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AUGUST, 1914.)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
1.53
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA.
BY V. RANGACHARI, M.A., L.T., MADRAS.
(Continued from page 142.)
Religious Effects. SUCH were the social and political effects of the Vijayanagar conquest of South India.
The religious effects were equally noteworthy. During the half century which elapsed between the Muhammadan conquest and the expulsion of Muhammadan power by Kampaņa, Hinduism, both in its Vaishnava and Saiva aspects, was in a depressed and precarious condition. Temples were closed or even destroyed, religious processions were disallowed, and forcible conversions to Muhammadanism were attempted and in many cases secured. The gods of Madura, as the chronicles point out, had to be refugeas in Travancore,' and those of Srirangam at Tirupati. The great leaders of Hinduism became scattered, and kept their precarious torch of light and learning burning in retired corners, in secluded villages. The great Védântâcharya, for example, the apostolic head of the Sri Vaishnava community at Srirangam and one of the most profound scholars and philosophic and literary writers of the day, had to retire to the distant and secluded townlet of Satyamangalam and spend his days there in grief owing to the cessation of divine worship in the temple at Srirangam; while his rival Sri-Vaishṇava teacher 'Sri-Saila,u was carrying on at Ålvár Tirunagari and the south, amidst equally depressing circumstances, the development of the more popular form of Vaishnavism which is adopted by the great Vaishnava sect of Tengalais. Saivism and the Smarta7 cult had their doughty champion in Vidyâranya, and he devoted every moment of his life to their revival and extension; but his attention could not have been entirely devoted to this work. From 1336 onward, he had to employ all the versatile qualities and powers of his genius in the organization and the strengthening of the great Hindn Empire which he founded. There is no doubt that his chief object in establishing this power was the expulsion of Muhammadan rule from the south, so as to restore peace to the ancient religion of the Hindu gods, and maintain the safety of Hinduism free from all trouble and disturbance. The realisation of this object necessitated at the time the employment of the resources of his great genius in the firm establishment of the new Hindu kingdom and the organization of its army and military strength, in the construction of frontier defences, the subjugation of neighbouring powers, and so on. And as these naturally could not be effected within less than the period of a generation, the Vijayanagar march to the valley of the Kaveri8 could begin only after 1360. In the period between 1327 and 1360, therefore, the religious freedom of the Hindus in the south had completely gone. Madura was a centre of Musalmân influence rather than a stronghold of Saivism, and Srirangam was daily subject to the vandalism of the Musalman governor and his followers. The Köyilolugu tells us that the Muhammadan was about to destroy the great shrine, when
3 See the Pand. Chron. and other MSS.
4 See Yatindrapravanaprabhdua, Koyilolugu, and the Guruparamparas of the Sri-Vaishnavåg of S. India.
5 See the Vadagalai Guruparampara 6 Yatindrapravaraprabhava. 7 For a short but excellent account of the Smirtas see Madr. Manu., I, p. 87-88.
& There are some authorities which say that Vijayanagar generals were in the south as early 9 1348.9. ... tho Konguddar Rajakkal and Vud igalai Gurupirampara ; but epigraphy clearly proves that their advent was after 1360. Sri-rangam the great Vaishnaya centre seems to have come under Vijaya. nagar generals only about 1370. Soe Köyilolugu.
