Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 288

274
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[NOVEMBER, 1917
Madura, and therefore more secure, from the Nawab's designs. The generous loyalty of the Setupati built for him a palace at Dharbha-Sayanam, the place of his new exile, endowed the village of Virasoren in his name, and furnished him with the expenses of his household and his maintenance.
Muhammad Ali was now the master of Madura and Tinnevelly. His first work after the assumption of Government was to endeavour to complete the ruin of his rival. Umad Aleam Khan, the son of the Nawab, was despatched to reduce the Râmnad and Sivaganga palayams and to bring the king as a captive,
The Karta in exile. Umad was soon near Râmnad, and when he was about to take it, he sent men to search the surrounding country and discover the whereabouts of Vijaya Kumara. The agents of the latter at Râmnâd acquainted him with the fact, and he instantly resolved to leave the place. Horses and camels, elephants and palanquins for the ladies, were at once set in motion, and that very night Vijaya Kumara went westward to the Palayam of Tirumalai Gandama Naik. The latter with a rare and commendable loyalty, met the fallen and flying king at the boundary of his estate, and prostrating himself at his feet, performed homage and presented gold and silver flowers. He declared that his estate, as well as his life and services, were at his disposal. He built for him a residence, and left for his sole maintenance the village of Têgâmbati." Besides, he supplied him with all the expenses of his household, and himself paid homage twice every day, waiting in respectfulattendance for more than an hour. This intercourse of respectful duty he steadily continued.
Glimpses of the Naik family in later times. With the final fall of the Vijaya Kumara, now a helpless exile, the history of the Naiks of Madora closes. They did not entirely die from the current politics of the age ; for as we shall see presently, the Polygars looked 10 to the Royal exile as their right chief and even, as late as 1757, tried, by concluding an alliance with Mysore, to bring about his return. No doubt, by this alliance it was resolved to restore the fallen monarch. Mahfûz Khan ( who was then a rebel against Muhammad Ali's authority ) was to be given a suitable establishment in Mysore, and Mysore was to have the Dindigul province. The alliance, however, was shattered by the military genius of Yusuf Khan. In 1777 Minakshi Naik, an agent of Vijaya Kumara, waited on Lord Pigot in Madras and obtained his sympathy and promise to consider the past history of his master and his clains.
But before he could do anything he was himself, as every student of Madras history knows, a victim of party squabbles and a prey of his adversaries. Vijaya Kumâra therefore continue:l to live in Gandama Naikanûr till his death on Mirgali 23, Hêvitambl (1777)-more than forty years after the death of the unfortunate Minâkshi. His son Raja Visvanatha Naik succeeded to his claims and was even formally anointed and waited upon by the Polygars of Gandama Naikanûr, Bôdi-Naikanûr, Irchaka Naikanûr, Elumalai, etc., and was paid formal homage, presents and offerings. Next year these faithful chiefs celebrated the marriage of their phantom chief. He remained there for six years and subsequently settled with his people once again at Vellai Kuruchchi. The rule of the East India Company was now firmly established, and the son of Visvanatha Naik, Vijaya Kumara, Visvanatha Bangaru Tirumala, whose poverty was acute in consequence of the resumption of the two villages granted of old by Râmnâd and Bodi-Nå ikanûr, en:leavoured, as late as 1820, to obtain pecuniary assistance from Government. He and * Hiut. Carna. Gours.
• Caldwell's T'innepelly. 10 A Mist. MS. (May, 1820) says that Bettikkuru-hchi in the Bodhinayakhan Zamindari was also given him, See O. H. MSS., II, 260,