THE VIJAYANAGAR KINGS

a ceratin Boḍḍucherla Timmana by the king in appreciation of his proficiency in the game of chess (Studies in the History of the Third Vij. Dyn., p. 419). No. 374 recording a remission of dues on the mānya and vṛitti lands belonging to the karaṇam of Ambavaram which is called a hōra-grāma, contains at the end, a verse in Telugu addressed to China-Timmabhūpa of which a copy is also found in ‘Local records’ (Ibid. p. 355). It states in effect that the Brāhmans merely by virtue of their taking up to accountancy and other service do not fall from their high estate, and reminds the king of his promise not to levy even 1/16 of the tax on lands given to Brāhmans. The insertion of the verse here is pro- bably meant to emphasis his obligation to adhere to this promise.

Vīramushṭi and Dommari communities.
   TheVīramushṭis and the Dommaris are mentioned in two records from Vallūru in the Cudapah district. No. 431, dated in Śaka 1475, records the gift made by some Dommari leaders, of the taxes due to them from the village Peda- Vallūru to the local temples for the merit of the 24 families of their community. These 24 families are also referred to in an undated inscription (No. 417) from the same district. The other inscription (No. 430) which should also belong to this king, registers a grant of the tax called ‘Vīramushṭi-pannu’ by a certain Mandala Basavaya for the merit of his preceptor Bhikshāvṛitti-Ayya and the Vīramushṭi community. The Vīramushṭis are said to be a professional class of acrobats and mendicants who attached themselves to the Dēvāṅga and Kōmaṭi communities from whom they made their living. They were Vīra- Śaiva by faith and were followers of some Vīra-Śaiva maṭha to which they paid a portion of their income. They also served as guards in Śiva temples, and during processions accompanied the dei6ties for protection. It is said that if on any account, the processional car would not move they even went to the length of cutting themselves with swords to make it run (Castes and Tribes : by Thurston, Volume VII, pp. 407 ff).

Śrīraṅga II : Śaka 1501.
   55. Of Srīraṅga II, son of Tirumala, there are five inscriptions. One of these from the North Arcot district (No. 280), dated in the cyclic year Pramādi corresponding to Śaka 1501, states that the maṇḍapa in the Vishṇu temple at Kāppalūr was built for the merit of Timmappa-Nāyaka, the agent of Śevvappa-Nāyaka, Kumāra-Raṅgappa-Nāyaka and of Koṇḍama-Nāyaka. Śevvappa-Nāyaka is evidently the same as the Tanjore Nāyaka ruler of that name who reigned from A. D. 1549 to 1572, but it may be noted that the date of the present record referring to him is 7 years later than his last date. Another inscription of the king (No. 103) from Śrīraṅgam refers to the officer Rāyasam Tirumalayya who is already known as a subordinate under the king (No. 378 of 1921). The present inscription gives the additional information that he was the son of Tim- mappa of the Gautama-gōtra and that he was a native of Hanumankurichchi.

   A record from the Cuddapah district (No. 380) mentions Tirumala, the king’s subordinate of the Maṭla family, who is known to have issued a copper-plate grant in the reign of Śrīraṅga’s father Tirumala I, wherein the name of some more members of his family are given (Ep. Rep. for 1913, para. 61). A later member of this family was Tiruveṅgaḷanātha whose inscription secured from the Cuddapah district this year, No. 377, is dated in Śaka 1528 without referring to any overlord. He is evidently identical with the father of Anantarājayya, the builder of the gōtra of the Gōvindarāja-Perumāḷ temple at Lower Tirupati (Ep. Rep. 1917, para. 51).
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Veṅkaṭapatidēva-Maharaya.
   56. Of the 7 inscriptions of Veṅkaṭapatidēva-Mahārāya in the year’s collection, one is a copper-plate record (C. P. No. 15) from the Anantapur district dated in Śaka 1511. It registers a grant of three villages in Kundurpi sīma, a subdivision of Rāyadurga-rājya to a Brāhman named Siṅgari-Bhaṭṭa of the Jāmdagnya-Vasta-gōtra. It has been noticed in the Mys. Arch. Rep. for 1921, page 31. The stone inscription No. 8 from Śrīraṅgam dated in Śaka 1534 registers a gift of money for offerings in the temple on the occasion of a festival in the month of Chittirai, in honour of Emberumānār (Rāmānuja) by one Rāmānuja-dāsan who calls himself a disciple of Piḷḷailōkāchārya, himself the disciple of Paravastu Nayinārāchārya ‘ who had his abode at Vēṅgaḍam’. The prefatory portion of the record follows the usual Vaishṇava style in its wording and refers to the great reformer in glowing terms. He is called a

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