Kakatiya monarch. The Sauna ruler Mahadeva, who succeeded to the throne of Devagin in 1260 A.D., invaded the Kakatiya kingdom in the early years of his rule. The Yadava records credit him with victory against the Kakatiyas According to Hemadri's 'Vrata-Khanda ,he left her free 'because of his reluctance to kill a woman'. His title Telungarayasirahkamalamulotpatana' suggests that he 'uprooted the stalk of the lotus of the head of Telungaraya'. All these accounts are one-sided. The fact is that Mahadeva never killed any ruler of the Telugu country. It was only a heriditary title. One of the predecessors of Mahadeva, Jaitugi I killed Kakati Rudra in 1195/96 A.D. However, it may be said that though his attack was successful initially, it ended in dismal failure. 'Pratapachantram' mentions thatRudramadevi fought valiantly, put Mahadeva to flight, pursued the Seuna forces upto Davagin and forced him to conclude a treaty with her and pay a crore of gold coins as war indemnity.

The epigraphic evidence from Panugal (Nalgonda district) and Hire-Kogilun bears testimony to this. A hoard of Seuna coins discovered at Rachapatnam (Kaikalur Taluk of the Krishna district) probably 'represents a part of the money which Rudramba, according to Pratapachartram, received from Mahadeva as war indemnity and distributed among the officers of her army' The Kakatiyas 145 In the south, the situation became still worse. As already seen, after the Muttukur conflict, the Nellore kingdom came under the sway of the Pandyas and was placed under their vassals. As the Pandyan inscriptions at Nandalur and Tirupati indicate, even