As various inscriptions across Deccan and literary mentions state, Gangaya Sahini was one of the most adventurous chieftains of Western and Southern India around 12th to 13th century.
We CKPs aka Kayastha Prabhus have always grown up with the stories our elders told us about the bravado and valour of CKP knights of old such as Sardar Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Sardar Murar Baji Deshpande. These undoubtedly are the most iconic of CKPs as per our collectively remembered history. But what we have been lacking till now is more deep research about many more iconic personalities available in historical sources even outside medieval Maharashtra! We Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus, scions of the great Sahasrabahu Kartivirya Arjuna need to wake up from this slumber we are in as a community to dig more into our past. We need to imbibe the inquisitiveness of eminent researchers from our race of Prabhus such as Vasudeo Sitaram Bendre, T.V. Gupte and Keshav Sitaram Thackeray to discover more about our glorious past. Glorious in what sense? Glorious as the amount of contributions made historically to the governance and defense of the various states and regions we dwelled in from time to time, in proportion to our tiny population. I myself have decided to firmly engage in discovering our ancestral paragons for the sake of protecting our unique customs, history and identity of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu subcaste of the larger caste called Prabhu, itself being a major branch of the ancient Kshatriyas of Vedic times.
Coming back to the topic of this post, I shall elucidate the records of this embodiment of adventure, fearlessness and classic chivalry- King Gangaya Sahini, a Kayastha Prabhu undisputedly. We shall also see how we come to the conclusion that Gangaya Sahini and his dynasty succeeded by his three nephews were undoubtedly CKPs.
Illustration of King Gangaya Sahini, made by me.
Earliest mention of Gangaya Sahini
The earliest mention of Gangaya Sahini and his valour comes from Kannada sources of 12th and 13th century.
Source of snippet: Vijaynagara- Origin of the City and the Empire, by N. Venkata Ramanayya and edited by K.A. Nilkantha Shastri (page no. 73 to 74) [Link]
As we see the records mention Gangaya Sahini as a minister of the Chalukya (Salunkhe) Maratha king Kavadeva (who had inherited the Kadamba/Kadam kingdom from his father-in-law). Not only was Gangaya Sahini a mere minister but a "Jagadala" or chieftain-in-charge of the army. The record is stated in the context that when the Hoysala (Bhosale?) king Vira-Ballala III invaded the territory of the Chalukya-Kadambas (North Karnataka, South Maharashtra and Goa), the then-minister and general Gangeya Sahini gathered and united all the chiefs of the region under him.
Source: The Kadamba Kula- History of Ancient and Medieval Karnataka, by George M. Moraes (page no. 143) [Link]
This record says that Gangaya Sahini was asked to pay tribute to the Hoysala Emperor Vira-Ballala, which not only did Gangeya outrightly reject but he waged a violent war against the Hoysalas. There are very important and interesting things to be noticed here and one question might have arisen in the reader's mind. What did 'Sahini/Sahani' (साहिणी/साहणी) mean here? Could there be a relation to the Punjabi 'Sahanis' (साहानी) among Khatris there. Well, there might be some distant relation between Prabhus and Khatris, which we can't tell for sure but Sahini attached as a prefix to Gangeya's name simply refers to a Prakrit title meaning 'Commander' or 'Senapati'. In simple terms, Gangaya Sahini means Gangaya the Commander and even though Gangaya became a king later on he kept the secondary title Sahini for reasons we shall look into this post later on. The interesting thing I'm refering to here is that there seem to be more 'Sahini' title holders and though they haven't been directly callef Kayastha or the alternate term Prabhu in any other source, we might guess that these Sahini title bearers were Prabhus after all since many of them have been shown as related to Gangeya Sahini. The second interesting thing here is the title of Gangeya Sahini's father-in-law. His name is given as Bankaya Nayak (Naik). Naik has been a title present among many castes from Brahmins down till Shudras as well as varnaheena local tribes. The term Naik meant a "leader" or a heroic chief. Today this title isn't found among the CKPs (atleast till what I have read), though it is found among our closely related subcaste the Pathare Prabhu. It's quite likely that Naik was a title present among CKPs as well during the 12th and 13the centuries and many of these Naik Prabhus simply could have been promoted to other administrative ranks such as Kulkarni, Deshkulkarni (Deshpandit/Deshpande), Adhikari, Pradhan (Mahapradhan) and Deshmukh under other Hindu as well as Muslim rulers.
Source: Vijaynagara- Origin of the City and the Empire, by N. Venkata Ramanayya and edited by K.A. Nilkantha Shastri (page 46) [Link]
Here we see Gangeya Sahini and his son Bommeya Prabhu have also been referred to as Gangeya Nayaka and Bommeya Nayaka. Bommeya Prabhu Nayaka inherited his father as the Mahasamanta (feudal lord/ equivalent to Deshmukh and Mokashi of latter times) of the Nidugal chiefdom, present in today's Tumkur district of Karnataka bordering Andhra Pradesh.
Arguably we can consider Banka Nayaka, Javaneya Nayaka and the "great general" Chanakalama Nayaka also as Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu by caste based on such connections, in addition to Gangeya Sahini and his son Bommeya Nayaka.
Gangaya Prabhu Sahini against the Hoysala Emperor
Source: The Kadamba Kula- History of Ancient and Medieval Karnataka, by George M. Moraes (page no. 156) [Link]
This epigraphic record describes the gallantry of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu warrior Gangeya Sahini shown in the war on the side of the Kadamba-Chalukya kingdom against the Hoysala Empire.
Here is the English translation of the Viragal record as given in the book sourced above:
"The latter (Gangaya Sahini and Madiganda whom he ordered) pierced through the enemy's line of horse and destroying them, broke Ballāļa-deva's army, and running, on reaching the kulugăra hill, stabbing the men and horses, throwing them down and cutting them up, slew, distinguished liimself and saying, 'Let Gangeya Sāhani live, (the god) Rāmanāda of Baradavalli is my refuge,' gained the world of gods".
The result of the battle isn't mentioned clearly but later grants show that the invading Hoysalas were pushed back successfully by the Kadam-Salunkhe forces led by the Prabhu Gangaya Sahini.
These Kannada records happen to be the first mention of the CKP warrior Gangaya Sahini.
Now a major question must have occured in the minds of the readers... how do we know that Gangaya Sahini was a Kayastha Prabhu by caste? Afterall the above records don't mention anything specifically about his caste as Kshatriya or Prabhu.
The answer to this lies in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana records of the Kakatiya Empire! The Kakatiya dynasts were either Kamma (Sat-shudra) or else Raju/Mahratta (Kshatriya) by caste. Gangaya Sahini has been mentioned as the most powerful of the chieftains or vassal kings under the Kakatiyas! From connecting the two dots it becomes clear that Gangaya Sahini left his service towards the Kadamba-Chalukyas and rather joined the Kakatiyas. Gangaya Sahini and his dynasty has actually been called "Kayastha dynasty of Kshatriyas" in their records. The inscriptions of this dynasty shows that they were Kshatriyas who were called Kayasthas because of an ancestor who was undaunted by the persecution of Kshatriyas by Parshuram. This Gangaya Sahini Kayastha dynasty was connected by relations to the Haiheya dynasties of Panchradala and Kona- signifying that these two belonged to the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community as well especially knowing the traditional origin legends of the CKP community from the Vedic era Haiheyas and Parshuram's persecution- all said to have occured in the Sat-yuga of traditional Hindu tradition.
Now let us see this set of records, from modern day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Source: The History of Andhra country (1000 AD - 1500 AD) by Yashoda Devi [Link]
As the source says, the Kayastha dynasty of Gangaya Sahini had become defacto autonomous rulers of a large territory in the Telugu and Kannada speaking lands. It is said that these Kayasthas had connection with those in the North, implying that they were from the Kayastha Prabhu community which originated in Northwest and Central India. The Kayastha Prabhu a.k.a. CKP caste migrated in two waves to Deccan from the North. The first migration was around latter 10th to 11th centuries from Kashmir to Konkan via Sindh and Gujarat. The second wave occured two centuries later when they migrated from Mandugarh in Malwa to Western Maharashtra. It's quite probable that a few CKP families may have already settled in the Deccan even before the first wave, if inscriptions are to be explained.
Gangaya Sahini is most likely from one of the families of the first wave of migration around the 10th and 11th centuries. Elsewhere, as we will see later on Gangaya Prabhu's father's name was Dhamsha Prabhu.
It must be noted that these Kayasthas a.k.a. Prabhus (CKPs) had nothing to do with the Chitragupta Kayasthas a.k.a. 'Lalas' of North and their subcastes such as Srivastavas, Saxenas, Mathurs, Sinhas (Ambashtas) etc. culturally as well as by ancestry.
The Kayastha Prabhu dynasts had a background of being great warriors and cavaliers. Gangaya Sahini served the Cholas of Nellore (Raju by caste) as their minister and commander of forces after ending his services with the Chalukya-Kadamba kingdom.
Source: The History of Andhra country (1000 AD - 1500 AD) by Yashoda Devi [Link]
Source: Caste System in Medieval Kadapa region of Andhra Desha, by K. Narsimhulu [Link]
According to the historian P.V. Parabrahma Sastry, the Kayasthaswere recruited from Western India by the Kakatiya king Ganapati, due to theirexpertise in cavalry warfare (1978: 157). That all the female members of this familyhad names ending in "bai," a typically Western Indian suffix, serves as evidence fortheir alleged Western Indian origin, along with the generous grant made by thefirst member of the family known to be in Andhra, Gangaya Sahini, to a brahmanresident of Dvaraka for the worship of Krishna there.35 In his earliest record fromPalnad Taluk, issued ca. 1239 C.E., Gangaya Sahini bears no administrative titles or marks of high rank. By 1251 he is said to be ruling thearea from Panugal in Nalgonda District down to Marjavadi in Cuddapah Districtand possesses numerous lofty titles, including mahdmandaletvara, and two Kakatiyainsignia bestowed on him as a sign of their special favor. (Talbot, 2001).
As we know from the information given above, Gangeya Prabhu Senapati/Sahini was a Mahasamanta with the Nayaka title of the Nidugal chiefdom bordering Andhra Pradesh, which his son Bommeya Prabhu inherited as the next Nayaka. We can deduce all this information to understand that Prabhu Gangaya Senapati originated from Maharashtra and was employed by Mahratta/Arasu/Raju kings of Deccan at different times and Gangaya kept earning such chiefdoms which became a united autonomous kingdom under the sovereignty of the Imperial Kakatiyas (who also were either Rajus or else Kammas as we have discussed above).
Now, let us see the researched history on Gangaya Sahini done by scholars such as P.V. Parabrahma Sastry, Yashoda Devi and Cynthia Talbot.
Source: Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra, by Cynthia Talbot (page 64). [Link]
Source: ibid (page 67-68)
Extent of the kingdom of Gangeya Sahini
Source: The History of Andhra country (1000 AD - 1500 AD) by Yashoda Devi (page no. 402) [Link]
Source: ibid. (Page no. 403)
The Kayastha Chiefs (by P. V. Parabrahma Sastry)
"Of all the Kakatiya subordinates, the Kāyasthas were the most powerful. It is believed that these chiefs originally belonged to a class of warriors of Western India. This view has been further supported by an inscription recently discovered in Chityala village in the Nalgonda district. Accordingly, the carly known member of the family was named Dhamsa. They were
originally stationed by the king Gapapatideva at Panugallu as the governors of that part of the kingdom. Horsemanship and commanding of the cavalry were their specialized branches
of war craft and most likely Ganapatideva brought them for the particular purpose of training his horses and build up of the cavalry force."
Source: The Kakatiyas of Warangal, by Dr. P.V. Parabrahma Sastry (page 157)
Political Relations of Raja Gangaya Prabhu
Gangeya Sahini was the Commander of the Kakatiya forces who brought an end to the mighty Cholas, Pallavas and Western Gangas! Gangeya Sahini himself married the last Pallava princess as per the above Telugu records. Gangeya is also stated to have defeated the Seuna-Yadava king Damodara. To note the castes of the above dynasties just for information, the Cholas belonged either to the Raju caste or else the Palli (Vanniyakula) caste. The Pallavas were Brahmin royals descending from Dronacharya's son Ashwatthama as per their inscribed traditions. The Western Gangas were Arasus by caste. All these mighty dynasties from such reputed and strong castes were defeated by a Kayastha Prabhu general. How could this not be a thing to be proud for us CKPs?
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