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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1916
therefore summoned him to his presence and bestowed upon him the title of Udayan Setupati, together with the robes and ornaments, and the banners and ensigns, of royalty. We are further informed that in the warm affection which the king felt to his new favourite, he permitted him to leave his capital only after personally consecrating him to his viceroyalty with the holy water of the Ganges.
Thus it was that the obscure chief of Pogalûr found himself (like his ancestors ) all at once the governor of the whole Marava country. From this time onward, the Setupati had a very close relation with Madura. The most powerful of her feuda tories, he naturally became the leader of the seventy-two Polygars. From the position of a village magnate he becamo a king with the retinues and the paraphernalia of royalty. The title Setupati, hitherto an emblem of past glory rather than of present power, became a real indicator of the actual fact. All this credit is due to the ability of Sadayakka, a man who by his character and conduct more than fulfilled the expectations of his master. A man of energy and fire, of great activity and martial valour, he undertook a crusade against turbulent vassals and reduced them to subjection. The important villages of Vadakku Vatalai. Kala Vâr Kovil and Pattamangalam, once the homes of disloyalty, now became harmless and contented abodes of men. Besides ensuring order in the land, Sada yakka reclaimed a large quantity of waste lands and utilised them for purposes of cultivation and occupation. He erected mud fortifications at Poga!ûr and at Râmnâd, and maintained an efficient police for the safety of the pilgrims. He also repaired and enlarged the temple of Râmeávaram, and made numerous endowments to it,45 earning thereby the gratitude of the thousands who devoutly visited it every year. He ruled for the space of 16 years and was succeeded by his son, the celebrated Kûttan, in 1621.
13 Some scholars dispute this. One Mr. J. L. W., who contributes two able articles on the Maravas to the Calcutta Review (1878-1892), says, like Mr. Boyle, that the absence of evidences and inscriptions previous to Swayakka and the awkward way" in which he is introduced into history, show that there had been no setupatia before him; that he was in fact the founder of the line; and that the accounts of imperial wars and alliances as given in the chronicles are all fabrications. (See Calcutta Review, 1878. p. 448). Jr. Boyle is of the same opinion. He asks “If the youth (dalayakka) had sprung from a royal line, if he only continued the long descent of an immemorial house, what need was there for this legend ? But if the chronicle had to explain the rise of modern family, and the origin of an obscure race of princes, what moro natural than to conceal those humble beginnings under a veil of fable; and to prove that the modern family was only the restoration, under divine favour, of an illustrious house"! (Calcutta Reviete 1874, p. 38). Mr. Boyle further points out that there are no inscriptions or buildings in the Ráme varam temple attributed to anybody before Sallayakka; and that this total absence of monumental records is against the theory of an old and independent dynasty. While there is much in these contentions, it seems, however, that these writers have gone astray. Tradition cannot be so entirely discorded. The awkward story" of the Udayan, on which they base much of their criticism is after all given only in some family chronicle and not in the record of the Carnatic Governors. We may therefore not give much credence to it. As regards sudden elevation from obscurity, we need not wonder at it, as it was quite natural in an age of vicissitudes and frequent revolutions.
4 Sodayakka was evidently confirmed in the privilege of issuing coins of his own in imitation of the Madura Naik coins. See chapter XI.
45 In 1607 and 1608. See Antiquitier, I, 300, II, 6. Madr. Ep. Nep., 1911, p. 89.
