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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1917
court. Every day the events transpiring therein proved it. For some time after the murder of Baigaru, a young son of Safdar Ali, whose guardian Anwaru'd-din was, was also Assassinatel at the instance of the latter, by a band of Pathans who, under pretence of Asking for arrears of pay, raised an altercation, and stabbed the young prince. The only possible claimant of the Nawabship was Chanda Sahib, the son-in-law of Safdar, and he was rotting in the dungeons of Satara Anwaru'd-din, therefore, became the undisputed Nawab of Arcot. His next measure would be, it was feared, the removal of Vijaya Kumâra also from the scene. The relations of the Naik chief were alarmed and advised immediate flight. Thus it was that, on a dark night. when the Nawab and his men hardly knew what was happening, Vijaya Kumâra left Arcot with his retinue, and came in hot haste to Sivaganga. He could not go to either Trichinopoly or Madura, for these places had been already occupied by the Nawab's own men, and to go thither "would be to go straight into the jaws of death."
The chiefs oi Râmnâd and Sivaga iga played at this crisis a very noble and honourable part. Frequent sources of trouble as they had been in the time of peace and of Naik magnificence, they now proved themselves, by their loyalty and support, to be true friends. They welcomed the unfortunate refugee from Muhammadan treachery and behaved towards him as if he was still the undisputed sovereign of his ancestral dominions. They paid him homage, congratulated him on his escape from the scene of danger, and expressed the hope that, with the advent of some legitimate king in the future, his claims would be recognised and his kingdom restored. With great kindness, they urged him to stay till that time in their own estates, and arranged for his comfort and convenience.
The practical end of the Naik Dynasty.
With the flight of Vijaya Kumara to Sivaganga we may date the extinction of the last hopes of the revival of of the Naik dynasty. The Nâik dominions were now not under a king tributary to the Nawab, but under the direct rule of that functionary. The legions that garrisoned the Naik capitals no longer uttered the names of Bangaru or Vijaya Kumâra, but openly acknowledged the Nawab as their master. The real king was an exile depending for his safety and support on the precarious loyalty and generosity of his own vassals. From Madras to Cape Comorin, in other words, the whole country, excepting the subordinate kingdoms of Tanjore, Travancore and Cochin, was under the administration of the Nawab. Arcot was henceforth the capital. Trichinopoly and Madura (to which Tinnevelly continued to be attached) were henceforth provincial capitals, the headquarter of the Viceroys appointed by the Nawab. The Polygars had henceforth to wait not on the Telugu descendants of the veterans of Visvanatha Naik, but on the agents and representative of the Muhammadan rule at Arcot.
It was at this juncture that Chanda Sahib effected, thanks to his friendship with Dupleix, his liberation from Satara, and immediately after his emancipation, came to the Carnatio, and set up his claim to the Nawabship. The campaigns which followed, the
