Rulers of the Warangal line

Beta I, also called Garuda Beta, was the son of Gunda IV. Beta I lost his inheritance as a boy when Viriyala Erra killed his father. Kamavasani, the wife of Erra, helped Beta I to recover the family's position.

• Parabrahma Sastry places the death of Gunda IV, father of Beta I, in the last decade of the tenth century.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Gudur inscription states that Kamavasani took up the cause of the young Garuda Beta and established the line of Kakati.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• A Sanigaram inscription of Saka 973 (1051 CE) is the last dated record of Beta I.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The Sanigaram inscription of Beta I registers a gift to the Yuddhamalla Jinalaya, a Jain temple.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry's 1975 thesis numbers the early chiefs differently from his 1978 book. The thesis calls Garuda Beta 'Beta II' and his grandson 'Beta III', because the Mangallu grant names an earlier Betiya.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis) · Parabrahma Sastry 1978

Prola I was the son of Beta I and ruled from about 1052 to 1076. Prola I served the Western Chalukya king Trailokyamalla and received the Anumakonda district as a permanent fief.

• Prola I appears in a Sanigaram inscription of Saka 975 (1053 CE), which marks the start of his career.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Kazipet Darga inscription credits Prola I with setting Chakrakuta in order, putting Bhadranga to flight and conquering the Konkana.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Parabrahma Sastry holds that Prola I fought these campaigns for his overlord Trailokyamalla rather than for himself.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The same inscription records that Prola I killed Gonna of Purukuta and obtained the Anumakonda vishaya from Trailokyamalla as a permanent fief.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The Bayyaram inscription gives Prola I the title arigajakesari, and Parabrahma Sastry ascribes a tank called Kesari-tataka to him.Parabrahma Sastry 1978

Beta II, son of Prola I, ruled from about 1076 to 1108 as a vassal of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. Beta II and his sons received initiation into the Kalamukha school of Saivism from Ramesvara Pandita.

• The earliest record of Beta II, at Anumakonda, is dated Saka 1001 (1079 CE) and styles him Vikrama-chakri.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Beta II began his career at about the same time as his overlord Vikramaditya VI, who came to the throne in 1076.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Kazipet Darga inscription records that Beta II founded the village of Sivapura and a temple of Betesvara in Saka 1012 (1090 CE).Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Beta II granted Sivapura to Ramesvara Pandita, the Kalamukha head of the monastery at Srisailam.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Banajipet inscription of 1082 records a gift of land, a house site and 12 gadyanas by Beta II. The gift went to the Virakamala Jinalaya, a Jain temple built by the Polavasa chief Medaraja.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)
• A Sanigaram inscription of 1107 CE is the last dated record of Beta II.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978

Durgaraja, also called Tribhuvanamalla Durgaraja, was the elder son of Beta II. Durgaraja probably ruled only briefly, between about 1108 and 1116, before his younger brother Prola II took power.

• The Kazipet Darga inscription is the only known record of Durgaraja, and it records his grants to the Betesvara temple in 1098 CE.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry infers that Durgaraja was installed as crown prince with the title Tribhuvanamalla in 1098, while his father still ruled.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• No other Kakatiya record, epigraphic or literary, mentions Durgaraja as a ruler.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• A Kottapalli inscription praises Prola II for protecting a brother's son who sought asylum, and Parabrahma Sastry reads this as evidence that Prola II deposed Durgaraja.Parabrahma Sastry 1978

Prola II, the younger son of Beta II, ruled from about 1116 to 1157 as a loyal vassal of the Western Chalukyas. Prola II fought rebellious neighbours on the Chalukya king's behalf. Prola II was killed in a battle with chiefs of coastal Andhra.

• The earliest record of Prola II is the Padmakshi temple inscription at Anumakonda, dated 1117 CE. The inscription records a Jain basadi built by Mailama, wife of his minister.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Anumakonda inscription of 1163 credits Prola II with capturing and releasing Tailapa, beheading Gunda of Mantrakuta and repulsing Jagaddeva from Anumakonda.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Parabrahma Sastry identifies this Tailapa as Kumara Tailapa, a Chalukya prince, but the Imperial Gazetteer names him as the Chalukya king Taila III.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Imperial Gazetteer 1909
• Parabrahma Sastry finds no evidence that Prola II revolted and argues that he upheld the authority of Jagadekamalla II in Telangana.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• A Sanigaram inscription of 1149 CE is the last dated record of Prola II.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Inscriptions at Draksharama and Pithapuram state that Prola II was slain by the Kota chief Chodayaraja and the Haihaya chiefs of the Kona country.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Tradition holds that Prola II made Saivism the family religion after initiation by Ramesvara Pandita of the Kalamukha school.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• A fragmentary inscription of the minister Gangadhara at Hanamakonda says that Prola II crossed the Krishna, worshipped Mallikarjuna at Srisailam and set up a victory pillar there. Parabrahma Sastry notes that the pillar has not been found.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)

Rudra Deva, eldest son of Prola II, ruled from about 1158 to 1195. Rudra Deva proclaimed Kakatiya sovereignty in the Anumakonda (Thousand Pillar Temple) inscription of 1163. The inscription lists his victories over the chiefs of Telangana.

• The first record of Rudra Deva is a Draksharama inscription of his general Inangala Brammireddi, dated Saka 1080 (1158 CE).Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Anumakonda inscription, dated Saka 1084 (19 January 1163 CE), records that Rudra Deva consecrated the god Rudresvara and endowed the gods Vasudeva and Surya.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The same inscription credits Rudra Deva with defeating Dommaraja, Meda of Polavasa, Mailigideva and Bhima Choda, and with marrying Padma of the Kandur Choda line.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Parabrahma Sastry argues that Rudra Deva never rebelled against the Chalukyas and proclaimed independence only after no rightful Chalukya claimant came forward.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• A Lakshmeshwar inscription of 1161 records that Kalachuri Bijjala repulsed the king of Andhra, whom Parabrahma Sastry identifies as Rudra Deva.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• About 1185 Rudra Deva campaigned in coastal Andhra and defeated the Kota chief Dodda Bhima at Dharanikota.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Rudra Deva laid the foundations of a new fort at Orugallu and built the Rudresvara temple, now called the Thousand Pillar Temple, at Anumakonda.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The minister of Rudra Deva, Gangadhara, governed Sabbinadu and built a temple of Prasannakesava at Anumakonda.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The last known date of Rudra Deva comes from an inscription at Bakkallu of 26 April 1195.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Some scholars read Hemadri as saying that the Yadava Jaitugi killed Rudra Deva, but Parabrahma Sastry rejects this reading and applies the passage to Mahadeva.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry held a different view in his 1975 thesis. There he wrote that Rudra Deva seems to have lost his life in a war with the Yadava Jaitugi about 1195. Lakshmi Ranjanam (1975) also writes that Rudra Deva was killed.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis) · Lakshmi Ranjanam 1975 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Gangadhara built the Prasannakesava temple together with a tank at Anumakonda. Parabrahma Sastry reports that its remains were unearthed on the tank bund near the new bus depot.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)

Mahadeva, the younger brother of Rudra Deva, ruled briefly from about 1196 to 1198. Mahadeva invaded the Yadava kingdom of Devagiri and was killed there in battle.

• The Khandavalli plates state that Rudra Deva gave the kingdom to Mahadeva, and Parabrahma Sastry suggests that Mahadeva ruled as regent for the young Ganapati.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry knew only two inscriptions of Mahadeva, one from Sundella dated 1197 CE and an undated fragment in Warangal fort.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Epigraphia Telanganica lists further records of his reign. An inscription from Kummarikunta is dated 29 May 1197, and a grant from Maturu in Nalgonda district is dated 26 November 1197.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• According to Parabrahma Sastry, Mahadeva attacked the Yadava king Jaitugi I and perished fighting from an elephant at night outside the enemy capital.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Paithan plates of the Yadava Ramachandra state that Jaitrapala killed the king of Telangana and released Ganapati from prison to make him king.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Mahadeva received Saiva initiation from his teacher Dhruvesvara Pandita.Parabrahma Sastry 1978

Ganapati Deva, son of Mahadeva, ruled from 1199 to 1262, and Parabrahma Sastry calls the reign the most brilliant in the history of Andhra. Ganapati Deva extended Kakatiya power over coastal Andhra and Nellore. Ganapati Deva made Orugallu (Warangal) the capital.

• Ganapati Deva was a captive at Devagiri when his father died, and the general Recherla Rudra held the kingdom together until his return.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The earliest inscription of Ganapati Deva, at Manthena, is dated 26 December 1199 and gives him the title sakala-desa-pratishthapanacharya.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Kondaparti inscription of 1203 records the conquest of Divi island by the general Malyala Chaunda on behalf of Ganapati Deva.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Ganapati Deva restored Tikka to the throne of Nellore, and the Mattevada inscription of 1228 credits him with plundering the Chola capital, probably Kanchi.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Kakatiya armies under Ganapati Deva reached Aska taluk in Ganjam, but the Ganga king Anangabhima III soon forced them back across the Godavari.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Ganapati Deva completed the double fort at Orugallu, which his uncle Rudra Deva had begun, and moved the capital there.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Ganapati Deva took Saiva initiation from Visvesvara Sivacharya of the Golaki Matha.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Pandyas defeated the Kakatiyas and their allies at Muttukur, and Parabrahma Sastry links the final retirement of Ganapati Deva to this defeat.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Ganapati Deva was still alive in 1269, and Telangana Land and People dates his death to about 1269–70.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Goel et al. 2022
• Parabrahma Sastry names Ganapati Deva and Rudra Deva as the Kakatiya rulers who did not die as warriors.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• In April 1235 his general Jaya set up a linga of Chodesvara at Chebrolu, named after Jaya's father. Jaya built two rows of two-storeyed houses for sixteen temple women in front of the temple.Epigraphia Indica VI · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023

Rudrama Devi, daughter of Ganapati Deva, ruled from 1262 to 1289 under the name Rudradeva Maharaja. Rudrama Devi is the only woman to rule the Kakatiya kingdom. Rudrama Devi died in November 1289 during the revolt of Ambadeva.

• Ganapati Deva nominated Rudrama Devi as heir, and she began to rule as co-regent from 1259–60 under the name Rudradeva Maharaja.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Rudrama Devi faced a revolt by Harihara and Murarideva. Only the late Telugu chronicles, the Prataparudra Caritramu and the Siddhesvara Charitra, name them as sons of Ganapati Deva by other queens.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Siddhesvara Charitra (ed. 1960)
• Rudrama Devi repelled an invasion by the Yadava king Mahadeva, and a fragmentary inscription at Bidar supports her attack on the Yadava kingdom.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Rudrama Devi then took her father's title Rayagajakesari. Parabrahma Sastry identifies her in a bracket sculpture from a ruined hall of the Svayambhu temple in Warangal fort. The sculpture shows a woman warrior with a dagger and a shield, riding a lion that stands on an elephant. Parabrahma Sastry holds that she built the hall to mark her victory over the Yadavas.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)
• The Malkapuram inscription records that Rudrama Devi gave the village of Mandaram to the Saiva teacher Visvesvara Sambhu in Saka 1183 (1261 CE).Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Parabrahma Sastry states that Rudrama Devi introduced the nayamkara system of military fiefs and that Pratapa Rudra later organised it.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Kayastha chief Ambadeva rebelled in the later years of Rudrama Devi and claimed victories over many of her subordinates.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Chandupatla inscription of 25 November 1289 records gifts for the merit of Rudrama Devi and her general Mallikarjuna, who had both recently died.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Parabrahma Sastry suggests that an enemy killed Rudrama Devi in a military camp, possibly while she led forces against Ambadeva.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Epigraphia Telanganica and Telangana Land and People state that Rudrama Devi died in battle, while earlier historians believed that she lived until 1295.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Goel et al. 2022
• A Tripurantakam inscription of 8 November 1261 is dated in the second year of Rudradeva Maharaja. The date supports the view that her reign was counted from 1259–60.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The Kotagiri copper plates, dated 31 December 1273, call the queen Rudramamba and describe her as the daughter of king Ganapati. The plates record a grant by Sura of the Viryala family, her subordinate chief.Kotagiri plates 1925
• Parabrahma Sastry notes that gifts for the dead were usually made about the twelfth day after death. He therefore places Rudrama Devi's death about 13 November 1289.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The Panugallu inscription of 16 May 1290 was set up by Mallikarjuna's son for the merit of King Kumara Rudradeva. Parabrahma Sastry takes it as proof that the general Mallikarjuna had died by then.Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• The later chronicles remember a peaceful end. The Siddhesvara Charitra says that Rudrama Devi ruled for 38 years, crowned Pratapa Rudra and then passed to the world of Siva.Siddhesvara Charitra (ed. 1960)
• Scholars disagree about her daughters. K. Lakshmi Ranjanam reads the Telugu poem Sivayogasara as calling Mummadamma only 'like a daughter' to Rudrama. He therefore takes Mummadamma to be adopted and Ruyyama to be Rudrama's only daughter.Siddhesvara Charitra (ed. 1960)
• Parabrahma Sastry states that the Venetian traveller Marco Polo visited the port of Motupalli in the closing years of Rudrama Devi's reign.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis)

Pratapa Rudra, grandson of Rudrama Devi, ruled from 1289 to 1323 and was the last Kakatiya king. Pratapa Rudra faced repeated invasions from Delhi and surrendered Warangal to Ulugh Khan in 1323. Pratapa Rudra died as a captive on the way to Delhi.

• Records often call Pratapa Rudra by the name Kumara Rudradeva, even late in his reign.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The seal of the Khandavalli plates carries the legend Dayagajakesari in Telugu characters, with a boar, the sun, the moon, a cow and an upright sword. Parabrahma Sastry assigns the title to Pratapa Rudra.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (coins)
• A Terala inscription of 21 January 1292 calls Kumara Rudradeva Maharaja the bearer of the title Dayagajakesari. The second Khandavalli grant was issued on the same day.Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (coins)
• Pratapa Rudra first moved against the rebel Ambadeva, and a Kakatiya army took Tripurantakam from him in Saka 1213 (1291 CE).Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• An inscription at Raichur fort, dated Saka 1216 (1294 CE), records that Gona Vithala, a Kakatiya feudatory, captured forts in the Raichur doab and fortified Raichur.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023
• Pratapa Rudra strengthened the nayamkara system, and later tradition credits him with an army of nine lakh archers.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Inscriptions of Pratapa Rudra's last years name officers with the title lenka. In 1314 Erraya-Lenka was the gate-keeper of the royal palace. In 1318 Pochu-Lenka, son of Somaya-Lenka, was commander of all the forces.Lenka, Inscriptions of Lenkas · Epigraphia Telanganica 2023 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Mayideva-Lenka held the nayamkara of Konduru-sthala, a group of 18 villages in Tenali taluk. In 1317 he remitted taxes in all 18 villages for the merit of Pratapa Rudra. The remitted dues included a levy for soldiers and a levy for village watchmen.Lenka, Inscriptions of Lenkas · Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Lakshmi Ranjanam 1975
• Lakshmi Ranjanam explains lenka as the title of the leaders of the king's bodyguard. Parabrahma Sastry ranks the lenkas with the nayakas and notes that many of them, such as Juttaya-Lenka Gonka Reddi, were not Velamas.Lakshmi Ranjanam 1975 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry states that Pratapa Rudra met Muslim armies no fewer than seven times and sometimes bought peace with heavy tribute.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Kakatiya forces checked an invasion at Upparapalli in 1303, but Malik Kafur besieged Warangal from 19 January 1310 and forced Pratapa Rudra to pay tribute.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The sources differ on the length of the siege of 1310. Parabrahma Sastry gives it twenty-five days, while Cynthia Talbot describes a siege of four months.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Talbot 2001
• Amir Khusrau records that Sultan Mubarak Shah sent Khusrau Khan against Warangal in 1318. Pratapa Rudra ceded five districts and promised an annual tribute of elephants and horses. Khusrau Khan then returned the ceded land except the fort of Badrkot.Elliot & Dowson III · Yashoda Devi 1975
• Barani dates Ulugh Khan's first siege of Warangal, which failed, to 721 AH (1321 CE). Ulugh Khan returned with reinforcements four months later and forced Pratapa Rudra to surrender when provisions ran out.Elliot & Dowson III · Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Yashoda Devi 1975
• Parabrahma Sastry instead dates Ulugh Khan's first expedition to 1323. Cynthia Talbot, following M. Somasekhara Sarma, places it in 1321, the year after Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq took the throne.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Parabrahma Sastry 1975 (thesis) · Talbot 2001
• Barani records that Ulugh Khan sent the Rai of Arangal to the Sultan with his family and renamed Arangal as Sultanpur.Elliot & Dowson III
• The Vilasa grant states that Pratapa Rudra died on the banks of the Narmada while being taken to Delhi.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Goel et al. 2022
• Shams-i Siraj Afif, a chronicler of the reign of Firuz Shah, states that the Rai of Telingana died on the road when Sultan Muhammad sent him to Delhi.Elliot & Dowson III
• Yashoda Devi reads the Vilasa grant, which names the river Somodbhava, the Narmada, and the Kaluvacheru grant together. She concludes that Pratapa Rudra took his own life on the way to Delhi.Yashoda Devi 1975
• Telugu traditions say that Pratapa Rudra reached Delhi, was sent back with honour and died in peace at Kalesvaram on the Godavari. Yashoda Devi reports this tradition but prefers the Vilasa grant.Yashoda Devi 1975
• Cynthia Talbot finds this tradition in the sixteenth-century Prataparudra Caritramu. In that chronicle the Sultan frees the king, who bathes in the Ganga at Kashi before he returns home. The Rayavacakamu, written about 1600, also says that he survived the journey.Talbot 2001
• A Reddi grant of 1423 says that Pratapa Rudra departed by his own wish, and Parabrahma Sastry reads this as suicide or death at the hands of a follower.Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• The Imperial Gazetteer names a later Kakatiya ruler, Virabhadra, from about 1325, but Parabrahma Sastry calls the story of a son Virabhadra groundless.Imperial Gazetteer 1909 · Parabrahma Sastry 1978
• Parabrahma Sastry accepts a tradition that Harihara and Bukka, the founders of Vijayanagara, were treasury officers of Pratapa Rudra. Cynthia Talbot, following Hermann Kulke, treats that story as a late invention of the sixteenth century.Parabrahma Sastry 1978 · Talbot 2001
• The Prataparudra Caritramu and the Siddhesvara Charitra say that Pratapa Rudra had two sons, Virupaksha and Virabhadra, by Queen Visalakshi. In these chronicles his brother Annamadeva crowns Virabhadra after the king's death.Siddhesvara Charitra (ed. 1960)