The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16.95

v1.c16.95

Tirumala therefore was the sole ruler of the Empire. We know of several grants made in his own name without any mention of Sadasiva at all; such was the one given in 1567, as recorded in an inscription close to Siva’s temple at Kandakuru, Cuddapah⁴. One year later he granted Holalkere as an *amara-magam* to the great Kamagetti Kasturi Medakeri Nayaka⁵. In another similar inscription of the same place, the donee is called Maha-nayakacharya; and it is further stated that he made over the village to his brother-in-law, Gulliyapa Nayaka, as an *umballi*⁶. In the same year he made two grants to the temple of Vishnu at Khairuwale⁷. Then the fort villages granted to Jvarakandesvara “the lord of Vellore”, at the request of Chinna Bomma Nayaka, were the gift of Tirumala alone⁸. Occasionally, however, some grants of Sadasiva are found among the inscriptions of those days; one, for instance, of the year 1567 comes from Ahobilam, Karnul⁹. Sometimes both the sovereign and the Regent are mentioned in the inscriptions, showing the subordinate office of Tirumala: for example, during the reign of Sadasiva, Tirumala, under his orders, made a charitable grant to the barbers of Battepadu, Udayagiri, and exempted them from taxes¹⁰; the Krishnapuram plates, of which we shall speak a little further on, are another instance of the same. But we know two inscriptions in which Sadasiva and Tirumala are placed on the same level. The one states that during the reign of Sadasiva, by his command and by order of Tirumala Rajaya, a private person gives a grant to a god for cars and festivals¹; the other is a Telugu copper plate of Komarunipalli, Cuddapah, which records that in the reign of Sadasiva and Gutti Tirumalayya, the fourteen villagers of Utukuru district gave to Lakkanayadu lands and fees at three panams for a marriage in these villages². In 1569 one Chinnapanayaningaru declares himself subject to Tirumala, while no mention of Sadasiva is made³. Nevertheless, it seems that the Regent never took imperial titles until after Sadasiva's death⁴.