After the Kakatiyas, 1323–1948

The great Kakatiya temples depended on royal patrons. Kings, queens, generals and nobles built them and gave them land, villages and lamps for worship. The general Recherla Rudra built the Ramappa Temple in 1213, and Mailama, a sister of Ganapati Deva, built the Bayyaram tank. Inscriptions record these gifts, which supported the priests, the temple staff and the festivals.

In 1323 Ulugh Khan took Warangal, and Pratapa Rudra was sent towards Delhi with his family. The Vilasa grant and the chronicler Shams-i Siraj Afif state that the king died on the way. Telugu traditions say instead that he returned and died at Kalesvaram. Barani records that the conquerors renamed Warangal as Sultanpur and appointed their own officers. Kakatiya rule at Warangal ended with Pratapa Rudra. Later rulers of Bastar claimed descent from the dynasty, but Cynthia Talbot traces that claim only to an inscription of 1703.

The Svayambhu temple at the centre of the fort belonged to the family god of the dynasty. The temple is no longer standing, and only broken pieces of sculpture remain. Parabrahma Sastry attributes its destruction to the conquering armies of the Delhi Sultanate. India’s 2019 reply to UNESCO states that the temple was destroyed in the Tughluq invasion. The same reply states that its stones were reused in later buildings, such as Khush Mahal.

The nayakas who survived founded kingdoms of their own. The Musunuri Nayaks held Warangal for a time, and the Recherla family ruled from Rachakonda and Devarakonda, where they built new defences and tanks. Warangal itself passed between the Bahmanis, the Velamas, the Gajapatis of Orissa and the Qutb Shahis. A local record, the Ekasilanagara Kaifiyat, says that Shitab Khan pulled down Kakatiya temples to finish the stone fort. The freebooter Papra plundered the fort in 1708 or 1709.

Over the following centuries many buildings fell into ruin. Photographs from about 1850 to 1898 show the toranas of Warangal standing alone in open fields. Photographs of the same period show a tree growing from the roof of the Thousand Pillar Temple. The Hyderabad Archaeological Department reported the repair of the Thousand Pillar Temple as complete in its report for 1921–24. The department reported the repair of the Ramappa Temple as complete in its report for 1930–31.

Not everything stopped. The Padmakshi and Bhadrakali temples remain places of worship. The memory of the Kakatiyas also lived on. Cynthia Talbot shows that later chiefs, such as Kapaya Nayaka, claimed the prestige of the Kakatiyas. Telugu chronicles such as the Prataparudra Caritramu and the Siddhesvara Charitra retold their story for centuries. These chronicles are later memory, and they often differ from the inscriptions.

The sources do not settle how much was lost to deliberate destruction and how much to centuries of neglect. Parabrahma Sastry stresses destruction by the conquerors. The early photographs record long neglect, and India’s 2019 reply to UNESCO records the reuse of temple stones in later buildings. None of the sources consulted measures how much of the loss came from each cause.

Ulugh Khan, the son of Sultan Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq, led the attack on Warangal. His first siege failed, and he returned to Warangal with fresh troops. Barani dates the first expedition to 721 AH (1321 CE). Sarma, Parabrahma Sastry and the 1976 Warangal Gazetteer date the fall of the fort to 1323. Haig wrote in 1907 that most sources gave 1321, and that Badauni gave 1323.

The writers disagree about how long the siege lasted. Barani wrote that the fort fell after a few days. Isami, an earlier writer, described a siege of five months that ended when the garrison ran out of food.

Pratapa Rudra surrendered and was sent towards Delhi with his family. The sources disagree about his fate. The Vilasa grant states that he died on the way, on the banks of the Narmada. Shams-i Siraj Afif also states that the Rai of Telingana died on the road to Delhi. Haig followed an older view that Pratapa Rudra returned to Warangal and ruled as a vassal until 1325. Telugu traditions say that the king returned and died at Kalesvaram, but Yashoda Devi rejects these traditions.

The conquerors renamed Warangal as Sultanpur, as Barani records. Ulugh Khan appointed officers to manage the country and collected one year’s tribute. At Bodhan, Muhammad bin Tughluq converted a temple into a mosque, and the building is now the Deval Masjid. Ibn Battuta records that the Sultan banished the jurist Diya al-Din of Simnan to Tiling. The Sultan later made Diya al-Din qadi, the judge, at Warangal, where the jurist died.

Muhammad bin Tughluq later came to Warangal while cholera was widespread there. Barani states that the Sultan then made Malik Maqbul, the deputy wazir, ruler of Telangana. Barani adds that Nusrat Khan received Bidar.

Yashoda Devi dates the epidemic to 1335. Ibn Battuta places the outbreak at Badrakut, which he calls the capital of Tiling. Ibn Battuta writes that most of the army died, including great amirs. Ibn Battuta adds that Nusrat Khan, the Sultan's deputy in Tiling, later rebelled at Badrakut and surrendered to Qutlu Khan.

Shams-i Siraj Afif records that Maqbul was a native of Telangana named Kattu, who accepted Islam after the death of his king. Venkataramanayya and Sarma suggest that Kattu was Nagaya Gannaya, governor of the capital under Pratapa Rudra. Maqbul later lost Warangal to Kapaya Nayaka. Barani says that Maqbul fled to Delhi. Ferishta calls the governor Imad-ul-Mulk instead, and he says that the governor fled to Daulatabad.

Prolaya Nayaka of the Musunuri family ruled the coast from Rekapalli near the Godavari. His Vilasa grant describes harsh Muslim rule and his return of agraharas, the villages granted to Brahmins. M. Somasekhara Sarma reconstructed the history of the Musunuri Nayaks in 1945, mainly from copper-plate grants. In his reconstruction, Kolani Rudradeva, a surviving general of Pratapa Rudra, gathered a confederacy of chiefs. The members included Prolaya Nayaka, Vema Reddi of Addanki and Singama Nayaka of the Recherla family. The chiefs chose Prolaya Nayaka as their leader. Sarma places the death of Prolaya Nayaka at about 1340.

Kapaya Nayaka, a cousin of Prolaya Nayaka, carried the war into Telangana. Indian Archaeology 1962–63 calls him a brother instead. Kapaya expelled the Tughluq governor from Warangal and took the titles Andhradesadhisvara and Andhra Suratrana. Sarma dates the recapture to about 1336–37. Ferishta dated the revolt to 1343–44 and named its leader Krishna Nayak, a son of Pratapa Rudra. Sarma and Venkataramanayya identified that leader as Kapaya Nayaka.

Yashoda Devi describes an early war between Kapaya and Singama Nayaka of the Recherla family. In inscriptions of 1346 and 1357, Kapaya used the title 'lord of Anumanagallu', an old Recherla title. Cynthia Talbot notes that Kapaya Nayaka's Prolavaram grant of 1346 calls him as majestic as Pratapa Rudra. The grant also says that he chose to live in Warangal. She reads such claims as efforts by new chiefs to borrow the prestige of the Kakatiyas.

Kapaya sent troops to help Hasan, who founded the Bahmani kingdom in 1347. Hasan’s forces soon attacked Kapaya, who lost Kaulas and Bhongir. Yashoda Devi dates the loss of Kaulas to between 1347 and 1351. She dates a second invasion by Sultan Ala-ud-din Hasan to about 1355–56.

An inscription at Pillalamarri, dated 1 June 1357, records that a servant of Kapaya reinstalled the god Erakesvara after Sultan Alavadin had damaged the image. Yashoda Devi and a catalogue of 1964 take this Sultan to be the Bahmani ruler. Indian Archaeology 1962–63 names Ala-ud-din Khalji instead.

Kapaya’s son Vinayaka Deva later failed to retake Kaulas, and Sultan Muhammad Shah I put him to death. Yashoda Devi dates his death to about 1362. Kapaya later ceded Golconda under a treaty, which Sarma dates to 1364–65. Haig and the 1976 Gazetteer add that the envoys of Warangal presented a jewelled throne, the turquoise throne.

Anapota Nayaka of the Recherla family then defeated and killed Kapaya at Bhimavaram near Warangal. Sarma dates the battle to about 1367–68. Yashoda Devi places it in 1368, before the Ainavolu inscription of 19 July 1369. Epigraphia Telanganica places it in the second half of 1369.

The Recherla Nayakas claimed that their family had served the Kakatiyas. Anapota Nayaka's inscription of 1369 says that Pratapa Rudra gave his grandfather Dachaya the title Pandya-raya-gaja-kesari. Cynthia Talbot notes that no independent record confirms this service. Parabrahma Sastry and Talbot both separate this family from the Recherla Reddis, the Kakatiya generals who built the Ramappa temple.

Anapota Nayaka and his brother Mada were the sons of Singama Nayaka. According to Yashoda Devi, Chalukya chiefs at Jallipalli had Singama Nayaka murdered. Anapota and Mada stormed Jallipalli in 1361 and took the title Somakulaparasurama. The two brothers ruled the conquered kingdom together. Anapota held Rachakonda as his capital, and Mada ruled from Devarakonda. Three inscriptions of 1365 at Rachakonda record Anapota’s stone defences and a tank called Anavota Samudra. The Ainavolu inscription of 19 July 1369 states that Anapota ruled Orugallu, Tribhuvanagiri, Rajukonda and Singavaram.

The chiefs called themselves Recherla, as Cynthia Talbot points out. Modern historians call this family Velamas. She finds the words Velama and Padmanayaka in inscriptions only from the sixteenth century.

The sources disagree about Bahmani attacks on the Recherla kingdom. The 1976 Warangal Gazetteer states that the Bahmanis never invaded the kingdom. Epigraphia Telanganica counts three Bahmani invasions of Velama territory in the same period. Sultan Ahmad Shah later marched on Warangal to punish its ruler for helping Vijayanagara. His general Khan-i-Azam killed the ruler and took the fort.

The sources date this capture differently. The Imperial Gazetteer and Hirananda Sastri give 1422. Haig gives late 1424, and Ferishta dates the events to 828 AH, a year that began in November 1424. The 1976 Gazetteer places the march in 1425 and names the slain ruler as Anapota II. Nizamuddin Ahmad, who wrote about 1593, also dates the march to 828 AH. Nizamuddin records tribute from the chiefs of Rajkonda and Deorkonda, but he does not mention the capture of Warangal. The chiefs of Rachakonda and Devarakonda kept their lands on a promise of tribute.

Bahmani control of Warangal remained weak. In 1459 Sultan Humayun attacked Devarakonda, whose chief asked Kapilendra Gajapati of Orissa for help. The Gajapati army defeated the Bahmani forces there.

Two inscriptions on the gateways of Warangal Fort record its capture on 2 February 1460. The two records name different captors. The eastern gate names Kapilendra’s son Hamvira as the captor. The western gate names Kapilendra’s nephew Raghudeva.

Nizamuddin Ahmad dates the Devarakonda campaign to 863 AH (1458–59). Nizamuddin states that the Rays of Tilang had stopped their tribute and that Khwaja Jahan besieged Deorkonda. The garrison called on the Ray of Orissa, whose army, with one hundred elephants, defeated Khwaja Jahan. The 1976 Gazetteer states that the Devarakonda branch ended with Linga, and Epigraphia Telanganica dates Linga to 1427–1475.

The late Bahmani state divided Telangana into the provinces of Warangal and Rajahmundry. The sources give two dates for the appointment of Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk as governor. The 1976 Gazetteer dates his appointment as governor of Telangana to 1496. Firishta, as summarised by Brajendranath De, states that Sultan Quli was made tarafdar, or governor, of Warangal about 1495.

A pillar in front of Sambhuni Gudi in Warangal Fort records that Chittapa Khana captured Warangal on 21 January 1504. The inscription states that he reinstalled the god Panchalaraya and the goddess Kakati, the guardian deity of the Kakatiya kingdom. Muslim Turks, called Turushkas, had removed both images. Hirananda Sastri identified Chittapa Khana as Shitab Khan, whose Hindu name was Sitapati.

The sources disagree about who Shitab Khan was.

• Hirananda Sastri held that Shitab Khan was a Hindu who had earlier governed Warangal for the Bahmani Sultan Humayun.
• Haig called Shitab Khan a Muslim who had joined the Hindus.
• P. Sreenivasachar separated the Bahmani officer of about 1460 from the captor of 1504.

The Ekasilanagara Kaifiyat, a local record, says that Shitab Khan pulled down Kakatiya temples to finish the stone fort. The same record says that he built a palace called khas-mahal. Sastri identified the great hall in the fort, now called Khush Mahal, as the durbar hall of Shitab Khan. The Hyderabad Archaeological Department's report for 1925-26 compares the hall with the Hindola Mahal at Mandu and dates the hall to about 1500.

Nizamuddin Ahmad names a Shitab Khan as the guardian of the harem of Sultan Humayun. In Nizamuddin's description, this Shitab Khan arranged the Sultan's murder in 1461. Firishta calls this man Shihab Khan, a eunuch. Neither writer connects him with Warangal. Cynthia Talbot also treats Shitab Khan as a Telugu warrior, not a Muslim. She notes that a later Telugu text calls him an ally of the Gajapatis.

Shitab Khan later lost Warangal to Sultan Quli. Sastri dates this loss to about 1512. Haig states that Shitab Khan still held Warangal in 1515 and later gave it up without a fight. The 1976 Gazetteer places the decisive campaigns after 1530. The sources also differ on when Qutb Shahi rule began. An inscription of 1518 at Golconda still calls Sultan Quli a governor under the Bahmani Sultan Mahmud Shah. The Imperial Gazetteer dates Qutb Shahi rule from 1512. Firishta, as summarised by De, dates Sultan Quli's declaration of independence to 918 AH (1512). Firishta adds that Sultan Quli still sent five thousand huns to the Bahmani Sultan every month in secret.

Under Sultan Abul Hasan, the minister Madanna appointed his cousin Asanna governor of Warangal. The king and his minister strengthened the Warangal fort against the Mughals. Aurangzeb besieged Golconda from February 1687 and took the citadel in October. Warangal passed with Golconda into the Mughal empire, under the Subahdar (governor) of Hyderabad.

Mughal control in the region was weak. Papra, a toddy-tapper turned freebooter, captured and plundered Warangal Fort. Haig dates the raid to 1 April 1708, while the Imperial Gazetteer gives 1709. A Mughal officer later captured Papra and had him put to death.

Nizam-ul-Mulk defeated the Mughal governor Mubariz Khan at Shakarkhelda in 1724. The emperor then recognised his power in the Deccan and gave him the title Asaf Jah. The sources differ on where Asaf Jah then lived. The Imperial Gazetteer states that he lived at Hyderabad. The 1976 Gazetteer states that Aurangabad remained his capital until Nizam Ali Khan (1761–1803) moved the capital to Hyderabad. In 1767 an East India Company force under Colonel Peach occupied Khammamett and Warangal. The Nizam then made the treaty of 1768 with the Company.

Nizam Ali Khan bound his state more closely to the East India Company. Under the treaty of 1798, the British subsidiary force with the Nizam was enlarged, the Company guaranteed the state against attack from outside, and the Nizam’s French troops were disbanded. A further subsidiary treaty followed in 1800. The British force was stationed at Secunderabad, near the British Residency at Hyderabad. The Nizams went on ruling Telangana themselves, and the British never ruled it directly.

The Imperial Gazetteer of 1909 records that Hanamakonda held the offices of the Subahdar, the divisional commissioner. The district headquarters moved to Warangal in 1905. The rule of the Nizam ended in September 1948 with the Indian Union’s Police Action. Hyderabad State, including Warangal district, then merged with the Indian Union. The 1981 District Census Handbook records that the post of Subahdar was abolished after the merger.