A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.12

c17.12

In importance, however, the most notable event of Bukka's reign was the overthrow of the Madura sultanate by his son, Kumāra Kampana. Kampana had ruled the southern part of the empire as viceroy from the beginning of his father's reign, and was ably assisted in this work by such famous generals as Gopana and Sāluva Mangu. Kampana first made his power felt by the Sāmbuvarāyas of North and South Arcot, and when he had reduced them to subjection he succeeded in enlisting their co-operation in his enterprise against the Muslims of Madura. The details of this campaign are not forthcoming, but an epic version of it is to be found in the exquisite Sanskrit poem *Madhurā Vijayam* (‘The Conquest of Madura’) by Kampana's wife Gangā Devī. This tells us that while sojourning at Kānchipuram after his conquest of the Sāmbuvarāya, Kampana dreamt that the goddess of the Pāndya country described the pitiful state of that land under the Muslims and gave him a sword dispatched by Agastya—the sword of Pāndyan sovereignty which the Pāndyan kings were no longer capable of wielding. The Pāndya's failure to recover Madura is the historic justification for Kampana's campaign against the Madura sultan which history places in the years from 1365 to 1370. The image of Ranganātha, which had been carried away from Śrīrangam for safety during the time of the Muslim inroads, was restored to its original place in 1371. Kampana died in 1374.