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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(OCTOBER, 1898.
We learn from the Parijat kpaharana, that Nrisimha, the father of Krishnadevaraya, brought Madura and Seringapatam under his sway. We learn from the same work and from the Krishnarayacharitra, that in 1513 Krishộarîya began his campaign for the reduction of South-India, reduced Mysore and the country along the Kaveri to his authority-defeated the Muhammadan armies of Bijapur and Golconda - captured the forts of Udayagiri, Kondavida, and Kondapalli, and invaded Orissa, the Gajapati prince of which country was compelled to do him homage. In the very same year he invaded the hill fortress of Udayagiri in the district of Nellore, and ntterly routed Praharesvarapâtre, and bronght the fort under his sway. Sometime afterwards, his ipinister Timmarasu (Appaji) invaded Kanigiri in the same district, and sent word to Vira-Rudragajapati, the king of the place and the last of the line of Pratâparudra of Worangal, requesting him to offer the hand of his daughter to Krishnaraya, as an emblem for peace. Now as Kộishṇaraya was the son of a concabine, he was not a married man at the time of his accession to the throne, because nobody would offer him the hand of his danghter on account of his low birth. Even in such a case as this, when the offer was made by Timmarabu, the Gajapati of Kanigiri was most unwilling to accede to the proposal, but being fully aware of the consequences of a point-blank refusal, apparently consented to the proposal, and invited both Kțishạnriya and his minister to his palace, intending to put an end to the life of the former. But the minister, Timmarasu, scenting treachery, put on the imperial robes and dressed up Krishna râya as a servant. Unfortunately, the members of the seraglio inferred that this servant was the real king, from the signet ring that he wore in his hand. The brave Timmarasn, however, did not lose his presence of mind, and got the king out of the palace somehow. As soon as they found that they were beyond danger, they invaded Kanigiri, carried off the Gajapati's daughter, Chinnadevi, as a captive of war, and drove him and his family to the Vindhya mountains. Their wailings and lamentations there found a poetic expression in Peddana's Manucharitra.
Attempts were soon made on Krishnaraya's life by his new spouse at the instigation of the few female friends, who had accompanied her to the royal household. On the very day appointed for his nuptials, the bride was covered with knives by her attendants who induced her to try and murder the king at once, and thus save the honor of her father's family. She felt compelled, though most reluctantly, to yield to the advice of her friends, and went into the bridal chamber with the knives concealed on her person. Krishnaraya was startled at the sight she presented and called out to his friend and minister, Appåji. Timmarasa, wbo was at a considerable distance from the chamber on his own business, somehow heard the call, and sent the bride and her friends back to her father. However, in remorse for what she had done the bride led the life of an anchorite in a forest now in the Cuddapah District, where her husband provided for her decently. She constructed a beautiful tank there of about twelve miles square and her image is to be seen on the inscriptions adjacent. In its bed, numerous small islands, called Lankas, are formed, with plenty of cultivable land and a number of villages,
And about this tank there is a legend. Though she spent a large amount of money to close its two ghals, she could never complete them. She was pondering over the affair one day with sorrow at her heart, when an old shepherdebs, who used to supply her with milk every day, asked her the capse of her sadness. She narrated to her the whole story, when the shepherdess solved the riddle by saying that each ghat was in need of a human sacrifice, and offered her two sons for the purpose, turning a deaf ear to all entreaties. The old woman went home, called her sons, and told them of what had transpired between her and the exiled
* That this story is not very probable and that the king treated his queen, Chinnkji-amma, as he did his other queen, Tirumala-amma, are shown by the inscription from Simhachalam quoted below and by the fact that severa valuable gifts were made at Tirupati, Tiruvann&malai and other sacred places by both of these queens. A labelled stone image of each of these two queens exists in the Tirupati temple on either side of an image of Krishnaraya; Vadras Christian College Magazine, Vol. X. p. 674. - V.V.)
