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VIJAYANAGARA
61. The earliest inscription of the Vijayanagara dynasty in the collection
is (No 114) which belongs to Bukkaṇa-Oḍeya (Bukka I) from Kaṭletala in the
South Kanara district. It is dated in Śaka 1282, Plava, and mentions Madarasa, the Governor of the Maṅgaḷūru-rajya.
Sāvaṇa-Oḍeya.
A damaged record of Śavaṇa-Oḍeya dated in Śaka 1279, Śubhakṛit,
comes from Talapanūru in the
Cuddapah district ( No. 327). It
registers a gift of land to the gold Mallinātha at Talapunūr by a certain Aṅgabōla
Nāyanigāru, for the merit of a lady (name lost), probably queen of
Voḍayalu Kamparāja and of his parents Pēravagāru and Nāgasāni. The date
given in the record is a mistake for Śaka 1284 with which corresponded
Śubhakṛit the cyclic year quoted in the record. It must, however, be noted
that Śaka 1279 (current) corresponded to the cyclic year Śubhakṛit according to
the Northern cycle. But we cannot be sure if this cycle would have been
adopted in this record. According to an inscription from Kāḷahasti ( No. 188 of
1903), the cyclic-year Śubhakṛit was his 15th year, which would give Śaka 1270
as the date of his accession. No. 503 of 1906 calls him ‘the Lord of the Eastern
ocean ruling from Udayagiri-paṭṭanaâ.
A chaityalaya at Kandanavrolu (Kurnool).
62. An inscription engraved on the pedestal of a missing stone image kept in
the open air Archaeological Museum at Hampi (No. 336) records the construction of a chaityālaya at the city of Kandanavrōlu (modern Kurnool) and the
consecration therein of the image of Kuṁṭhu-Tīrthaṅkara by Immaḍi-Bukkamantrīśvara,
who is stated to be the son
of Baichaya-Daṇḍanatha, who was a disciple
of Dharmmabhūshaṇa-Bhaṭṭārakāchārya of
the Mūla-saṅgha, the Balātkāra-gaṇa and the Sarasvatī-gachchha. The Śaka
year given in the record is lost, but the cyclic year quoted with the other details
corresponded to A. D. 1395, March 8, Monday. The inscription may, therefore,
be of the time of Harihara II.
After the death of Harihara II in Śaka 1326, the Vijayanagara throne was
held for a short time between his son Bukka II and Viruppaṇa till it passed to
Dēvarāya I in Śaka 1328. Very few inscriptions are found of Dēvarāya I in
the Tamil districts. During his reign, however, from Śaka 1328 to 1344, the
province known as the Rajagambhīra-rajya was ruled by Vīra Bhūpatī, son of
Bukka II and Vijaya-Bhūpati, son of Dēvarāya himself, the former holding the
territory comprising portions of the present South Arcot, Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts and the latter the territory to the north of it. Both of these
were probably Dēvarāya’s viceroys.
Vira-Bhupati.
63. Vīra-Bhūpati is represented by a single record (No. 104) from
Māraṅgiyūr in the South Arcot district dated in Śaka 1341, Vikāri. His
inscriptions in the Tamil country are
found from Śaka 1332 (No. 62 of 1908)
to Śaka 13+3 (No. 653 of 1902). The present inscription [records the sealing
down of the taxes payable by the Kaikkōḷas residing in the tirumaḍaiviḷāgam of the temple at Māriṅgūr to the level obtaining at Iḍaiyaru.
Devaraya-Maharaya II
64. Of the five records of Dēvaraya-Maharaya (Nos. 63, 143, 264, 300, and
312), one from Kaṇṇanūr in the Musiri taluk of the Trichinopoly district
(No. 143) dated in Śaka 1340, Plavaṅga, mentions a mahā-sāmantādhipati of the
king named Kōṭṭai Bommaya-Nāyaka who revived worship in the temple of
Alagapperumāḷ at Periya-Kaṇṇanūr, which had been in abeyance for a long
time, by confirming the previous gifts made to the temple and by a fresh grant
of the village Śirukkaḷḷikkuḍi from his jivita in Mēlai-vaḷḷuvappāḍi nāḍu, a
subdivision of Karikala-kanna-vaḷanadu. This general probably hailed from the
Kanarese districts, if we can judge by his signature in Kanarese at the end of
this Tamil inscription. Another officer (mahāpradhāni) of the king was
Perumaḷadeva-Dnnayaka who founded an agrahāra after his name at Śirrāmūr near
Paranūr in the South Arcot district (No. 61). This officer is known to us already
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