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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1898
the conquests of Krishnaraya over the Masalman princes of Bijapur and Golconda, which he says were recorded by Mallana in his Rajasekharacharitra. We learn from the History of Kondavidu that Tallapaka Chinnana, the writer of the Ashtamahishíkalyána, flourished at the same period. But thougb Ramarajabhûshana and others are said to have flourished at this time, and though stories are current in the Telugu country to that effect, we learn a contrary state of things from a study of the inscriptions and from other more reliable sources. A study of the works themselves will confirm the inscriptions.
There is a story current that Timrarası alias Appâji was a Niyogi Brahmaṇ. Of all those, who by their own efforts and without usurpation of the rights of others, have raised themselves to a very high social position, there is no one the close of whose history presents so great a contrast to its commencement as that of Appâji. Left an orphan at a very early age he eked out a livelihood by tending cattle near Tirupati. And the story goes that while sleeping under the leafy spreading branches of a large banyan tree on a summer afternoon, a huge snake about the thickness of a walking stick emerged from the tree, approached the boy, and with its hood upraised prevented the son's rays from falling straight on his face. A wayfarer saw the incident, waited at a distance till the boy rose up from his sleep, informed him of what had happened, and requested him to remember him when he should attain an exalted position. The wayfarer was, it is said, Bhattamurti, a celebrated poet. But it can be proved, however, that they were not contemporaries!
We learn from a great many records that Krishnadevaraya left no sons, while from one of the inscriptions we find that Achyutaraya was his son, and from another that Sadasivardya was his son. But these are matters for further investigation.
The transactions that followed the death of Krishộaraya, says Wilson in his Catalogue of Mackenzie Collection, p. 87, are very unsatisfaetorily related by native writers. The prince had to legitimate male children of his own, and the nearest heir, Achyutaraya, who is variously termed his brother, cousin, and nephew, being absent, he placed a prince named Sadasiva on the throne, under the charge of Råmarája, his own son-in-law. Achyuta returned and assumed the government, and on his death Sadasiva sacceeded under the care and control of Ramaraja as before. There is in some statements an intimation of a short-lived usurpation by a person named Salika Timmana, and of the murder of the young prince who succeeded Kạishộaraya in the first instance, and the Muhammadan accounts tend to shew that some such transaction took place. On the downfall of the usurper, the succession proceeded as above described. The reigns of Achyuta and Sadasiva and the contemporary existence of Râmaraja are proved by numerons grants. Those of Achyuta extend over a period of twelve years, from 1530 to 1542 A. D., and those of Sadasiva from 1542 to 1570, whilst those of Ramarija occur from 1947 to 1562.
Who Sadasiva was, however, does not very distinctly appear. Some accounts call him the son of Achyuta, whilst others represent him as descended from the former Rajns of Vijayanagara ; at any rate, it is evident that during Râmaraja's life he was but a puppet prince. According to Farishta, Ramraj was the son of Hemraj and son-in-law of a Raja whom he names Sivaray erroneously for Krishnaray. Râmaray, he adds, succeeded on his father's death to his office and power, and on the death of an infant Raja, for whom he managed the affairs of the government, he placed another infant of the same family on the masnad, and committing the charge of the prince's person to his maternal uncle, Hoji Trimmal, retained the political administration of the state. During his absence on a military excursion, the uncle of the Raja and several nobles conspired against the minister, and gained to their party an officer of Râmrâj, who was one of his slaves left in military charge of the capital. Finding the insurgents too strong for him Ramaraja submitted to an amicable compromise with them, and was allowed to reside on his own territorial possessions. After a short interval, the slave, being no longer necessary, was murdered, and Trimmal, the uncle, assumed the whole power. He next killed his nephew, and reigned on his own behalf, conducting him
