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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JUNE, 1917
punish, that prompted him to issue the command; and when the latter carried it out with more than usual splendour, the king expressed his joy, declared it a worthy source of prestige, and authorised the prodigal to celebrate it everyday. The royal sanction was accompanied by a substantial grant for the purpose from the treasury. It was a conclusion unworthy of Ranga Krishna, but his sin was a common sin of his line and of his time, and he could not overcome it.
All this would furnish a worthy theme for romance, but the true romance of Rauga Krishna's life lay in his din estic life. Alone among the Nâik kings, he could control his passions. Temperance was á virtue of which his dynasty was entirely ignorant, but he shone in it. In a time when kings were not satisfied with scores of wives and hundreds of mistresses, he set a worthy example of virtue and of moderation by the constancy of his attachment to a single lady, a lady who was worthy of his love and found it impossible to live after his death. Raiga Krishna's harem, in consequence, was not, as that of the other kings of his line, a seat of loose life or a source of scandal. His private life resembled that of a common man, and was characterised by real conjugal love and domestic bliss. The palace was, in his day, a temple of peace, not a breeding ground of jealousies, a home of affection and not of bestial pleasure. With him the safety and welfare of his people was not a secondary consideration of the usual type. They lived for themselves first, and then, if it all, for the people ; but he lived for the people and for them alone.
His recovery of the lost territories. Such was the character of the new king and it is not surprising that from the very moment of his accession things began to change for the better. His own vigorous personality would have been sufficient to alleviate the misery of his kingdom, but other circumstances intervened, which enormousiy lightened his task and ensured his success. The monarch of Mysore was attacked nearer at home by Sambajia, and in self-defence had to withdraw his legions from Madura. Ekoji was, in consequence of his own tyranny, troubled by a discontented populace; and his weak frontiers, moreover, were pierced by daring bands of Maravas and Kallas, who now entered the field with the hope of sharing in the tumults and plunders of the day. Ekoji thought it prudent, therefore, to with draw from the kingdom of Madura. As for the formidable Sambaji, he was involved in wars with the Mughal Eın pire on the one hand, and with the Portuguese on the other, and so could not pursue his father's conquests in the Carnatic. The Setupati, again, had his own domestic troubles, for an ambitious Dalawai of his set the standard of rebellion, and taxed the resources of his master. All these events, together with the tactful statesmanship of Ranga Krishna, relieved Madura from her recent ills. Within three years of his accession, Ranga Krishņa found himself the master of the whole of the extensive dominions of his ancestors, and the danger of the extinction, which bad threatened the Kingdom of Visvanatha Naik, was now warded off. Half a century more was to pass before it was to share the fate of its predecessors, and when it fell then, it fell for ever.
The kingdom was now safe, and Raiga Krishna consecrated the first moments or peace to the strengthening of his power and the restoration of the country's prosperity. A firm and determined ruler, he made his influence felt throughout his dominions. His remarkable
26 Wille, I 50-80. Wilks is wrong in regard to the dates. Kumara Raya, howover, it is said, left his son Dndda Deva to continue the siege, but he evidently had soon to give it up.
