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JUNE, 1916]
THE HISTORY OF THE WAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
105
The restoration of the Sotupatis. The seven years' rule of Muttu Krishnappa, however, was noted for one important event which transpired therein. This was the establishment or rather restoration of the Setupatis of Râmnad. The great Visvanatha I. or one of his successors had appointed two comunissioners to secure the peace of the province, to evolve order out of the chaos into which it had drifted, to clear the overgrown forests, and to maintain a police for the protection of travellers. So long as Aryanátha lived, this arrangement seems to have fulfilled the object of its introduction; but on his death in 1600 the province once again fell into anarchy. The commissioners were powerless, the vassals turbulent, and the people oppressed and discontented. Travellers had, owing to the abundance of thieves and forests, a hard time. The sådhus, bhairagis, and pilgrims thereupon proceeded to Madura, waited on Muttu Krishnappa, and prayed to him to restore Sa layakka Ulayan, a scion of the ancient line of the Setupatis, to the throne of his ancestors. A story, told of almost every Indian who rose froin poverty and obscurity to opulence and renown, and therefore of doubtful veracity, is told of Sa layakka Ulayan. He was barely twelve when he had the fortune of reriving the greatness of his ancestors and this, we are toll, was foresha lowed by a marvellous experience of his. The boy was found asleep beneath a tamarind tree, with his face protected by a cobra from the rays of the sun ; and the Lada Chakravartin, who happened to be an eye-witness of the marvel, at once interested himself in him, and secured for him, by means of his intercession with Muttu Krishna, the ancestral throne of Ramal. A less romantic but more rational version ascribes the honour of restoring the Setupatis, not to the chief of the saints, but to the chief guru of King Muttu Krishnappa. The teacher, it says, once went on a pilgrimage to Râmèsvaram, and received throughout the journey the solicitous attention and secure guidance of Sadayakka Ulayan, the Chief of Pogalûr. The gratitude of the worthy Brahman sought a means of repayment, and obtained for him not only an interview with his royal pupil, the monarch of Madura, but also the grant of certain villages with robes and presents of honour. On his departure from the Court, Sarlayak ka strengthened himself by fortifying Pogalûr, and then, subduing and taking
possession of all the anarchical disorderly country, reducing the inhabitants under his own loninion. He also collected a considerable sum of money in this country in the way of taxes, and brought it to Muttu Krishnappa Naik,"2 Gratified by this conduct, the king gave him an unrestricted grant of additional lands, ordered him to clear the forests for cultivation, and communicated to the people his choice of Sarlayakka, as the chief to whom their allegiance in future was due. According to this ordinance, continues the chronicle,
adayakka assembled a large force, and, with its aid, overthrew a greater tract of country, th: revenue from which he used partly for his own expenses and partly as a tribute to the king. This loyal and honourable conduct gratified the heart of Muttu Krishnappa, who
41 According to Nelson, he was the grandson of the last setupati " who had been murdered by one of the last Pandyas who preceded Visvanatha Niyakkan." In his Antiquities Sewell gives an inscription of 1599 belonging to one Dalavai Stupati Kattir (Vol. II, 5), who made a grant of eight villages to the temple of Ramanatha Svåmi; but the cyclic year Parabhava and 1599 do not agree. Copper plates 11 and 12 of 1910-11, which record gifts of as many as 13 villages to the Rimanáths Svami temple at Râmêsvarsm, mention this Daļavâi Setupati Katta Tovar in 1607 and 1608. Dalavdi Setupati seems to be thus another name for Sadayakka. See Ep. Rep. 1911, p. 16.
42 Ibid. p. 29.
