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period before the advent of the British rule, which are otherwise unknown.
The system of recording important events pertaining to the local political history and the accounts of the villages seems to have its origin from the times of the Gajapati rulers of Orissa from the middle of the 15th century. But these accounts called Dandakavile were not regularly maintained by all Karanams. In most cases they are vague with chronological discrepancies and inconsistent statements. However, it seems certain that at the time when the Karanams were asked by Mackenzie surveyors in about A. D. 1810 or even earlier to furnish all what they could, they have given knowingly or other-wise certain uniform information in more than one aspect. This clearly indicates that they had some sort of village accounts maintained in their families from generation to generation. For example, the most striking feature in almost all the Kaifiyats is the unanimous statement that certain Ganapatideva of the Gajapati throne came to power in about A. D. 1134 and his minister Goparāju Ramanna, having obtained from the king the karnikam mirasi of the entire kingdom, granted in his turn the village karinikams as mirasi (hereditary right) to several brahmanas of Niyogi as well as Vaidiki sects in A. D. 1145. Although this statement is historically absurd, a historian can least afford to ignore its unmistakable unanimity in all the Kaifiyats. It is very difficult to accommodate the said event in the well known history of the period. So, in some respects at least here must have been some truth in it. In the first place, it is true that the Chalukya-Chola king Kulottunga II came to power in about A. D. 1134. But his authority in Andhra was not worthy of such mention. He was not called Ganapati, nor his throne belonged to the Gajapatis. Then how can we account for this? It is to be assumed that when the Gajapati king conquered the region in about A. D. 1454, there occurred a major political change which brought in certain administrative reforms in the region under review, i. e. Kondaviti-sima or the present Guntur District. Certain minister of the Gajapati king might have appointed new Karanams and asked them to begin new Kaviles or account books with some introduction about the previous regime. Taking this hint from the minister the Karanams might have mentioned Gajapati king as the ruler, taking back the date to A. D. 1135 when the Velanati chief Gonka II became the virtual ruler of the land. This traditional account current in those days was linked with the Gajapati king whose name is again wrongly given as Ganapatideva.
It was during this period, i. e. A. D. 1134-5 the Western Chalukyas were driven away from the coastal Andhra. It seems that Goparaju Ramanna, a minister of the Gajapati king appointed new Karanams with hereditary rights (mirási) and asked them to begin new Kaviles or account books some time after A. D. 1454. Accordingly, the Karanams referring to the traditional past events of A.D. 1135-1145
