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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[NOVEMBER, 1916
ed out that the Muhammadan was as much an enemy to them as to himself. His appeal to reason failed, and he used, we may be certain, the language of threat and indignation, and vowed to chastise a guilt unpardonable under any circumstances. But his threats, and his entreaties were equally ineffectual. For months his endeavours brought forth little more than empty exchanges of sweet words. Shows and pomps, amusements and entertainments, followed in rapid but futile succession; but while the emperor's glory was exalted by pomp and pageantry, by falsehood and flattery, the profusion of praises on the part of the Nâiks was hardly accompanied by sincerity of feeling or rectitude of conduct. With the gorgeous display of loyalty and liberal assurance of support they combined a duplicity which did not hesitate to hold friendly communications with the invaders. The King of Mysore, the gallant and chivalrous Kanthîrava Narasa Râj, who came to the throne in 1639, was the only ruler who had a true and statesmanlike grasp of the situation, and who was true to his suzerain. But he, as we have already seen, had his own difficulties. While Golconda had been engaged in attacking the Empire in the plains, Bijapur had been warring37 with him in the Upper carnatic. Indeed by 1637 the Bijapur General Rendulla Khan had overcome "the whole open country of Bankapur, Hurryhur, Baswapatam and Tarrikera, up to the woods of Bednore," and in 1638-laid siege to Srirangapattanam 38 itself. Rendulla Khan succeeded in effecting a formidable breach and making a general assault; and it required the utmost energy and sleepless valour of Kanthirava to save the capital and compel the enemy to retreat. Under these circumstances, he could not promptly come to the assistance of his suzerain, and the army which he despatched in consequence was to late too assist or too weak to avenge. The Muhammadans had taken advantage of Sri Raiga's tardiness or rather weakness to garrison the conquered region, so that they now had new resources at their disposal. In a few months the prospect of Sri Ranga became so gloomy that he gave up the idea of defence and took refuge among the Kallas of N. Tanjore, where, in the fidelity of his rude hosts, he forgot for a few months the precariousness of his situation. Misfortune, however, pursued him thither also. The loss of power and lands brought the loss of friends and attendants. Powerlessness provoked disaffection, and adversity ingratitude. Many a soldier, courtier and nobleman, deserted his sovereign at a time when his fortunes were in the lowest ebb, when the toils of hardship and the sorrows of want made life a burden to him. Friendless and homeless, the unfortunate monarch, a pathetic spectacle of fallen greatness, then fled for protection to the only chieftain who had proved himself to be a loyal servant and true statesman, the ruler of Mysore.
(To be continued.)
37 Wilks, I. p. 32 and 41. Kanthirava was a very strong and chivalrous ruler. Wilks narrates an instance of his chivalrous spirit. Once he went to the Trichi Court and defeated in combat a champion of that Court, who had defeated all his challengers from every part of India. Wilks I, p. 30. For his administration of Mysore, Ibid, p. 32-33. It is curious that Wilks does not refer to the war between the emperor and his vassals and to the part that Mysore played therein. The numismatic importance of Kanthirava's reign is described in Chap. XI: see also Ante, XX, p. 308-9; Madr. Arch. Rep. 1910-11 p. 3; Buchanan II, 381.
38 The dominions of Jaga Deva at this time were all brought under the Mysore Rajas and the Muhammadans now attempted to take these regions. See Buchanan II, 484; Rice's Mys. Gazr. II, p. 62; and Madr. Ep. Rep. 1911, p. 62.
