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THE MADURA NAYAKAS
65. A few copper-plates and stone epigraphs belonging to this family were
examined during the year. As Trichinopoly acquired the importance of a secondary capital of the later Madura Nāyakas, some of whom were ardent Vaishṇavas,
it is but natural that Śrīraṅgam should have been the object of their patronage
and received many munificent donations from them. The numerous fresco panels
illustrating scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata appear to have been
painted on the ceilings and walls of some maṇḍapas of the Raṅganātha temple
at Śrīraṅgam during this period, and portraits of some Nāyaka rulers and their
officers introduced in these paintings have descriptive labels in Telugu below them,
which, though obliterated in several places owing to neglect, can still be useful
for purposes of identification. At Jambukēśvaram also a few records of this
family are found.
Virappa-Nāyaka ; Śaka 1517.
No. 136 from the latter place dated in Śaka 1517 belongs to the time of
Viśvanātha Kṛishṇa Vīrappa-Nāyaka, i.e., Vīrappa-Nāyaka, son of Kṛishṇappa
and grandson of Viśvanātha-Nāyaka. It
states that the image of Kaṅkāḷanātha in the temple was consecrated by the Nāyaka ruler, and that certain taxes payable
by those who had newly settled near the place called Koṇḍayampēṭṭai were
remitted in favour of the temple for a day’s expenses during the principal Brahmōtsavaṁ. We also incidentally learn that the Cheṭṭi merchants were given some
facilities for colonising near the Tirunīriṭṭān-tirumadil. The details of date given
in the record yield the equivalent A.D. 1595, November 20. The Mṛityuñjaya manuscript dates Vīrappa’s death in Āvaṇi in the cyclic year Manmatha which
but from the present record we have to infer that he lived nearly two months
longer. The Tirunīriṭṭān-tirumadil is now called the ‘Vibhūti-prākaraâ.
Chokkanatha-Nayaka, his five queens.
66. From a stone inscription from Śrīraṅgam (No. 2) we learn that five ladies
by name Maṅgammavāru, Muddu-Chandrarēkhammavāru, Kamalājammavāru,
Jānakammavāru, and Induvadanammavāru
were the wives of Chokkanātha-Nāyaka. The inscription is somewhat peculiar in that it does not register any
endowment made to the temple, but simply states that the ladies prayed to god
Raṅganātha for the welfare of their husband and for marital felicity. The slab
containing this epigraph which must have been originally in a standing position,
was probably built into the pavement round the inner circuit quite close to the
central shrine during the repairs conducted some time later in the Nāyaka period.
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