Musunuri Nayak
| Musunuri dynasty | |||||
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| Capital | Warangal | ||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||
| History | |||||
| • | Established | 13th century | |||
| • | Disestablished | 14th century | |||
The Musunuri Nayaks were warrior kings of 14th-century South India who were briefly significant in the region of Telangana.
Andhra historians often state that Musunuri Nayaks belonged to the Kamma caste group. However, the modern castes of Andhra region did not originate until the late stages of the Vijayanagara Empire.
The Musunuri Nayaks were warrior chieftains in the Kakatiya army, who regained Andhradesa in 1326 from the Delhi Sultanate in the aftermath of the Kakatiya defeat.
After the fall of the Kakatiyas, their empire was annexed by the Delhi Sultanate and Warangal was renamed "Sultanpur". Ulugh Khan remained as the governor of the region for a short period, until he was recalled to Delhi to succeed Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1324. A former Kakatiya commander, Nagaya Ganna Vibhudu, now renamed Malik Maqbul, was appointed as the governor of the region. However, the Tughluq hold over the erstwhile Kakatiya kingdom was tenuous and a number of local chieftains seized effective power.
In 1330, Musunuri Prolaya Nayak published the Vilasa grant, a copper-plate grant near Pithapuram, in which he bemoaned the devastation of the Telugu country brought about by the Turks and attempted to legitimise himself as the rightful restorer of order. His successor, Musunuri Kapaya Nayak (r. 1333–1368), led a rebellion against the Tughluqs, driving them out of Warangal in 1336. According to the Kaluvacheru grant of a female member of the Panta Reddi clan in 1423, Kapaya Nayak was assisted by 75 subordinate Nayaks, including Vema Reddi, the founder of the Reddi dynasty.
Kapaya Nayak ruled over Telangana until 1368. Upon his death, the subordinate Nayaks are said to have dispersed to their own towns. Despite his opposition to the Turks, Kapaya Nayak continued using the Kush Mahal built by the Turks in Warangal and adopted the Persianised title "Sultan of the Andhra country". In 1361, he gifted to the Bahmani Sultan Mohammed Shah I the Turquoise Throne as part of a treaty agreement.
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