THE VIJAYANAGAR KINGS

Kṛishṇadēvarāya : his officers.
  50. Of Kṛishṇadēvarāya there are a dozen inscriptions in the collection. No. 98 dated in Śaka 1438 gives a detailed account of his conquests, which are also mentioned in other inscriptions of his like the one at Tiruvaṇṇāmalai (No. 574 of 1902). It states that he paid a visit to the Śrīraṅgam temple in that year, when he endowed five villages to the temple. His other inscriptions, form Śrīraṅgam mention his officers, viz., Vāśal-bokkisham Timmappa-Nāyaka, son of Peddappa-Nāyaka (No. 68), Daṇḍanāyaka Vīrayya (No. 44), (minister) Sāḷuva Timma (No. 30) and Rāyasam Koṇḍamarasa (No. 66). Another officer of the king was Tirumalai-Nāyaka who held the nāyaṅkara under the king at Pūvirun- damalli (Poonamalle) (No. 300). A new chief named Kāmal-Nāyaniṅgāru who is described as ‘ the Commander-in-chief of the king’s forces’ is introduced in No. 403 from Nandimaṇḍalam in the Cuddapah district. From Śrīraṅgam we also get two inscriptions (Nos. 73 and 74) mentioning Periya-Rāmappa and Śiriya-Rāmappa, sons of Vasavayya-Nāyaka and grandsons of Kōbaḷa Tippaṇa- Nāyaka as the donors of a village named Guhapriyam for the expenses of special offerings to the deity on the anniversary day of their father’s demise. Periya-Rāmappa is known to have continued as an officer under Achyutarāya also (Ep. Rep. for 1936, para. 68). The remission of jōḍi and śūlavari made by the king to the several Śiva and Vishṇu temples of his realm is also recorded in an inscription (No. 228) from Śrīvāñjiyam in the Tanjore district copied this year.

   No. 425 from the Cuddapah district dated in Śaka 1451 mentions Turimiḷ- ḷadina (i.e. the modern Tuḍumuladinne) as the agrahāra of Nāchirāju-Sōma, who can be no other than the poet Nāchana-Sōma patronised by Bukka I (Ep. Rep. for 1907, para, 53). The memory of this gift seems to have been preserved even a few centuries later as evidenced by No. 422 in characters of the 18th century, which states that this Turimiḷḷadinne was the ēkabhōga-agrahāra of Nāchana-Sōma, given (to him) by Prauḍha-Dēvarāya.

Tirumalaraya.
   51. Kṛishṇadēvarāya’s son Tirumalarāya is represented by an inscription from the Cuddapah district dated in Śaka 1446, Tāraṇa (No. 416) recording a gift of a village in his nāyaṅkara of Ūṭu- kūri-sīma by Timmayadēva-Mahārāja, son of Āravīṭi Rāmayadēva-Mahārāja to the temple at Pālagoṇḍa. Only about a dozen inscriptions have been found so far of this short-lived prince all of them dated in Śaka 1446, and the present inscription adds one more to the number.

Achyutadevaraya.
   52. Of Achyutadēvarāya there are about 25 inscriptions most of which are- from Śrīraṅgam. No. 16 is an interesting record which is prefaced by an introduction enumerating his achievements as in No. 49 of 1900 from Conjeeveram. His visit to this latter place with his queen Varadāmbā and prince Veṅkaṭādri in the year Nandana (Śaka 1454) and the several gifts made to the temples there, after his tulābhāra ceremony, find mention in this record also, which further adds that the king visited Śrīraṅgam in the next year, i.e., Vijaya (Śaka 1455 A. D. 1533, July 18) and made endowments of money and of three villages to god Raṅganātha in the names of himself, his queens Varadāchchi-Amman (Varadāmbā) and Ōduva-Tirumalaiyamman and prince Chikka-Veṅkaṭādri.
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His visit to Raṅganātha temple at Srīraṅgam.
   The inscription incidentally refers to a certain Nallār-Aiyaṅgār as the king’s preceptor (nammuḍaiya gurukkaḷ). No. 15 from Śrīraṅgam states that in Śaka 1461, Vikāri, corresponding to A.D. 1539, August 26, Tuesday, the king performed the tulābhāra-mahādāna (evidently different from the one mentioned above), in commemoration of which his rāja- mahishī Ōduva-Tirumalaidēvi-Amman composed two verses celebrating the ānanda-nidhi-dāna made by the king on the occasion. It is stated that these verses were recorded on stone along with this inscription at Śrīraṅgam during the regime of Śrīraṅgappa-Nāyaka, son of Tuḷuva Veṅgaḷa-Nāyaka, an officer under the king, with the hope that if they were engraved here and in such other
His rajamahishi Oduva-Tirumalaidevi-Amman.
sacred places, the descendants of prince Chikka-Veṅkaṭādri would rule the earth as emperors (Sārvabhaumas). And actually more than a dozen copies of them in different scripts are found in distant places of the empire.

   From No. 91 form the same place we learn that this officer Śrīraṅgappa-Nāyaka was in charge of Madura-araśar-Paḍaivīḍu in Śaka 1460, Viḷambi.

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