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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vol. XVI.
invaded the Madara country and dispossessed the Pandya king. Whereupon the latter appealed to the Court of Vijayanagar, and an expedition under a certain Nägama Nåyakkan was accordingly sent to his aid. Nagama easily suppressed the Chola king and possessed himself of Madura; but he then suddenly threw off his allegiance and, declining to help the Pandya, assumed the position of an independent ruler. The Vijayanagar emperor was furious at his defection, summoned & council, laid the matter before his most faithful officers, and cried out to the assemblage, Where amongst you all is he who will bring me that rebel's bead ?'" ViśvaDátha, the son of Nagama, promised this, captured his father in battle and placed him in confinement, only to be released later on. The Pandya king nominally held sway over Madara, but the new Nayaka régime" developed first into a governorsbip, which became hereditary, and then into what was practically a hereditary monarchy." The Nayakas" were content with the position of lieutenants under Vijayanagar; but in essentials their sway was practically absolate and the Påndyas disappear in effect hencefor:h from history."
The general character of the administration of the Nayaka kingdom of Madura is thus dwelt on by Caldwell! :--" Their reigns record little more than a disgraceful catalogue of dehaucheries, trcacheries, plunderings, oppressions, murders and civil commotions, relieved only by the factitious splendour of gifts to temples, idols and priests, by means of which they apparently succeeded in getting the Brahmans and poets to speak well of them, and thus in keeping the mass of the people patient under their unisrule." The genealogy of the Nayaka dynasty of Madura, so far as known, may be given thus! :
1. Nagama. 2. Visvanatha I. . . . . . .
. . .
. .
1559--1563 3. Kumara Kțishnappa . . . . . .
1563-1573 4. Krishnappa alias Periya . 5. Virappa and Visvanatha II.
1573—1595 6. Lingayya alias Kumāra Krishnappa Visvappa alias Visvanātha III. ,
1595-1602 7. Mutta Kțishnappa .
1602-1609 8. Muttu Virappa
1609-1623 9. Tirumala .
1623-1659 10. Mutta Alakadri alias Mattu Virappa.
1659-1662 11. Chok kanatha alias Chokkalinga.
1662---1682 12. Ranga Krishna Muttu Virappa .
1682-1689 13. Maogamma! . . .
. .
. . . .
. . .
1689_1704 14. Vijayaranga Chokkanātha .
. . 17041731 15. Minakshi . . . .
. 1731-1736 Our record states the genealogy from Chokkanatha (No. 11 of the above list) downwards, and Vijayaranga Chekkanátha is styled a descendant of Visvanatha (probably I), the real founder of the Nayaka kingdom of Madars. He was the son of Ranga Kțishya Mattu Virappa Nayaka, and in his early years from 1689--1704 Mangammā!, his grandmother, acted as regent. She was an able and charitable woman, and under her "Madura apparently all but regained the proud position it had beld in the days of Tirumal." Vijayaranga Chokkanātha took charge of the administration from 1704 and ruled till 1731. He was a weak ruler," was vain and weak-minded and unfit to govern himself or others. His reign was distinguished by the illregulated and extraordinary munificence of bis gifts to Brahmans and religious institutions. The injustice of his rule caused a serious riot in Madura, the mutiny of the whole of his troops and incessant internal commotions."
History of Tinnepelly, p. 62. ? See Maduru District Gazetteer, I ; also The Naik Kingdom of Madara' in the Ind. Ant., 1916, p. 18. • Madura District Caretteer, Vol. I, p. 56.
