A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.99

c17.99

Although Venkata II had several wives he had no son. His love for one of them made him wink at a fraud she practised on him of borrowing a baby from one of her maids and calling him her own. Hoping to stop the mischief from going further, Venkata nominated Śrīranga to the succession. But the presence of the putative ‘son’ was a complication, and Śrīranga was no paragon of strength or wisdom. He alienated the sympathies of the nobles by making injudicious appointments and avaricious demands for lands, money and jewels. The nobles fell into two camps: the son’s party headed by Gobbūri Jagga Rāya, the brother of Venkata’s favourite queen; and Śrīranga supported by Velugōti Yāchama Nāyaka. With the co-operation of Timma Nāyaka and Makarāja, two of his lieutenants, Jagga Rāya seized and threw Śrīranga and all the members of his family into prison, crowned the putative ‘son’ as emperor, and persuaded some of the nobles to do him homage. Yāchama defied Jagga Rāya and gathered forces to rescue the lawful emperor; he also had prince Rāma, Śrīranga’s second son, smuggled out of the prison by a washerman. An attempt to rescue Śrīranga by means of an underground tunnel, however, was discovered and led to stricter incarceration. Yāchama made yet another effort to rescue the emperor and his family. He took advantage of Jagga Rāya’s absence to arrange with a captain of Vellore fort, one Ite Obalesa, to slay the guards. On hearing that they were dead, Yāchama was supposed to come and take possession of the fort. Unfortunately the news reached Jagga first, and he returned before Yāchama had time to strike. Śrīranga and his whole family were killed within four months of his accession, as the only certain way of preventing all future intrigues for their rescue and restoration.