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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1898.
some other reason. This Nrisimba had an elder brother Timmaraja by name who was, I think, the father of Isvararaja, and the same as SAļuva Timma, the writer of the Paramay givildsa. SAļuva Nrisimba has made a good many grants of land. He made a grant of land to the temple at Vallam, ten miles to the west of Wandewash, rendered famous in the early annals of the French in South India, in S. S. 1391, , e., 1469 A. D. It was during his reign that a grant of land was made by another to the Saiva temple of Yavur in North-Arcot District in Saka 1393, i. e., 1471 A. D. From the preface to the Varáhapurána we learn that fsvarardye, son of Timmarâja, was his captain-general of the forces, and succeeded to the throne after the demise of Nrisimharâja. We learn from inscriptions that he reigned from 1487 to 1509 A. D. Some are of opinion that he reigned till 1505, when the reins of government were transferred to his son, Viranrisimha. This version may be true. As the fatber and the son bore the same name, it is highly probable that those who deciphered the inscriptions have unconsciously made a mistake, and have identified the son with the father.
From 1509 dates the reign of Krishnadevaraya. It is plain from some of the works dedicated to him that his brother guided the helm of the state previous to his assuming the reins of government. There is no question that Nrisimha was of a different family from the preceding Rajas of Vijayanagara, and became irregularly possessed of the throne. He is admitted to have been a Telinga, and the son of Isvararåya, the petty sovereign of Karnůl and Árviri, a tract of country on the Tungabhadra to the east of it, near its junction with the Krishpå. He is described by Farishta as a powerful chief of Telingana, who had possessed himself of the greater part of the territory of Vijayanagar. His illegitimate son, Kțishnaraya, was the most distinguished of Vijayanagara princes, and although his name is not mentioned by Farishta, it is admitted that in his reign the Muhammadans sustained a severe defeat from the armies of Vijayanagara, and that subsequently a good understanding prevailed between that court and the Bijapur monarchy for a considerable period.
Nộisimha had two sons, Viranrisiṁha and Krishnaraya, the former by one of his queens Tippåmba, and the latter by a slave or a concubine, Nagamamba. A story is related of the exposure of Krishnaraya, when a child, by the order of the queen, who was jealous of the favour he enjoyed with his father, and who therefore prevailed upon the king to put him to death. He was secretly brought up by the minister, Timmarasu alias Appaji, and restored to Nrisimhs when on his deathbed, who bequeathed to him the succession, for the warlike manner in which he removed the signet ring from the hand of his dying father, by cutting off the finger, on which the ring was worn, by the sword. Some accounts state, as has already been pointed out, that he acted as minister and general of his brother whilst he lived, and became Râja on the death of that prince. These receive countenance from works like the Manucharitra, dedicated to Krishnadêvarêya. Other accounts assert that the latter was deposed, and one narrative adds that he died of vexation in consequence. It is clear that the regal power was usurped by Krishsaraya, at first perhaps in a subordinate character, but finally as king.
The existence of an independent principality on the east so near as Karnâl, the presence of Muhammadan sovereignties on the north, and the continued series of Pandya and Chola princes to the south, shew that the Råja of Vijayanagara could not boast, says Wilson in his Catalogue of Mackenzie Collections, p. 86, of a spacious dominion on Krishộarêya's accession. From the range, however, of the grants of former princes, particularly of Harihara, it cannot be questioned that their sway had at one time extended much further east, and it must therefore have been considerably reduced before the Kuruba dynasty was exterminated. Krishộaraya not only restored the kingdom to its former limits, but extended them in every direction. He defeated the 'Adil Shâhi princes on the north, and maintained possession of the country to the southern bank of the Krishna, on the east he captured Kondavidu and Worangal, and ascended to Cuttack, where he married the daughter of the Râja as the bond of peace. In the south his officers governed Seringapatan, and founded a new dynasty of princes at Madura and Trichi,
