Vibrant Vengi of Yore in Krishna - Godavari Basin of Andhra Pradesh

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K.S. Kameswara Rao Born at Machilipatnam on 2nd Feb 1940. Early education at Machilipatnam, Duggirala, and Vijayawada. Obtained B.A.(Hons) from Andhra University in 1961. Awarded Ph.D in History on "Vikramaditya VI-A political study".

Worked as lecturer in History at St. Joseph's women's college (1967-69), SKBR College Amalapuram (1969-70) and at Ideal colleges from 1970 to 1998. General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh History Congress 1984-1987 and Working Editor of Comprehensive History of A.P. project. Author of Main Currents In Indian History in English and translated Early India of Romila Thapar in 2012 and contributed chapters to Comprehensive History of Andhra Pradesh in volumes 2,3,4 and 5. An editor of Comprehensive History and culture of East Godavari published in 2008.

Interested in Early and Medieval periods of History of Andhra Pradesh. He currently came up with this wonderful book regarding Vengi up to the Modern period. Associated with APHC, IHC,SIHC and other academic bodies as contributor of chapters.

Dr. Kuchibhotla Siva Kameswara Rao's new monograph focuses attention on Vengi and the Godavari-Krishna Doab-the heartland of coastal Andhra. The author is a skilled historian with a command of the epigraphic materials and a wide-angle vision of historical process. He was trained by the doyens of Andhra historical research. His book begins at the dawn of the historical record, moves through the early Vishnukundin time, and reaches its climactic moments with the joint Chola and Western Chalukya rule and the subsequent rise of the Kakatiyas. However, this familiar organization of time in relation to transient political dynasties-whose control over the territories associated with their names is highly doubtful-is amplified by a sensitivity to economic, social, and cultural dimensions. One might wonder what factors brought into being a courtly milieu where a creative genius such as Nannaya could experiment with language and ultimately set in place the matrix for classical Telugu poetry. Perhaps it was not the kings, such as Rajarajanarendra, who produced that vibrant cultural environment but rather the poets, musicians, architects and painters who in effect created their royal patrons. In general, a bottom-up view of South Asian history might deepen our understanding of historical process and meaning, if indeed we are able to project any kind of meaning onto human history.

The decision to concentrate on Vengi as a microcosm of coastal Andhra is a wise one. A close look at Vengi reveals patterns of wider application-the remarkable trans-regional linkages of the Tamil and Telugu regions; the Delta-specific agrarian system that we see reflected in inscriptions; the polyglossic intellectual and artistic world of medieval south India, so clearly in evidence in Rajamahendravaram from Chola-Chalukya times to the present day; the strangely enduring symbiosis of inflated imperial rhetoric and the diffuse and shifting mechanisms of limited authority on the ground; the production of vernacular grammars such as the Andhra-sabda-cintamani (attributed ex post facto to Nannayya, the Adi-kavi, and articulated in Sanskrit) as foundational texts in a regional political system; conspicuous cultural innovation that begins in the Telangana highlands and is then domesticated and systematized in the Andhra coast, and so on. Kameswara Rao has given us a rich conspectus of the data upon which a historiographical synthesis can be constructed. For this, he deserves our gratitude.

**Contents and Sample Pages**