The empire of Chozhas was extended upto Kalinga during and after the period of Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola . Rajendra Chola’ s grandson,(son of his daughter) was Kulothunga I.The present city of Vishakapatnam was called then as Kulothunga Chozha Patnam.Inscriptions found in Jaggarao Observatory of Vizakapatam taluk (during East India Company days) confirm this. There is also reference to a trader having gifted a garden and the mention of 500 ‘Perumballi of the 500” refers to a merchant guild of the Anjuvannam Group, hailing from Malamandala (Kerala)’..This talkies with Tamil Trader group of 500. Thodai Vanigar Ainnootruvar.’ திசை வணிகர் ஐநூற்றுவர்.
India’s East Coast has had an enduring connection to the ocean, dating back to the 3rd Millennium BC. Maritime traffic, from this region, has spread Hinduism as far away as Indonesia, and Buddhism to Thailand and beyond. India’s most ancient text, the Rig Veda, chronicles India’s earliest maritime activity to 1700 BC whereas the Buddhist Jatakas relate ocean travel back to 500 BC. Many residents of Visakhapatnam believe that the city was just a fishing village that grew into a city only after the English set up their trading post here in 1682 AD. But is there an untold story of the origins of Visakhapatnam? For the reconstruction of the lost history of Visakhapatnam, stone or copper inscriptions can be relied upon as an authentic source.
The first recorded history of a place by the name “Visakhapatnam” can be seen on a stone inscription inside the Lord Bhimeswara Swamy Temple in Draksharamam (in present-day East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh). A text of that inscription as recorded and published by the Government Epigraphical branch of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is reproduced in Fig 1.
This inscription reads – ‘in the year Saka 990 (which corresponds to 1068 AD) a merchant by the name Papaya, son of Mediya setti from Visakhapatnam, made a donation to ‘Bhimeswara’, the presiding deity of that temple. The donation consisted of one metal lamp stand for lighting a lamp. He also donated 50 cows for the supply of ghee to light that lamp to burn perpetually as long
the other inscription against serial no. 61 in fig 2, it also refers to thea sale of a land and a house to a merchant in Visakhapatnam in the year 1199 AD. This inscription also mentions the merchant guild. The name of Kulottunga Chola Pattana continues to be applied to Visakhapatnam for about two hundred years.
The inscription, showed against serial no. 62 in fig 2 in Tamil, mentions a gift of a mantapa to a temple by a merchant in the year 1250 AD. This inscription gives new information onf the existence of a temple, called “Karumanikka Alvar”, in Visakhapatnam. This is the only inscription available about this temple and there is no evidence of it in any literary sources. It was recorded in the Epigraphical report of the year 1909 AD that the inscriptions of AD 1199 and AD 1250 were found near Paravastu Rangacharya’s house. Paravastu Rangacharya’s family were living in Kancheraveedi of the old town near Venkateswara Temple (Embermannar). In all probability, this Karumanikka Alwar temple might have been in the old town of Visakhapatnam. Kollam, in this inscription, refers to the Port of Kollam near the present Kozikode in Kerala.
The inscription against serial no. 63 in the above figure relates to the period of Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, a Eastern Ganga King related to Kulottunga I, inscribed in the Saka year 1012, corresponding to 1090-91 AD. “Perumballi of the 500” refers to a merchant guild of the Anjuvannam Group, hailing from Malamandala (Kerala). So, the inscription records a gift by the guild to a merchant of Kerala. This gives evidence that there were merchant guilds, and merchants from Kerala, at Visakhapatnam during the 11th Century. It also says that the name of the city was changed as Kulottunga-Cholapattana in honour of the king of the Chola dynasty, which was ruling Chola, Vengi and Kalinga areas at that time. three inscriptions in Fig 2, mention merchants of trade guilds residing in Visakhapatnam. Considerable history of maritime trade in Visakhapatnam during the period between 1099 AD and 1250 AD. It is also clear that there was much Tamil influence in Visakhapatnam during Chalukya Chola’s time.
One more inscription given in Fig. 4 is also from the Simhachalam Temple wherein it is mentioned that a person, who appears to be Tamil, purchased a garden from a local resident of Visakhapatnam and gifted it to the temple in the year 1421 AD. This gives evidence of an agrarian society in Visakhapatnam.
Kulottunga Chola I ( சக்ரவர்த்தி குலோத்துங்க சோழதேவர் “Chakravarti Kulottunga Chozhadeva”; r. 1070 CE – 1122 CE) also spelt Kulothunga, was an 11th-century Chola Emperor who reigned for fifty-two years.He was one of the sovereigns who bore the title “Kulottunga”, literally meaning “the exalter of his race” in Tamil, succeeding his cousin Athirajindra. He did not belong to the main line of Cholas but was rather a prince of the Venki belongs to Eastern Chalukya dynasty, but also he is known as tamil chola. His mother, Ammangaidevi, was a Chola princess and the daughter of emperor Rajendra Chola I. His father was king Rajaraja Narendra of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty who was the nephew of Rajendra Chola I and maternal grandson of Rajaraja chola.According to historian Sailendra Nath Sen, his accession marked the beginning of a new era and ushered in a period of internal peace and benevolent administration. .. The Chola kingdom remained formidable under Kulottunga in his 45th regnal year (c. 1115 CE). Except for the loose hold over Lanka, the rest of the empire remained intact. The boundary between the Cholas and the Western Chalukyas was as always the Tungabhadra river. The hold over Vengi was quite firm, and Dakkina Kosala (south-west Kalinga) and some parts of Kalinga (proper) including the capital Kalinganagara, the modern Mukhalingam in the Srikakulam district, was under the Chola rule.[ Port Quilon, on the Malabar Coast, was recovered by prince Vikrama Chola sometime between c. 1102 and c. 1118 CE Kulothunga Chozha I
Ramanisblog 