Previous Year Question

Motupalli was a very important seaport of the Kakatiya kingdom. The strongest evidence comes from the Motupalli Pillar Inscription itself. It was issued by the Kakatiya Maharaja Ganapatideva and is dated to 1244–45 CE. The inscription was set up at Motupalli.

The inscription is described as an Abhaya-sasana, or an edict assuring safety. Its purpose was to provide protection to foreign merchants arriving by sea. It records that earlier the entire cargo of ships wrecked on the coast could be forfeited to the State, whereas Ganapatideva promised that henceforth only the customary customs duties would be levied.

This establishes Motupalli not merely as a coastal settlement but as an active centre of overseas trade. Epigraphia Indica explicitly identifies the record as an edict of Kakatiya Ganapatideva and refers directly to maritime traders and customs duties.

The Government of Telangana's epigraphic corpus also places the inscriptions up to Ganapatideva under the Imperial Kakatiyas, highlighting the primary-source role of inscriptions in reconstructing Kakatiya history.

Kakatiya → Ganapatideva → Motupalli → maritime trade → Abhaya-sasana