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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1916
accusing him, came to regard him as the saviour of Madura's honour, and so showered honours on him. As Nelson says, Tirumal's later conduct was truly tactful and generous, and proved that he was not ignorant of the art of winning men.
SECTION III.
The War with Travancore.
When the war with Mysore came to an end Tirumal Naik was engaged in a war with Travancore. The relations between Madura and Travancore had been, on the whole, of a friendly nature, from the time when Viśvanâtha established his dynasty in 1560. At the time when this happened Travancore was distracted by unceasing war between the senior Tiruvaḍis of Siraivoy and Jayasimhanâl for supremacy. In 1559 the head of the Jayasimhanâ was Unni Kêrala Varma's, and the head of Siraivoy, Sri Vira Aditya Varma,99 The former ruled till 1561 and the latter till 1565. In 1567 both these positions came to be combined in king Udaya Mârtânca Varma. For a space of twenty years this Raja Keld evidently an undisputed swa He was not without co regents; for we hear of a queen1co of the Kúpakas in 1576, a Ravi Varma in 1578 and a Bhûtala Vira Râma Varma in 1586; but all these were apparently loyal and obedient to him. From 1595 to 1607 the reigning king was Sri Vira Ravi Varma.1 After him ruled Sri Vira Unni Kêrala-Varma (1612-23) of Siraivoy (who had a coregent in Sri Vira Ravi Varma 1620-3) and Sri Vira Ravi Varma of Tiruppapur (1628-47) who had a coregent in Unni Kêrala Varma (1632-50). The last of these was the sovereign who granted Vizhinjam to the English East India Company, the earliest English settlement in Travancore.
The relations between these kings and the Madura Nâiks seem to have been, as I have already mentioned, on the whole cordial. There were indeed occasions when the Nanji kings tried to wrest the extreme south from Madura, but their attempts invariably ended in failure, and they had to acknowledge not only the Vaduga's right to the possession of the disputed area but to the payment of tribute. In 1606, for example, Muttu Virappa2 gave some lands to the Bhagavati temple at Cape Comorin. Apparently the Nânji king, either Vîra Ravi Varma or Unni Kêrala, refused to pay the wonted tribute to Tirumal Nâik, thereby provoking his anger in 1634.
However it might have been, the campaign of Tirumal Naik was a success. An edict3 of the Travancore king to the Nanji ryots in 1635 tells us that Tirumal's victorious army occupied the region between Mangalam (3 miles from the Cape) and Manakudi, that the agriculturists were put to immense trouble by the invaders and were helpless, that cultivation was not carried on, and that a part of the tax was therefore remitted by government.
97 See Nagam Aiya's Trav. Manual, p. 299.
98 He was the senior Tiruvadi of Tiruppâpûr.
99 He completed the construction of the eastern gopura of the Padmanabhasvami temple. For another gift of his see Trav. Manual, p. 300.
100 She constructed the temple of Kariamânikka at Idaraikudi (Agast yêévarem Taluk). She was not improbably the queen who, according to Portuguese records fought with the Portuguese and was compelled to make peace with them. Mr. Mackenzie says that in 1571 and 1574 the senior Râni of Travancore at Attingal started an agitation against Christians and burnt three churches. Was she the same as the queen of the Kopakas? See Ibid, 300-1.
1 The Tiruvaṭṭâr insen. refers to him. See Ibid, 301. He had a coregent named Sri Vira Râma Varma. An inson, at Suchindram dated in 1609 refers to his death,
2 See Trav. Manu,, p. 302.
3 Ibid, 302-3. The whole edict has been reproduced there.
