The Banas were closely associated with the territory now falling within the confines of Chittoor and other adjoining districts, including Kolar in Mysore State. They constituted one of the important feudatory dynasties. About 32 inscriptions of this dynasty are so far noticed in this district, Of these as many as 22 inscriptions are concentrated in Punganur taluk. The information available in these epigraphs is not Yet clear enough to permit the presentation of any connected account.
The Banas claimed descent from Mahabali, a mythological asura king, In the middle of the fourth century A.D,, the Kadamba chief Mayurasarman took up his abode in the inaccessible forests of Sriparvata (Srisailam) and levied tribute from many kings including the Brihat Bana, i.e., the Great Bana. About this period, the Banas were probably feudatories of the Pallavas.
The country ruled by the Banas is called variously as ‘Andhra Pathah Paschimato Kshitih,’ i.e., the land to the west of the Andhra Road (or of the country called Andhrapatha), otherwise known as Vadugavali merku, Vadugavaliyinmerku, Vadugavali 12,000, and Vedugavali 12,000 and Manne 200. Perumbanappadi was perhaps another name in Tamil for this Bana territory. As already seen, Perumbanappadi extended from Punganur in the west to Srikalahasti in the east. The river Palar formed its southern boundary. Inscriptions refer in all to eight chiefs, namely, Nandivarman, Vijayaditya I, Malladeva, Vikramaditya I, Vijayaditya II, Vikramaditya II, Vijayaditya III and Vikramaditya III.
Some of these chiefs were often engaged in the conflicts involving the Pallavas, the Rashtrakutas and the Cholas and the feudatory dynasties such as the Vaidumbas, the Western Gangas and the Nolambas. They entered into matrimonial alliances with the other feudatory families and strengthened themselves. Thus Vikramaditya I married the daughter of the Western Ganga ruler Prithivapati I. Two inscriptions of his son, Vijayaditya II dated S. 820 (A.D. 898) and S. 827 (A.D. 905) take us to the period of the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna II (A.D. 880-914), by which time the Pallavas had been replaced by the Imperial Cholas. The failure of Krishna II with whom the Banas were allied to secure the throne of the Cholas for his daughter’s son, Kannaradeva, as against Kannaradeva’s rival and half-brother Parantaka I, created considerable difficulties for the Banas. Vikramaditya II and Vijayaditya III, who are said to have been, then ruling over the Bana principality, were defeated and ousted from power by the Western Ganga chief Prithvipati II under the orders of Parantaka I. The Bana territory thus passed into the hands of the Chola ruler Parantaka I who appointed his own governors over it. But the irrepressible Banas were not to be eliminated altogether. One of the subsequent Bana chiefs lived to even acquire the appellation ‘dear friend of Krishna Raja,’ i.e, Rashtrakuta Krishna III (AD. 939-67).