01A brother’s kingdom
Vengi was a royal seat by the 4th century, when the Salankayana kings issued grants from it; Samudragupta’s Allahabad pillar names Hastivarman of Vengi among the southern kings he met. In about 624 Pulakeshin II of Badami gave the conquered Vengi country to his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana, who founded the Eastern Chalukya line. His descendants ruled the Andhra coast for nearly five centuries, fighting the Rashtrakutas and then drawn into the orbit of the Cholas.
02Chola brides and a Telugu Mahabharata
Rajaraja Chola put the Eastern Chalukya prince Shaktivarman on the throne of Vengi and married his daughter Kundavai to Shaktivarman’s brother Vimaladitya. Their son Rajaraja Narendra moved his court to Rajamahendravaram, and there his poet Nannaya began the Andhra Mahabharatam, the first great work of Telugu literature. Rajaraja Narendra’s son became the Chola emperor Kulottunga I in 1070, joining Vengi to the Chola throne. Vengi itself became a village, Pedavegi, near Eluru, where excavations have brought up brick structures, coins and sculpture, among them a Vishnu on Garuda of the 6th–7th century.
The life of this place
- 4th centuryHastivarman of Vengi is named in Samudragupta’s Allahabad pillar inscription.
- c. 624Kubja Vishnuvardhana founds the Eastern Chalukya dynasty at Vengi.
- 1070Kulottunga I unites Vengi with the Chola empire.
Pedavegi is about 12 km north of Eluru. The excavated mounds are open ground; finds are in the Eluru and Amaravati museums.
