Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s13.7

c9.s13.7

Śivappa-Nāyak himself next ascended the throne, and was one of the most distinguished kings of the line. He greatly enlarged Bednūr and made it a central emporium of trade. He also introduced the land assessment called shist. His expeditions in Mysore extended over Balam or Manjarābād to Vastāra, Sakkarepaṭṭaṇa and Hassan. Father Leonardo Paes, then travelling in Kanara, says that he had amassed enormous treasure, that his possessions extended from the Tudry river to Kāsargōd or Nilēśvar, and that he had a standing army of from forty to fifty thousand men. There were more than thirty thousand Christians among his subjects, originally natives of Goa and Salsette. In 1646 Śrī-Ranga-Rāya, the fugitive king of the Vijayanagar dynasty, fled to him for refuge, and Śivappa-Nāyak not only gave him the government of Bēlūr and Sakkarepaṭṭaṇa, but attacked Seringapatam on his behalf. In 1652 Śivappa rescued from the unlawful hands into which they had fallen the lands with which the Śringēri maṭha had formerly been endowed, and restored them to the maṭha (Sg 11, 13).