Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s6.27

v1.c9.s6.27

About the middle A.D. 1606, however, the fading fortunes of a royal capital were shared by Chandragiri with the fortress of Vellore which, after the subjugation of the rebel chief Liṅgama Nāyaka, was graced by the presence of the Emperor Veṅkaṭapati Dēva Rāya and his court.⁷ This new centre was a product of mediaeval times. One Bommi Reḍḍi, a native of Bhadrāchalam, was its founder.⁸ Like Chandragiri it had received the patronage of the Vijayanagara Emperor Narasiṁha.⁹ A magnificent fortress, it had become the growing centre of the Nāyakas of Vellore, who, especially during and after the times of Chinna Bomma, managed to rise to the rank of rebels. But the old name Vijayanagara still clung to the new place even in the minds of foreign travellers. Mandelslo, a traveller from Holstein, who visited the coast of Coromandel in A.D. 1639, informs us that the king "resides sometimes at Bisnaga, sometimes at Narasinga".¹⁰ The former referred to Chandragiri, the latter to Vellore. In A.D. 1646, three centuries after the foundation of the City of Victory by Bukka, his last representative fled to Bednore.¹