ORIGIN OF THE VELAMAS

The Velamas originally belonged to the area of Pillalamarri & Anumagallu in Nalgonda district.

There are many stories on the origin of the Velamas but the origin cannot be dated with precision. The first mention of  Velamas  was made in the “Palnati Veeracharitra” of Srinatha, the court poet of Pedakomati Vema Redddy of Kondaveedu.

Srinatha lived during the years 1365-1441 when  he has written the “Palanati Veera Charitra” whereas the battle actually took place somewhere between the years 1178 and 1182. This means the poet has written about something that took place some 200 years before his time. As per the Veeracharitra Brahma Naidu of Recherla Gotra who was one of the main characters of the Palnati battle was a Velama.

Thereafter, the Velamas emerge again in the Kakatiya Kingdom where they have been the commanders and vassals of the Kakatiyas from 1200 AD onwards.  The first known Velama in the Kakatiya Kingdom was Era Dachanayaka. Subsequennt to him were Dama, Rudra and Prasadityanayakas and they were famous during Ganapati Devas  (1199-1262 AD) time.   

      

The Velamas served as the commanders of the Kakatiya empire and after its downfall they set up their own kingdoms at Rachakonda and Devarakonda at around 1360 AD, which together ruled all the 13 districts of Telengana while the entire Coastal Andhra was under the Reddy Kings. The Velama’s supported the Bahmani’s for some time, the Vijayanagara Kings for some time and the Gajapati’s of Orissa for sometime before the kingdoms were finally extinguished in 1475 AD.

They were at continuous war with the Reddy Kingdoms which weakened both of them and finally they were absorbed by the Bahamanis and the Hampi Vijayanagar empire.

Due to their influence as the vassals of the Kakatiya kingdom of many areas, they were later confirmed by the Nijam as Jagirdars and Jamindars by the British and the French of those respective areas. The important among these include 1. Venkatagiri, 2. Pithapuram, 3. Bobbili, 4. Nuzvid, 5. Jetprole or Kolhapur and many others.