What is attested
The Vaidumbas held territory around the modern Cuddapah and Chittoor districts and are known from inscriptions in Telugu and Tamil. They served the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, fought the Cholas and the Nolambas, and occupied an independent position for parts of the tenth century.
Their name has been connected with the Vaiḍūrya, the beryl, and with a hill of that name, but no explanation is established.
This upland country between the Tamil plains and the Deccan plateau changed hands more often than almost any region in southern India, and the Vaidumbas, Nolambas, Banas and Telugu Chodas are all products of that instability: local lineages that survived by shifting allegiance, and that left inscriptions rather than histories.
Further reading
- Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
- Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. The Colas. University of Madras, 1955
- Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. A History of South India. Oxford University Press, 1955
- Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
- Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.