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JULY, 1917)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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hardly equalled by the reign of any other sovereign of the Naik dynasty except Tirumal Näik. Roads and avenues, choultries and water bouths, verples and tanks, rose without38 number; and a loving and wonder-struck people echoed the praises of one who, though a woman, asserted her claim to high eminence in history. Imagination came in course of time to triumph at the expense of honest admiration and an admiring posterity attributed to her a chain of roads87 and choultries from the distant Kasi to the Cape,-a pardonable exaggeration which had its basis in the fact that in addition to her works of charity in her own kingdom, Mangammal built a choultry for the pilgrims in the sacred city of Hinduism.
Her toleration, Though the ruling passion of Mangamma! was a sincere attachment to the gods of Hinduism, and though in her religious policy she was entirely directed by the arts of orthodox flattery, yet the great queen was not so bigoted or narrow-minded as to persecute those who embraced other religions. She had an elightened understanding of the value of religious toleration, and endeavoured to be impartial in her treatment of the different religions. In 1692, for instance, she permitted her ward and grandson to make an endowment to a Muhammadan for the maintenance of a mosque (Antiquities, II, p. 7). Again when she heard that Father Mello of the Jesuit Society was seized and imprisoned by the Setupati, her in-lignation was awakened and she insisted, with success, on his immediate release. On another occasion, 38 the Jesuit missionary, Father Bouchet, who had heard of the liberal idcas of the Queen-Regent, paid a visit to her, and though he was not favoured with a personal interview, he received the solemn assurance that the Christians would be free from the mischief of fanatics and the ravages of thieves. The missionary was treated with the respect and the courtesy due to his position and person, and even honoured with a procession which escorted him, with much éclat, to his station. In 1701, again, she sanctioned a grant of lands near Trichinopoly for a Musalman dargah at Penukonda for an alleged successful prophecy in the Tanjore affair.39
The Mughal Advent 1693. In her foreign policy Mangammal was, as has already been mentioned, both cautious and as a rule successful. With a calm mind, which saw clearly the possibilities and impossibilities of her arms, she guided the State in such a way as to obtain the maximum of gain with the minimum of sacrifice. This aspect of her polioy is olear in her ready subjugation to the superior might of the Mughal Empire. In the year 1693, a formidable army under
16 The Telugu Chron. says that she built choultries at the distance of every kdtam (10 miles), dug tanks, and orooted water-booths at the distance of every five ndžikas (7 miles), and wells, with brick work and stone steps, at the distance of every nalika (11 miles). All these being completed, it says she built a bandsome choultry at Kabi.
37 Madura Garr., p. 54. Taylor thinks that Maugammal's charity might be due to her repentance for some amorous escapade. See his O. H. MSS. II.
38 Taylor's O. H. MSS. II, p. 227. It is said that the missionary saw the Dalavai, Narasappaiya evidently, and not the Queen. Narass was a very orthodox man and had dismissed certain bombardiers out of service on discovering them to be" Farangis," i. e., European Christians. Ho however gave a warm reception to the Father, and took the presents the latter brought to the Queen and induced her to be generous as usual. The presents were a two-feet terrestrial globe, and nine-inch glass globe, magnifying and burning glasses mirrors, etc.
39 See Mair. Ep. Rep., 1911, p. 90. Mr. Krishna Sastri believes that the Tanjore affair here men. tioned was probably the alliance with it against Mysore. The inscription mentions a Vira Voukata Deva as suzerain, and Mr. Krishna Sastri, instead of seeing that it is a formal affair, makes the mistake of reconciling this with Venkata II of the Chandragiri dynasty !!
