Annual Reports

THE VIJAYANAGARA KINGS

1358, in the reign of Dēvarāya II. The benefactions of a certain chief called Aṇṇa Vāṇḍappa-Uḍaiyar or Aṇṇappa-Uḍaiyar with dates Śaka 1355 and 1358 are enumerated in the Kōyilolugu, and he is probably identical with the chief mentioned in the present inscription, his name having been wrongly spelt as such by the author of the Kōyilolugu.

A spurious (?) grant of Harihara, son of Devaraya I.
   57. A Telugu copper-plate grant (No. 11) from the Śrīraṅgam temple secured this year and engraved in late characters purports to have been issued in Śaka 1370, Vibhava, in the reign of king Dēvarāya-Harihararāyal-ayyagāru (i.e.) Harihara, son of Dēvarāya, ruling from Ghanagiri-nagara. It records the gift of house-site, lands, etc., to ŚiṅgapirānVādhūladēsika son of Śrīraṅgarāja by Viśvanātha-Nāyaka, son of Koṭigam Nāgama-Nāyaka and grandson of Veṅkaṭādri-Nāyaka of Garikapāḍu (Guntur distrcit), while administering the Madura-rājya under the king. Viśvanatha-Nāyaka, son of Nāgama-Nāyaka and the first of the Madura Nāyaka rulers reigned in Madura from A.D. 1529 to A.D. 1564 and as such, the statements made in the present copper-plate dated Śaka 1370 (=A.D. 1448) stamp it as suspicious. It may also be mentioned that Viśvanātha-Nāyaka is stated to have hailed from Kāñchīpuram in Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam in a record from Peruṅguḷam in the Tinnevelly district (Ep. Rep. 1932-33, para. 58). There was, however, a Harihara, son of Dēvarāya ruling as governor in the present Coimbatore distrcit with records ranging from Śaka 1326 to 1336. (Ep. Ind., Vol. XVI, p. 222, No. 664 of 1904 and 132 of 1909).

Prauḍhadēva-Mahārāya.
   58. Prauḍhadēvarāya-Mahārāya, son of Mallikārjunadēva-Mahārāya, ‘who witnessed the elephant hunt’ is mentioned as ruler in Śaka 1392, in a record from Jambukēśvaram (No. 106). Rājaśēkhara-Mahārāya (No. 4 of 106) and Dēvarāya-Mahārāya (Śaka 1405) (No. 309 of 1917) are mentioned as sons of Mallikārjuna. In No. 275 of 1928-29 Gōpurāppuram in the South Arcot distrcit, Bhujabala Timmaiyadēva-Mahārāya is also called Kumāra, a son (?) of Mallikārjuna, who was the son of Dēvarāya-Mahārāya. As it is known that Bhujabala Timmaya was the son of Sāḷuva Narasiṁha who was not connected with the previous dynasty, the word ‘Kumāra´ does not appear to connote any filial relationship. A record from Anbil dated in Śaka 1408 notices a Vīrapratāpa Dēvarāya Mahārāya Virupāksharāya Prauḍhadēva-Mahārāya. (No. 593 of 1902). While discussing this record, the late Mr. H. Krishna Sastri concluded that in all probability, Virūpāksha left two sons, of whom one was Padea Rao (Prauḍhadēvarāya) so named after his grandfather Mallikārjuna ImmaḍiPrauḍhadēvarāya ( Arch. Sur. Rep. for 1907-08, p. 253).

  Further, Śaka Year 1392, which is also the year quoted in the present record, falls in the reign of Virūpāksha, son of Dēvarāya ‘ who was pleased to witness the elephant hunt’ (No. 39 of 1890). This title ‘ who was pleased to witness the elephant hunt’ is also applied to Prauḍha-Virūpākshadēva-Mahārāya, i.e., Virūpāksha, in a record from Śrīmushṇam (No. 269 of 1916) in Śaka 1393. Prauḍhadēvarāya mentioned in the present inscription (No. 106 may be identified with Virūpāksha, son of Mallikārjuna.

   On page 400s of his Historical Inscriptions of Southern India, Sewell notes a Virūpāksha III as the son of Dēvarāya II and brother of Mallikārjuna and a Prauḍhadēva as the son of Virūpāksha, apparently on the strength of No. 593 of 1902 from Anbil quoted above. Since Mallikārjuna had himself the name of Dēvarāya, it may also be considered that this Virūpāksha was the son of Malli-kārjuna, and that he had the other name of Prauḍhadēvarāya also and that Sāḷuva Narasiṁha usurped the Vijayanagara kingdom from him. After the usurpation, this Virūpāksha alias Prauḍhadēva appears to have removed himself of the west coast, and to have wielded some authority there as already suggested in Ep. Rep. for 1931-32, para. 39.

   The present inscription records a sale by public auction of a house-site and the accountancy-right in the temple of Tiruvānaikkā-uḍaiya-Nāyanār for 400 Vīra-champan-kuḷigai to Perumbārkiḷān Pagavanār Āṇḍaperumāḷ of Kai[ta]vanallūr in Toṇḍai-maṇḍalam by the Nālukottu-tānattār of Tiruvānaikkā in Vilāvarāvīdi- vaḷanāḍu, a subdivision of Pāṇḍikulāśani-vaḷanāḍu ‘ on the southern bank’. The hereditary office of accountant (kottu-kaṇakku) had been hitherto in the enjoyment