Inscriptions at Kondaveedu Fort Reveal Reddy-Era Temple Grants

Kondaveedu Fort in Guntur

GUNTUR: A pair of medieval Telugu inscriptions brought to light at a ruined Shiva temple high in Andhra Pradesh's Kondaveedu Fort complex is providing fresh evidence of land and revenue grants associated with religious institutions during the Reddy kingdom.

The first fragmentary inscription was documented in June on a broken doorway pillar at a Shiva temple on Rudrapada peak, one of the highest points in the Kondaveedu hill-fort complex in Palnadu district. Kondaveedu Fort Development Committee convener Kalli Siva Reddy and local researchers found the record and forwarded details to the Archaeological Survey of India for study.

K. Muniratnam Reddy, Director of Epigraphy at ASI, identified the writing as Telugu in a script characteristic of approximately the 14th century. Although damaged and incomplete, the surviving text records grants described as four vrittis to Bhattulu and two vrittis to Virupaksha Dikshita, apparently connected with worship at the Shiva temple.

The story took an important turn in September. On September 21, Siva Reddy and other local researchers returned to the ruined temple and found another inscription on the right-hand doorway pillar that had been obscured by another stone. Preliminary examination indicates the newly documented inscription is a continuation of the record discovered in June.

The second text provides additional details of a land donation associated with Tapanacharya, including a permanent grant involving four puttis of land with described boundaries. Together, the two doorway inscriptions may help reconstruct how land or revenue was assigned to support religious personnel and worship at the hilltop shrine.

The hill fort rose to political prominence in the 14th century under the Reddy dynasty, which controlled substantial parts of coastal Andhra. Its strategic hilltop location made it highly defensible, while the wider complex developed temples, water structures, administrative facilities and fortifications.