The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c13.174

v1.c13.174

The sphere of action of Vitthala was quite different from that of Visvanatha. The latter, as a ruler, had to administer his kingdom, and occasionally to subdue the rebel Palaiyakarans or other chiefs under his authority. But the aim of Vitthala was to re-conquer Travancore and Coromandel for the Empire. There was no need of subordination to each other. Each could fulfill his aims independently. Nevertheless Visvanatha helped Vitthala in his expedition against Travancore, as well as in some of the expeditions against Coromandel. The relations between Vitthala and Visvanatha may be compared to those between the Agent of the Governor General and the Raja of one of the native tributary States in India now-a-days. And perhaps not to interfere in the matters of Visvanatha's Government, Vitthala spent a great deal of time during his viceroyalty in the city of Trichinopoly¹. An inscription of 1545 at Ratnagiri, Trichinopoly, records that under the orders of Ramaraja Vitthalaraja, Timma, his younger brother, made a grant to the god on the said hill Ratnagiri². Another of 1544 at Tiruvidaimarudur, Tanjore, refers to a gift of two villages to the Mahalingasvamin temple by Vitthala³. Again in 1546 he made another gift to the Ranganatha temple of Koviladi, Tanjore⁴. The action of the Viceroy over the the South was only opposed, as far as we know, by a young chief of the Chola country named Solaga, who became later on notorious for his cruelties⁵.