Reddy kingdom of Kondavidu

The kingdom

The Reddys were a landholding community whose chiefs took power in the coastal Andhra country after the Kākatīya collapse. Prolaya Vema Reddy established the kingdom from Addanki, and it was ruled from the hill fortress of Kondavidu thereafter, covering the deltas and the coast from the Krishna to Nellore.

They fought the Bahmanis, the Velamas and Vijayanagara in turn, and maintained a substantial state for a century.

Śrīnātha

The Reddy court was the centre of Telugu letters in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Śrīnātha, who held office under Pedakomati Vema Reddy, is the major poet of the period — his Śṛṅgāra Naiṣadhamu, a Telugu rendering of Harṣa's Sanskrit poem, and his Kāśīkhaṇḍamu are the standard works of the age, and his shorter verses on places and people are still quoted.

Errana, the third of the kavitraya who completed the Telugu Mahābhārata, was also patronised in this circle.

The kingdom was destroyed in 1424 by Kapilendra Gajapati's advance down the coast from Odisha, and its territory was afterwards contested between Odisha, Vijayanagara and the Bahmanis.