Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t3.19

v1.c11.s2.t3.19

We shall presently see what effect this great battle had on the administration of the Empire. In A.D 1574 the Empire judged by the Maredapalli grant of Srīraṅga II, seems to have included Koṇḍavīḍu and Vinu koṇḍapura. If it can be proved that the statement referring to the reduction of Chaurāsidurga, supposed by Mr. Natesa Aiyar to be the eighty-four hill-forts of Mahārāshṭra, is true, then Srīraṅga may have retrieved, to some extent, the lost prestige of Vijayanagara.⁷ The earliest signs of the dismemberment of the great Empire were seen when Rāja Oḍeyar was permitted to possess the territory of Mysore, the chief city of which, Srīraṅgapaṭṭaṇa, he had occupied about A.D. 1610;⁸ when the Nāyakas of Madura and Tanjore assumed the status of independent rulers in A.D. 1602;¹ and when the Bednore chiefs, about the same time, especially under Chikka Saṅkaṇṇa Nāyaka, laid the foundations of the powerful principality of Ikkēri.²