The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c32.60

v1.c32.60

7. Sadasiva, the last representative of the Tuluva family, was also a fervent worshipper of Vishnu. In 1556, he granted 31 villages to the great sage, Ramanuja, *i. c.*, to the sect founded by him—as Dr. Kielhorn understands—to enable the devotees to carry on the regular worship of Vishnu with incense, lights, oblations of food, flowers, dancing, singing, music, etc. ². In 1568, at the request of Krishnappa Nayaka of Madura, he granted the villages of Krishnapuram to the temple of Tiruvenkatanatha, at the same place, to keep up the cult of the god Vishnu “ who shone in this place under the name of Tiruvenkatanatha, by means of burning incense, by lights, and by the offering of good food, cakes, etc., by means of offerings of several kinds of flowers, by illumination with many lights, by means of dancing, singing and music, with umbrellas, *chauris* on days both ordinary and special, for the car festival at the beginning of each year for the floating festival during the hot season and for the *yatrotsava* ³. For Sadasiva, to die is ‘to attain the Vishnava seat’, as may be seen in a grant of his of the year 1558 ⁴. In his inscriptions several Vaishnava teachers are mentioned on different occasions: Vallabhacharya, whose eloquent panegyrics as a Vaishnave *guru* are described in an inscription of 1544 at Govada, Guntur ⁵; the *sannyasi* Emberumanaru Jiyyangaru, mentioned in another inscription of 1559 at Markapur, Karnul ⁶; and finally Parankusa Van-Sathagopa Jiyyangaru, spoken of in three inscriptions of Lower Ahobalam, Karnul, of 1555 ¹, 1560 ² and 1564 ³. Another inscription at the same place, of the year 1567, mentions a gift from a chief, consisting of some offerings to be distributed among twelve Sri Vaishnava mendicants ⁴.