The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c12.65

v1.c12.65

5. Two officers of the Empire were again governing in Madura during the reign of Devaraya II. Their names were Lakkana and Madana. The *Pandyan Chronicle* gives forty-seven years as the period of their governorship. In this case, the time of their rule lasted more than the reign of the aforesaid Emperor. We may take it, however, to be a mistake on the part of the *Chronicle*; since it is quite evident that the dates and especially the figures given are inaccurate. Probably Madana died before Lakkana or was deprived of his post earlier, because the *Chronicle* says that Lakkana, "having brought the children of a Pandya King by his (the King's) concubine, one Abirami, a dancing girl of the Kali temple, he crowned them, paid them homage, and delivered over the kingdom to them, they being children of the Pandya; and they reigned”. Madana is not mentioned at all on the occasion of this ceremony, viz. the installation of the Pandya heirs on the ancestral throne by a representative of Vijayanagara. This perhaps means that their task in the South was either to subdue the country which had rebelled against the Pandyas, or to put an end to a family fight springing from a lack of legitimate offspring; for the Pandyas finally enthroned by Lakkana were the sons of a concubine. This fact would perhaps indicate that, from this time, the legitimate descent of the Pandya family was at an end. Some years later Achyuta Raya learnt from Nagama Nayaka that Chandra Sekhara Pandya, the King of Madura, who had been deposed by the Chola King, and whom he had to re-instate, also was an illegitimate heir of the Pandya kingdom¹. The Pandyas raised by Lakkana to the throne were, according to the *Chronicle*, Suntara-tora-mavili-vanathi-rayer, Kaliyar-somanar, Anjatha-perumal and Muttara-satiru-mali-mavili-vanathi-rayer².