanamma and his two daughters Muthyalamma and Paidamma gave their names to Bhavanipuram, Muthayalammapadu villages (now included in Vijayawada M.Corp.) and Paidurupadu village now in Vijayawada Rural Mandal. About 1516 A.D. Krishna Devaraya the great King of Vijayanagar conquered the whole of this country and left inscriptions to announce his victories. The farthest boundary of the Kingdom in North extended up to Simhachalam in Visakhapatnam district. He restored Kondapalli to the Orissa Raja but retained Kondavidu.

About the end of the 15th century the Bahmani Kingdom split up into several smaller states such as Bijapur in 1489 A.D. Ahammadnagar in 1490 and Bidar in 1498 A.D. In 1512 A.D.the Kingdom of Golconda or Hyderabad was founded by one Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, a Turk of noble family, who was Governor of the Golconda province under the Bahmanis. He took advantage of the distracted state of Kingdom under Mahamud Shah and declared his independence, establishing the Qutub Shahi dynasty which reigned from 1512 to 1687. The Kingdom of Golconda included this district within its limits.

The life story of this adventurer Sultan Quli is marvellous. In 1490 A.D. he was an officer of the guard at the palace when an attempt was made on the King's life by some Abyssinians and Deccanis and it was his desperate defence that enabled the young Mohamud Shah to escape with his life. For this service, he was rewarded with the title of Qutb-ul-Mulk and in 1495 A.D. we find him appointed as Governor of Telangana with the personal Jagirs of Warangal and Golconda. To the credit of Sultan Quli it must be recorded that he steadfastly remained loyal to Mahamud Shah, his early patron. The province was governed in the King's name and during his various interchanging conflicts which occupied the following twenty years Sultan Quli, as far as possible gave his support to the King. 

It was not until his four rivals had all assumed the regal style, and homage to Mahamud Shah had become nothing but a sentimental survival bereft of all real significance, that Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, in 1512 A.D. proclaimed himself king and fixed his capital at Golconda but even after this he continued to send presents and money every year to the descendant of the Bahmani Kings. Bellamkonda was, at this time, held by a raja named Sitapati who also held Warangal and Khammammet and who seems to have been a vassal of Orissa. It was a dispute with this Raja that first brought Sultan Quli into the Krishna District.

Raja Sitapati not only possessed these three strongholds, but had in his service a trained body of twelve thousand infantry noted as good marksmen. Confident in the security thus afforded him he laid hands on some of the Qutub Shah's districts which adjoined his territory. This roused the king who marched from Golconda and leaving aside Warangal and Khammammet, crossed the Krishna river and laid close siege to Bellamkonda. The fortress held out much longer than the King expected, so losing patience, he ordered a general escalade on all sides simultaneously and thus took the place but with heavy loss.

Bellamkonda had hitherto been considered impregnable and Sitapati Raja, who had been well content to see the king waste his time below its walls, no sooner heard of its fall than he marched with his army to cut off the King's retreat. A desperate battle ensued. The Hindu infantry with a well directed fire inflicted severe loss upon their enemies and firmly withstood several charges of the Mahammadan cavalry but at last gave way, leaving the baggages and treasure to Sultan Quli who returned with his booty to Golconda.

Sitapati Raja had fled from the field to his fortress of Khammammet but defeat only incited him to further efforts. He sent messengers to all the neighbouring Rajas, writing to them to form a league against this Sultan Quli Qutub Shah who had already reduced greater part of Telangana and was every day gaining ground so that soon no Hindu chiefs would remain to oppose his overwhelming ambition. The Rajas responded to his call and their united forces assembled at Khammammet. Sultan Quli at once marched to oppose them and as usual gained a victory.

The defeated but not despairing Sitapati fled to Kondapalli where he found Raja Ramachandra, the son of Gajapati Vijayananda Deo, Raja of Orissa. To this prince he represented that Sultan Quli had at length succeeded in expelling him from his country, that all Telangana lay at the mercy of this Muslim and that unless he was checked, the Orissa Dominions would be the next to suffer, Gajapati Ramachandra, impressed by the gravity of the crisis, issued orders to all his tributaries to retire to Kondapalli with their forces and soon collected at Kondapalli an enormous army, said to have numbered three hundred thousand infantry, thirty thousand horses and seven hundred elephants. The various Hindu Rajas took an oath to stand by each other, and then they marched to crush Sultan Quli. 

He prepared to oppose them with only five thousand horses and met them at the river near "Palanchennur" (perhaps the present Penuganchiprolu near Jaggayyapet). Sultan Quli not withstanding the disparity of numbers determined on delivering the attack and won the battle. Thus the king reduced the fortress of Kondapalli but in 1530 A.D. he was obliged to take the field against the Raja of Vijayanagar. Under the command of Siva raja in which Sultan Quli scored a victory, Sultan Quli Qutub Shah was advanced in years and resolved to spend the remainder of his life in peaceful pursuits. On 4th September, 1543 A.D. when he was kneeling at prayer in the mosque at Golconda he was assassinated by order of his third son prince Jamshid who ascended the throne in his stead. 

On his death, Prince Ibrahim was crowned. The rise of the Vijayanagar Empire was dramatically rapid. The empire reached the height of its power under Sri Krishna Deva Raya (1509-1530 A.D.) the greatest of its monarchs. In 1515 A.D. King Sri Krishna Devaraya of Vijayanagar wrested the north of the district from the Gajapati Kings of Orissa. He was a great patron of Sanskrit and Telugu literatures and won the title as 'Andhra Bhoja' and in fact his court was adorned by the famous eight poets popularly known as 'Ashtadiggajas'.

The Hindu Minister Jagadeva Row was too powerful for a subject and when Ibrahim Qutub Shah took steps against him fled to the Vijayanagar Court and employed all his energies in fomenting intrigues to the detriment of his late master. Thus in 1557 A.D. the Kings of Bidar and Bijapur attacked on him on the west and Rama Raja of Vijayanagar on the south, while two Orissa generals named Sitapati and Vijayaditya moved from Rajahmundry against Ellore and Siddhiraja Rimmappa, Governor of Kondavidu with fifty thousand horses attacked Masulipatnam and Kondapalli fighting several actions near the gardens of Ibrahim Shah and Vijayawada.

The king confined by this coalition of his enemies to the neighbourhood of his capital had recourse to negotiations and induced Rama Raja to be satisfied with the forts of Pangul and Ghunapur. The confederacy then broke up and Ibrahim Qutub Shah so laboured to impress upon the other Muslim Kings the need for union against the Vijayanagar power that seven years later in 1565 A.D. they leagued together and crushed the Hindu Raja at the famous battle of Tallikot by razing the city of Vijayanagar to the ground. The empire never recovered from the blow.

Abul-Hasan Shah was the last of Qutub Shahi dynasty known as Tanesha. The Muslim and Hindu people tell many stories about his reign. He had two ministers, both Brahmins, named Akkanna and Madanna, who managed his affairs with much ability and left an enduring reputation.

For some reason, they fixed their office at Vijayawada. Popular tradition attributed this preference of Vijayawada to the devotion of the two ministers to the goddess Kanaka Durga and certain it is that the impetus then given to her cult still exists for as late as 1878 A.D. a serai at Vijayawada for the accommodation of pilgrims to her shrine, was erected by some merchants of Cocanada. The mendicant laudator temporis acti still fondly points out the spot, at the foot of the telegraph hill, where the beneficient ministers distributed food every day to a crowd of applicants of all castes and such was the impression made on the public mind by their rapid transaction of business, that the legend is still current that from the caves on that hill runs a subterranean passage to Hyderabad by which the ministers could go to court, obtain the King's orders and return to Vijayawada in one day.

The Emperor Aurangazeb included this district in the province of Golconda, one of the twenty two provinces that formed his enormous Empire, but he was too busily engaged in distant warfare to pay much attention to this part of the country, which remained under Asaf Jah who was appointed as Subedar or Viceroy of the Deccan in 1713 A.D. with the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk. The Moghal Empire at this period was on the verge of decline owing to internal dissensions. Asaf Jah took opportunity fairly well so much so that he had little difficulty in asserting his independence against the weak occupants of the Delhi throne although a battle was fought at Shakarkhelda (Fathkhelda) in the Buldana district of Berar in 1724 A.D. with Mubariz Khan the Governor of Khandesh, which established him as independent sovereign of the Kingdom. Mubariz Khan was killed in the battle and so he reigned without rival as Subedar of the Deccan. The province of Golconda comprised five Nawabs' charges viz., Arcot, Cuddapah, Kurnool, Rajahmundry and Chicacole (Srikakulam). The Nawab of Rajamundry ruled the country included in the Krishna district.

The representatives of the different European Nations had been appearing hitherto as traders on the coast, under the patronage of some local potentiate or influential courtier. In 1611 A.D. the English founded their settlement at Musulipatnam which continued to be their headquarters until they finally moved to Madras in 1641 A.D. Three years after founding of the English settlement came the Dutch and in 1669 A.D. the French followed. The scene now changed and the Europeans played a bolder part exercising a voice in the political changes of the Deccan. The first who rose superior to the caution of the counting house and took a statesman like view of the possibility of building a European Empire upon the crumbling monarchy of the Moghuls, were the French officials at Pondicherry and prominent among them stands M.Dupleix. He was a simple merchant, who by 1741 A.D. had risen to be the Governor of Pondicherry.

Upon the death of the old Nizam-ul-Mulk in June 1748 A.D. his second son, Nasir Jung, and Muzaffar Jung, his grandson by one of his daughters, strove for the succession. At this time the English and the French were contending for supremacy in the east and each of the claimants secured the support of these powers; Nasir Jung's cause was espoused by the English, while Muzaffar Jung was supported by the French. The latter, however, fell a prisoner to his uncle, but on the assassination of Nasir Jung, Muzaffar Jung was proclaimed the sovereign.

Dupleix, the French Governor, became the controller of the Nizam's authority. Muzaffar Jung was killed by some Pathan chiefs and the French then selected Salabath Jung, a brother of Nasir Jung as ruler. Ghazi-ud-din, the eldest son of Asaf Jah, who it was alleged, had relinquished his claim at first, now appeared as a claimant, supported by the Marathas but his sudden death put a stop for further struggles. The English and the French were now contesting for power and influence in the Deccan, but the Victories of Clive in the Carnatic caused the latter to turn their attention to their own possessions which were threatened and to leave Salabat Jung to shift for himself. 

Nizam Ali Khan, the fourth son of Asaf Jah, at this juncture obtained the support of the English on the promise of dismissing the French from his service. Salabat Jung was dethroned in 1761 A.D. and Nizam Ali Khan was proclaimed ruler. The British secured at first the divisions of Masulipatnam, Nizampatnam and part of Kondavidu and later the entire Circars. At first the district was administered by a Chief and a Council at Masulipatnam but in 1794 A.D. Collectors, directly responsible to the Board of Revenue, were appointed at Masulipatnam.

Krishna district came into existence in the year 1859 in the composite Madras state which was then known as Masulipatnam district since Machilipatnam (Bandar) is the district headquarters. Krishna district derived its name from the mighty river Krishna which is also known as the "Blue Nile of the Deccan". The river Krishna has profound bearing on the cultural and economic life of people living in its delta. Since the residuary Krishna district did not undergo any major jurisdictional changes except some minor changes in 1925, 1950 and 1959. In 1959 Munagala Paragana which was abridged to Krishna district in 1950 was transferred to Nalgonda district for administrative convenience.

Guntur and West Godavari districts were carved out from Krishna district in the years 1904 and 1905 respectively. Since then both the districts are in existence. The history and jurisdictional changes if any in these two districts i.e., Guntur and West Godavari will be discussed in the DCHBs of those districts.