Ganapati’s coastal Andhra campaign

01Divi and the Ayyas

Ganapati had spent his youth as a prisoner of the Yadavas and came home to a shaken kingdom around 1199. His first great campaign went east. Kakatiya inscriptions record that he conquered Divi, the island at the mouth of the Krishna ruled by the Ayya family, and that he married Naramba and Peramba, daughters of its chief Pinna Chodi. Their brother Jaya, or Jayapa, became the commander of the Kakatiya elephant corps.

02A soldier who wrote on dance

Jayapa is remembered for more than war. He wrote the Nritta Ratnavali, a Sanskrit treatise on dance that is still studied for its account of classical and regional forms, including those carved on the Ramappa temple. With the delta and its ports in hand, Ganapati went on to take the coast north to the Godavari, and his Motupalli inscription of 1244 guaranteed fair treatment to foreign merchants at that port.

Person · reigned c. 1262–1289 CERudrama DeviDaughter of Ganapatideva, Rudrama Devi ruled the Kakatiya kingdom from Orugallu (Warangal) for close to three decades, put down rebel nobles and the Seuna Yadavas, and handed a whole kingdom to her grandson Prataparudra.Read →