228 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



From the abovementioned reports it is clear, that Grore 

 Gangaya Eaddivaru, was a very influential personage closely 

 connected with the Kakatlya sovereign and that he exercised 

 independent rule in the Kadapa district. 



So much only has it been possible to ascertain about Gore 

 G-angaya Eaddivaru, but it is quite sufficient to establish his 

 identity with the Gore Raya Gangadevayagaru of the Local 

 Records. 



II. On Yithala and his Family, the Narapatis. 



The other individual, and in fact the principal person 

 mentioned in the inscription, is Yithalanatha. About his 

 existence even less is known than about Gangaya. In fact, 

 previous to my discovering an account of Yithala in Koneri- 

 natha' s introduction to the Telugu version of the Balabha- 

 gavatam, I could ascertain nothing about his history. Fortu- 

 nately the evidence supplied by Konerinatha is so strong 

 that all doubts respecting the identity of Yithala are set at 

 rest. 



Konerinatha, a son of the minister Nagaya 1 and a Telugu 

 writer of eminence, flourished about the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century. Stimulated by the example of such 

 Telugu poets — as Nannayabhatta^Q pioneer of Telugu poetry, 

 who began the Telugu version of the Mahabharata ; Bliim- 

 anna (Bhima Kavi or Bhlma Kavlsvara), the author of the 

 Bhima Candassu ; Err ay a (Erra Pragada) and Tikkaya (Tik- 

 kana Somayaji), the first of whom continued and the latter 

 of whom completed the Telugu translation of the Mahabha- 

 rata ; and Srmdtha — all of whom he mentions in his preface, 

 Konerinatha undertook a Telugu adaptation of the Sanskrit 

 Bhagavata, which he named Balabhagavatam. It was 



1 See Introduction to the Balabhagavatam, p. 5. Compare C. P. Brown's 

 Telugu- English Dictionary about the time of Nannaya Bhatta and Tikkana. 



