Indian Antiquary Vol 43

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 16

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1914.
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The greatness of the Saļuvas at this period, There are strong reasons for believing that the imperial agents and representatives of the period belonged to a very powerful feudal house, called the Sâļuva 1, who advanced their interests in such a manner as to eclipse the names of their masters, and behaved with a vigoar which could hardly be consistent with a position of absolute subordination. The Saluvas—"the hawks (Saluvas) to the birds of hostile kings"-had a respectable antiquity in Vijayanagar service. The first of them Saluva Mangu came to prominence as a subordinate of the celebrated Kampaņa Udayar. He, it is said, distinguished himself by conquering the Sultan of the south (Madura) and making him subordinate to Samba Raya,52 a prominent though feudatory king in N. Arcot, and by restoring Ranganatha to Sriranga and endowing 60,000 madas for the revival of the worship in the temple. We have already seen that Kampara's general Gopannârya restored the worship at Srirangam and subdued the Muhammadans; evidently Saluva Mangu53 wes his lieutenant or colleague. From the time of Mangu, the Saluvas had increased in power and in renown. Various members of the family ruled in different parts of the Vijayanagara Empire, "sometimes as feudatories and sometimes as semiindependent chiefs," as evidenced by the existence of stray epigraphical records.
The saļuva Governors of the North. Saluva Tippa Raja," for instance, the grandson of Mangu, so far advanced his career & to marry to in the royal family, and as the brother-in-law of Emperor,Deva Raya II, he became the viceroy of N. Arcot and part of Mysore,-a position which his son Goppa (circa 1430A.D.) evidently continued to occupy. The relations of a family so nearly connected by blood with the imperial family and so prominent in the service of the empire, were naturally rewarded and honoured with offices and powers in the different part of the empire. A Saļuva Raja, known as Kampaya Deva, for instance, seems to have ruled about 1446 A. D. in the neighbourhood of Tirupati, and made gifts to the holy shrine of that place. Four years later, we meet with another scion of the family, Sirumallaiya Deva, son of Malagangaiya Deva, in the same locality. In 1465, again, a Parvata Raja of the same family, distinguished himself by building a mantapa in the temple, and in 1481 Timma Raja, the son of the above mentioned Sirumallaiya made a grant. More important, at any rate for our purpose, than the Sâļuvas of North Arcot, were the Saļuvas who evidently ruled further south in the Trichinopoly, Tanjore and Madura distriots. We, unfortunately, do not know whether the Sâļuva chiefs exercised power over the region continuously from the time of Saluva Mangu, the contemporary and Lieutenant of Kampaya Udayar. We presume they did not. For, as we have already seen, the Udayar dynasty itself ruled in these regions till 1404, and then the great Lakkara Dandaniyaka
51 For a discussion of the origin and meaning of the word Saļuva, see Arch. Suru. 1908-09, p. 166. 52 His inscriptions have been found at Conjoeveram in 1338 A.D. He has been called to
fat T O T. (Ep. Rep. May 1890). From Inscn. 46 of 1900 we find that he was the son of one Vira Champa the son of Vira Chola. Sambava Raya ascended the throne in 1337 A. D. It is evident he was a scion of the old line Chola (Ep. Rep. 1900). At any rate he came to prominence during the Chola decline in Chingleput, N. Arcot and S. Arcot districts. An inscription of 1335 at Tiruvamattur seys (434 of 1903) that he came to the throne in 1321. He refers to the Muhammadan invasion and his victory over them in consequence of which he assumed the title I
G T (Emperor of the whole world) The invasion must be that of 1327, which Mr. Venkaiyah ignores (see Ep. Rep. 1904 p. 16, 1906, p. 85; Ep. Ind. III.)
53 Madr. Ep. Rep. 1905, p. 62-3. The Jai Muni Bharatham says that he killed the Sultan of Madura
54 cf., Ep. Rep. 1905 (693 and 703 of 1904) 89 of 1905 says that he built the flagstaff of Tiruvelangada and Rame varam; No. 498 of 1905 of the same place also refers to him.