The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c21.174

v1.c21.174

We also know of several gifts of the feudatory chiefs and other influential persons during Venkata's reign. In 1589 Madagani Basavareddi Kumarudu remitted the tax on the lands of the gods Mallikarjuna and Virabhadra at Vipanagandla (Karnul) ⁸. In 1592 Krishnappa Nayaka granted to the god Ramanujakuta two villages in the Gangaikonda-sima ⁹. In 1593 Naga Reddi and other jugglers gave away the allowance which they had received for the bamboo play to the god Agastyesvara of Chadipirala ¹⁰. In the same year Gangadhara Cholamaharaya granted land to the deities at Palagiri ¹¹. Rayanamantri Bhaskarayya gave the god Chennakesava a fee of one kasu for every bullock-load of salt, two *kasus* for one of cotton and ½ *kasu* for other goods in the Gandikota district ¹. In the same year an iron lamp was set up in the Mallikarjuna temple at Srisailam, Karnul, for the merit of Mudiyappa Nayaka, by a certain Chikaiya, son of a carpenter of Henjera ². In 1605, Chandra Sekhara Vodeyar made a grant to the family god and his dancing girls ³. In 1609, a gift of seven gold-gilt pinnacles for the big gopura of the Vira-Narasimha temple at Diguva Tirupati, Karnul, and of two fly-whisks and an umbrella of white silk with a gilt *kalasa* over it was made by some merchants of Aravidu, for the merit of 150 headmen of their community ⁴. In the same year, a certain Kala Vaiyyappa built a temple for Agaresva Udaiyar at Polichchalar, Madras, endowing it with a piece of land for the merit of the king Venkatapatiraya ⁵. In 1614 Gangappa Nayaka, the governor of Srigiri-mandala, son of Venkatadri and grandson of Ganga, made a present of four villages in the Dupati-sima, Karnul, to the Chennakesa temple ⁶. During this reign Matla Tiruvengala, the son of Anantaraja, built the gopura of the Govindaraja Perumal temple at Tirupati ⁷.