The King Katamaraju was a descendant of
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
's family, and about 23 generations were found on some stone inscriptions, palm leaf manuscripts and copper plate inscription. Thus he is believed to be a 23rd-generation descendant of Krishna. He won the war with Nalla Siddi. That war story often referred to as a
ballad cycle by scholars.
It is composed of a number of episodes which are often sung independently. During the annual ceremonies honoring the lives of the deified heroes of the epic, large numbers of people of the Golla Community (
Yadava
The Yadava (literally, descended from Yadu) were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage. The community was formed of various clans, being the Abhira, Andhaka, Vrishni, and Sat ...
) and kommavaru caste, gather on the banks of the
Paleru
Paleru is a tributary of the Krishna river which joins the main river near Mukteswarapuram in Jaggayyapeta mandal of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh. During the Nizam rule, a reservoir was constructed on the river at Paleru village, Kusumanc ...
River in
Prakasam district
Prakasam district is one of the thirteen districts in the coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was formed in 1970 and reorganised in 2022 on April 4. The headquarters of the district is Ongole. It is located on the weste ...
where the great battle took place, to perform a ritual dramatization in connection with the recitation of the epic.
Epic
The epic of Katamaraju, a chieftain in
Kanigiri, who fought a battle with the
Nellore Chola king Nalama Siddi, on the banks of the Paleru River in the 13th century. Katamaraju, due to severe
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
, had migrated with his people to the fertile lands of Nellore. There he entered a covenant with the king of Nellore for grazing his cattle and sheep. Due to a misunderstanding, the covenant was broken and resulted in a tremendous battle in which many of the great heroes on both sides lost their lives.
About the year 1260, a dangerous feud broke out between
Manumasiddhi II and Katamaraju, the chief of Erragaddapadu in Kanigiri region. The feud was on the issue of the rights of the two princes to use certain wide meadows as grazing grounds for their flocks of cattle. It led to the fierce engagement of the two sides and the bloody battle was fought at
Panchalingala on the Paleru river. Manumasiddhi's forces led by Khadga Tikkana, the cousin of poet Tikkana won the battle, but the leader perished. This feud and the consequent battle formed the theme of the popular ballad entitled "Katamaraju Katha". Shortly after this disastrous battle, Manumasiddhi died.
With the death of
Manumasiddhi II, the
Nellore Chola kingdom lost its individuality, became a battle ground between the
Kakatiyas
The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...
and the
Pandyas and changed hands frequently. In the reign of Kakatiya Prataparudra II, the Nellore region became part and parcel of the Kakatiya empire and lost its political significance.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Indian folklore
Nellore
History of Andhra Pradesh