Musunuri Nayakas free Warangal

01Seventy-five chiefs

Prolaya Nayaka first freed the coastal country and recorded his work in the Vilasa grant, which speaks of the suffering under the new rulers and of temples and agraharas restored. After him his cousin Kapaya Nayaka led the chiefs on Warangal. The Kaluvacheru grant of 1423 counts seventy-five Nayakas who joined the cause. Malik Maqbul, the Sultan’s governor, abandoned Warangal and fled north; later he served Firuz Shah Tughluq as wazir in Delhi.

02A wider rising

The Telugu rising came alongside the founding of Vijayanagara in 1336 and the Hoysala resistance further south. In the same decade Delhi’s hold over the south broke, and in 1347 the Bahmani kingdom split away from it as well. Kapaya Nayaka ruled from Warangal until the Bahmanis killed him, around 1368. The Reddi kings of Kondavidu, who had fought beside him, carried Telugu rule on along the coast.

Person · ruled c. 1333–1368 CEMusunuri Kapaya NayakaKapaya Nayaka took up the leadership of the Telugu Nayakas after his cousin Prolaya Nayaka, drove the Tughlaq governor out of Warangal around 1336, and ruled Telangana until he fell fighting the Recherla Velamas in 1368.Read →