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The Men who Would be King? The Politics of Expansion in Early Seventeenth-Century Northern Tamilnadu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Sanjay Subrahmanyam  and
David Shulman
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Affiliation:
Delhi School of Economics, Delhi
David Shulman
Affiliation:
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
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Extract

These people, called badagàs, though of the same colour and quality as the other peoples of India, are more valiant and powerful in war; because, as I have said, they are a wealthy people, and of great chivalry, and behave with greater dignity than the others, and they have all their cities and towns sheltered and encircled all around with walls of mud or of stone, with their bulwarks, rather like our fortresses, in which too they differ from the other peoples of India, who in general do not live together and encircled in this manner.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 1990 , pp. 225 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 Cf. Krishnaswami, A., The Tamil Country under Vijayanagar (Annamalainagar, 1964), pp. 243–360;Google Scholar also Heras, H., The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara (Madras, 1927);Google ScholarRao, C. Hayavadana, Mysore Gazetteer, vol. II, pt III (Bangalore, 1930), pp. 2172–406.Google Scholar

2 This problem is discussed by Phil Wagoner in the introduction to his forthcoming translation of the Rāyavācakamu, a retrospective account of the early 16th century at Vijayanagara, from the vantage point of late 16th-century Madurai. On Madurai, also see Dirks, Nicholas B., The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 75–93, 96–106.Google Scholar

3 Dirks, , The Hollow Crown, p. 107;Google Scholar for a more detailed exposition of the problems discussed below, see Rao, V. Narayana and Shulman, David, ‘History, Biography and Poetry at the Tanjavur Nayaka Court’ (in press).Google Scholar

4 FSVH, III, pp. 70–1, 83–4. The village of Aravidu from which the family derives its name is in Cumbum tāluka of Karnul district.

5 FSVH, 1, pp. 250–1; Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam Inscriptions, vol. V, no. 154, pp. 406–8; also Couto, Diogo do, Da Ásia, Década Sétima (reprint Libson, 1975), pp. 53–61.Google Scholar

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7 Krishnaswami, , Tamil Country, pp. 270–2;Google ScholarRao, , Mysore Gazetteer, pp. 2158–67.Google Scholar

8 Rao, Ibid., pp. 2179–80, denies this, apparently unaware of Portuguese and other documentation to the contrary; cf. Guerreiro, Fernāo, Relaçāo Anual das Coisas que Fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus, 3 vols (Coimbra, 1930–1942), ed. Viegas, Artur, vol. I, pp. 316–16; vol. II, p. 145.Google Scholar

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10 FSVH, I, pp. 311–21; the sources for the discussion are the Vělugotivārivamśacaritra (FSVH, III, pp. 259–61), and the Kaifiyat of Cittiveli (FSVH, III, pp. 267–70).

11 Kaifiyat of Cittiveli, pp. 190–201, 209–12 (FSVH, III, pp. 267–70, 281–2); on Rao, Jaggadeva, see Rao, C. H., Mysore Gazetteer, II, pp. 2437–8.Google Scholar

12 VV, Introduction, ‘Genealogical Table of the Velugodu Chiefs’.

13 VV, pp. 44–56.

14 FSVH, I, pp. 318–19.

15 kaifiyat of Cittiveli, pp. 190–201 (FSVH, III, pp. 269–70).

16 Kaifiyat, Ibid., pp. 202–9 (FSVH, III, pp. 271–3); also Siddhavatam Inscription, A.D. 1605, in SVH, pp. 248–9.

17 Cf. Stein, Burton, Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India (Delhi, 1980);Google ScholarLudden, David, Peasant History in South India (Princeton, 1985).Google Scholar

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20 On Senji, see Krishnaswami, Ibid., pp. 246–56, which is more satisfactory than the earlier discussion in Srinivasachari, C. S., History of Gingee and Its Rulers (Annamalainagar, 1943), pp. 65–101.Google Scholar

21 Srinivasachari, Ibid., pp. 101–7; for Solaga, also see Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. X (reprint Glasgow, 1905), pp. 209–10 (Jesuit Observations of India);Google Scholar also the excerpts from the Sāhityaratnākara and Raghunāthābhyudaya, in SVH, pp. 271–2, 286–9.Google Scholar

22 VV, p. 56.

23 Ibid., p. 57; also FSVH, III, pp. 274–81.

24 FSVH, III, pp. 275–7.Google Scholar For a general account of Uttaramerur, also see Gros, François and Nagaswamy, R., Uttaramērūr: Légendes, Histoire, Monuments (Pondicherry, 1970).Google Scholar

25 FSVH, I, pp. 323–4;Google ScholarKrishnaswami, , Tamil Country, pp. 286–92.Google Scholar Also see the letters of the Jesuits Belchior Coutinho and Bartolomeo Fontebona, written from Velur inovember 1607, and reproduced in Heras, , The Aravidu Dynasty, pp. 599–605.Google Scholar

26 FSVH, I, pp. 326–7;Google ScholarSVH, pp. 243–4 (citing the Rāmarājīyamu of Venkayya).Google Scholar

27 See Moreland, W. H. (ed.), Peter Floris—His Voyage to the East Indies on the ‘Globe’, 1611–1615 (London, 1934), pp. 10–13, 124–6; alsoGoogle ScholarHeeres, J. E. (ed.), Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum, deel I (The Hague, 1907), pp. 83–5.Google Scholar

28 Cf.de Bulhāo Pato, R. A. (ed.), Documentos Remetidos da India, vol. I (Lisbon, 1880), p. 359.Google Scholar

29 See van Dijk, L. C. D., Zes Jaren uit het leven van Wemmer van Berchem (Amsterdam, 1858), pp. 24–7.Google Scholar

30 FSVH, I, pp. 326–8;Google ScholarSewell, Robert, A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar (reprint New Delhi, 1962), pp. 213–23.Google Scholar

31 FSVH, I, pp. 330–2;Google ScholarFSVH, III, pp. 294–6.Google Scholar

32 FSVH, I, pp. 350–1;Google ScholarKrishnaswami, , Tamil Country, pp. 327–8.Google Scholar

33 For a description of events at Toppur, see FSVH, III, pp. 294–5;Google Scholar also the account in the Raghunāthābhyudaya, SVH, pp. 289–91.Google Scholar

34 VV, pp. 57–9;Google ScholarFSVH, I, pp. 335–6.Google Scholar

35 FSVH, I, p. 335.Google Scholar

36 SVH, pp. 273–4. The Ramaswami koyil at Kumbhakonam, one of the outstanding surviving Nayaka-period temples, was probably built in honour of this event. Images of the kingmaker, Raghunatha, and his wives, as well as Vaishnava and Rama icons adorn the outer mandapa. The temple deity is Rama, namesake of the young emperor.Google Scholar

37 FSVH, I, pp. 336–7.Google Scholar

38 AR, Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (henceforth OB), VOC. 1087, fls. 179–211v (Dagh-Register Pulicat); also EFI [1622–23], pp. 133–4.Google Scholar

39 On Kasturi Rangappa at Puducheri, see EFI [1624–29], pp. 16, 19, 41;Google Scholar on Timma, Velugoti, EFI [1624–29], pp. 117, 120–3, 128, 133–4, 146–7, 346–7,Google Scholar and EFI [1634–36], pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

40 VV, pp. 59–60;Google ScholarRao, , Mysore Gazetteer, pp. 2273–6.Google Scholar

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42 SVH, pp. 304–7.Google Scholar

43 AR, OB, VOC. 1119, fl 1130; also Arquivo National da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Documentos Remetidos da India, Livro 26, fl. 162; Livro 32, fl. 9.

44 Cf.Love, Henry D., Vestiges of Old Madras, 2 vols (London, 1913), vol. I, p. 14;Google Scholar for the family's genealogy, also see Bahulāśvacaritra, and Usāparinayamu, the latter work by Damarla Ankabhupala, in SVH, pp. 304–8.Google Scholar

45 EFI [1642–45], pp. 79–80;Google Scholar also see the discussion in Love, Vestiges, I, pp. 53–4.Google Scholar

46 AR, OB, VOC. 1122, fls. 665–6, and OB, VOC. 1127, fls. 228–9.

47 See note 44 supra.

48 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘The “Pulicat Enterprise”: Luso–Dutch Conflict in South-Eastern India, 1610–1640’, South Asia (N.S.) IX, 2 (1986);Google Scholar also Brennig, J. J., ‘Chief Merchants and the European Enclaves of 17th century Coromandel’, Modern Asian Studies XI, 3 (1977), pp. 327–40.Google Scholar

49 For a chronicle of events in this period, see Saulière, A., ‘The Revolt of the Southern Nayakas’, The Journal of Indian History 42 (1964), pp. 89–105.Google Scholar

50 Sherwani, , Qutb Shahi Dynasty, pp. 448–50;Google ScholarFSVH, I, pp. 346–62.Google Scholar

51 EFI [1651–54], pp. xxxiii, 97–8;Google ScholarEFI [1655–60], pp. 93–9;Google Scholar also FSVH, I, pp. 362–7.Google Scholar

52 EFI [1651–54], p. 240;Google ScholarEFI [1655–60], pp. 95–6, 174–7. Finally, on Chinanna, AR, OB, VOC. 1172, fl. 291v.Google Scholar

53 Krishnaswami, , Tamil Country, pp. 365–7.Google Scholar

54 For a more extensive discussion of these issues, see Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India, 1500–1650 (Cambridge, 1989).Google Scholar

55 Some parallels exist, therefore, between this and other elite formations based on kinship; see, for example, Leyser, K., ‘The German Aristocracy from the 9th to the early 12th century: A Historical and Cultural Sketch’, Past and Present 41 (12 1968), pp. 25–53, and more particularly,CrossRefGoogle ScholarLeyser, , ‘Maternal Kin in Early Medieval Germany: A Reply’, Past and Present 49 (1970), pp. 126–34. For the contrast between this period and earlier Telugu political structures, for instance under the Kakatiyas [c. 1175 to 1320],CrossRefGoogle Scholar see Talbot, Cynthia, ‘Master and Servant: Bonds of Allegiance in Medieval Andhra’, paper presented at the Sixteenth Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, 8 11 1986.Google Scholar