The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c23.3

v1.c23.3

THE southern throne was still in possession of the grandson of Visvanatha, Virappa Nayaka. After the defeat sustained by his forces in the battle of Vallaprakara at the hands of Venkata, while Viceroy of the Tamil country ¹, Virappa rendered unwilling submission to the Emperor of Vijayanagara, as several inscriptions of the first years of Venkata's reign prove. In 1586, Virappa requested and obtained from Venkata the Dalavay Agraharam plates, by which the village Ganga Varappatti with other villages around were given to a number of Brahmans. The plates say that Virappa was then ‘living gloriously’ ². An inscription of 1588 of Venkata himself at Pirammalai, Tiruppattur, Ramnad, shows that his sovereignty was at that time acknowledged in the Madura country ¹. Another inscription of the same year, at Erode, records a grant of Virappa, as Venkata's subordinate ². In 1590 Venkata, while at Kumbakonam, granted some villages in the Tinnevelly district to a Vaishnava shrine under the management of a certain Krishna Das ³; this also shows that his jurisdiction over the Madura country was unquestioned. Then in 1592 the Emperor made another grant to a temple at Tirukkurungudi, also in the Tinnevelly district ⁴. But suddenly such acknowledgements of Venkata's suzerainty over the South are no more found. What is the cause of this interruption?