Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c11.s2.t3.91

v1.c11.s2.t3.91

However that may be, Āraga was placed under governors whose families could boast of having held some of the highest posts in the kingdom. To such a family belonged Rāvaṇṇa Rāja, whose descent is thus given in an inscription dated A.D. 1431: "Formerly, under Bukka Rāya (omitting laudations) was the great minister Baichapa-daṇḍanāyaka; whose son was Maṅgappa-daṇḍādhipa: his son, famous as the king of Māhishmatī, was Baichapa-daṇḍanāyaka; whose son was Rāvaṇṇa-Rāya" who ruled over the Āraga kingdom, the Hanagavāḍiya-Bhāgada-nāḍ of Ānavēri-nāḍ, and the Hoysala Honnūru-nāḍ.⁷ Another instance of a family which supplied hereditary governors was that of Rāyappa from whom, as related above, was descended Viṭṭhaṇṇa. To this family of Rāyappa belonged Srigirinātha, who was also viceroy over Āraga for about eighteen years (A.D. 1420-37).¹ Since in A.D 1432 Srigirinātha calls himself a Brahma-Kshatriya and the son of Rāyappa Oḍeyar,² we may presume that he apparently a brother of Viṭṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar.³ There is an epigraph which has been assigned to about the year A.D. 1450 by Rice.⁴ If this could be accepted, Srigirinātha must have had an unusually long tenure of office as viceroy over Āraga-Guṭṭi Eighteen Kampaṇa. However that may be, Srigirinātha's eldest son Dēvappa Daṇḍādhipa was the "protector of the great Āraga kingdom" from A.D. 1463 till A.D. 1468.⁵ In A.D. 1550, in the reign of Sadāśiva Rāya, "by his order, Keḷadi Sadāśiva Rāya Nāyaka was ruling the Āraga kingdom".⁶ This governor had already come into some prominence in about A.D. 1524 in the Banavāse Twelve Thousand,⁷ and in about A.D. 1545 seems to have been appointed as viceroy over Āraga in conjunction with Rāma Rāya Nāyaka.⁸ But from A.D. 1550 till A.D. 1566 he was the sole governor over Āraga.⁹ If his joint-rule over Āraga from A.D. 1545 is also taken into account, Sadāśiva Rāya Nāyaka's viceroyalty over that important province extended over a period of about eighteen to twenty years. The family of Sadāśiva Rāya Nāyaka is another example of a line that gave governors to the Vijayanagara Empire.