The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c13.74

v1.c13.74

The first country that Vitthala invaded was Travancore. Its king was then Bhutala Vira Sri Vira Kerala Varma, alias Unni Kerala Varma, who had ascended the masnad a little earlier ². Visvanatha Nayaka offered Vitthala every facility for carrying out his enterprise, possibly gave him some detachments of his own army, and most probably himself joined the Vijayanagara troops; because it is recorded in the Tamil chronicles that Visvanatha subdued some chiefs of Travancore and levied tribute from them in the name of the Emperor of Vijayanagara ³. Fr. Bartoli and Fr. Sousa also mention the Madura Nayak at the head of this expedition ⁴. Krishnappa, his son, was most likely in the expedition too; since he is described in the Krishnapuram plates of Sadasiva as a man "who by his valour deprived the insolent king of the Tiruvadirajya (Travancore) of the seven parts of his kingdom" ⁵. With Vitthala also went to Travancore Prince Chinna Timma, his brother ⁶, spoken of in the Yadavabhyudaya Vyakhya, as having planted a pillar of victory in token of his conquests in Travancore, near the mountains of Malaya (Malabar)¹. He had been, it seems, governor of Chandragiri². An inscription of Sadasiva of 1542, at Tindivanam, records the gift of a village for the merit of the Mahamandalesvara Ramaraja Chinna Timmayadeva Maharaja³. Another inscription at Narasingapuram, Chingleput District, refers to a remission of taxes by a certain Sankara Nayaka Linganayaka, in 1545, for the merit of Chinna Timmayadeva Maharaja⁴; this was done during the governorship of his brother over the South. Sadasiva Nayak of Keladi was likewise probably in this expedition; in the *Sivatattvaratnakara* he is said to have defeated the Keralas or people of the Malayalam country and to have planted a pillar of victory on the spot⁵. An inscription of Tiruvidaimarudur also mentions a Brahmin of this place named Tiruchchrambala Bhattan, who "joined Vitthala’s army and continued to fight on his side from Anantasayanam in the South to Mudugal (Mudgal) in the North." After the war he was rewarded with two villages⁶.