Indian Antiquary Vol 43

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

Page 19

JANUARY, 1914.]
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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attributing him to about 1430,and may therefore be ignored, so far as chronology is concerned. Depending entirely on epigraphical evidences, then, the latest possible date of Nagama Naik, is 1558, when his son Visvanatha Naik established, as we shall 800 later on, the Naik Raj in Madura. Now, the question is whether the father of Visvanatha and the servant of Narasingha oould be identical. Mr. Krishna Sastri believes it "not unlikely,"ol and it seems to me that his surmise is correct. The date of Narasingha's lieutenant is 1486, and the latest date of Visvanatha's father is about 1558. It is possible, nay probable, that he died earlier. Under these circumstances it is not improbable that the Nagama of 1486 and the Nagama of the Madura chronicles were the same. If that were the case. Nagama must have been very young when he was in Narasingha's service. He must have then supported Narasa Naik, the Tuluva, in his usurpation against the Saluva, and served the Tuluva emperors-Narasa, Vira Narasimha, Krishna Raya and Achyuta Raya, if not Sadasiva also. And such a long record of service perhaps instilled ambition into his mind and caused a desire to make himself, as we shall see later on, independent in Madura. To his first patron, Narasingha, however, he was faithful and true.
(2) Narasa Naik-His Family History. . Another chief whose valour was a main support to the Saluva usurper, was the renowned Narasa Naik, later on the founder of the Tuluvac2 dynasty. Narasa Naik belonged to the same family as the old imperial house. He, in fact, deduced his descent from the younger brother of Yadu, from whom the kings of the first Vijayanagar line were descended. His ancestors, in other words, were the cousins of the Sangama emperors. The descendants of Tuluva had served the empire for a long time in a comparatively obscure sphere, in the Tuluva country. During the time of Narasingha's usurpation, their leader, iswara, emerged from this comparative obscurity, and distinguished himself largely as a devoted general of Narasingha Raya. Iswara is described to have been a chief whose bravery won for his master a number of vietories over disaffected chiefs and Musalmân adversaries, and whose reputation for liberality extended “from Setu to Himachala and from the eastern to the western ocean." In bravery and in generosity, in martial valour and faithful service, Iswara, however, had an equal and companion in his son Narasa Naik. It seems that Narasa first distinguished himself in the southern parts of the empire. We have already seen how, in 1469, a Pandyan chief defeated the Saluva chiefs of the south and marched as far as Conjeevaram, and how Saluva Narasingha, then a general of Virupaksha,vanquished him, and re-established the Saluva influence in the south. It is not improbable that Narasa Naik first came
61 Arch. Suru. 1908-9, p. 165.
62 The best account of the Tuluva history is in Ep. Ind. I. 361-371. The Hampe inscription of Krishnadeve begins from Timma, the first conspicuous chief of the family, and traces the following genealogy.
Timma towars (Bukkemba) Narasa S. (1404-1418).
Vira Narasimha
Krishna Raya (by Nagala) (by Tippamba) The Unamanjeri plates of Achyuta Raya give the same genealogy, but add a third wife for Narasa in Obambika, by whom he had a son Achyuta, who succeeded Krishna Devs, (Ep. Ind. III, 147-58). The British museum plates add Ranga as Achyuta's brother, and state that Ranga had a son named Sadasiva and Achyuta also had a son named Venkata Raya. Ep. Ind. IV, 1.22.