Rama Deva Raya
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| Vijayanagara Empire |
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Rama Deva Raya, (a.k.a.Vira Rama Deva Raya) (1617-1632 CE) ascended the throne after a gruesome war in 1617 as the King of Vijayanagara Empire. In 1614 his father,Sriranga II the preceding King and his family were gruesomely murdered by rival factions headed by Jagga Raya,who was one of their kins. Rama Deva himself was smuggled out of the prison by Yachama Nayudu, a faithful commander of earlier king Venkata II.
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[edit] Civil War
Jagga Raya’s claim of a putative son of Venkata II’s queens as the King was strongly challenged by Yachama Nayudu, who claimed the throne for Rama Deva, the rightful heir. In a long drawn battle between the two factions in which the whole of the kingdom took part, Jagga Raya was defeated and fled the battlefield and his Gobburi estates in south west of Nellore was seized by Yachama Nayudu.
[edit] Battle of Toppur
The defeated Jagga Raya sought refuge in the jungle but bounced back and sought help from the Nayaks of Gingee and Madurai, both eager to get out of the Vijayanagara bond, to attack Yachama Nayudu and Rama Deva. Yachama Nayudu and Ramadeva sought support from the Tanjore Nayaks, who still treated the VijayNagar as their authority.
[edit] Armies
Jagga Raya and his allies, the Nayaks of Madurai, Gingee and Chera ruler, chieftains of Madurai, and some Portuguese from the coast assembled a large army near Tiruchirapalli . Yachama Nayudu led his forces from Vellore and was joined in midway by Tanjore forces headed by the Tanjore King Raghunatha Nayak.Yacchama Nayudu-Tanjore forces were further strengthened by nobles from Karnataka and (according to some accounts) Dutch and Jaffna armies.
Both the Armies met at the Toppur, at an open field on the northern banks of River Cauvery, between Tiruchirapalli and Grand Anicut in late months of 1616.The huge assembly of forces on either side is estimated to be as many as a Million soldiers (according to Dr.Barradas in Sewell’s Book) and considered to be one of the biggest battles in the Southern India.
[edit] Result
In the Battle Jagga Raya was slain, and his armies retreated. The Nayak of Gingee in the encounter lost all his forts except Gingee Fort and the putative son of Venkata II,cause of all trouble was captured. The Victory was celebrated by the imperial armies headed by Thanjavur Nayak and Yachama Nayudu,who planted pillars of Victory and crowned Rama Deva as Rama Deva Raya, in early months of 1617. Rama Deva Raya was barely 15 years old when he ascended the throne.
[edit] Continued Hostilities
Yethiraja, the brother of Jagga Raya,after losing the Toppur Battle,aligned with the Gingee Nayak and attacked Tanjore, but was defeated with the later ending as captive.Yethiraja waged on, till he reconciled with Rama Deva Raya, after giving his daughter in Marriage. Things settled for the king after the death of the putative son in 1619.
[edit] Loss of Kurnool
The Bijapur Sultan, taking advantage of the ravaging civil wars attacked Kurnool in 1620, but was sent back only to return in 1624 and taking that region completely.
[edit] Yachama
Yethiraja, now father-in-law of Rama Deva Raya broke into a conflict with Yachama when he demanded the Gobburi lands, and by 1629 with help from Tanjore and Gingee forces,Yachama was put down and the regions of Pulicat, Chengulpet and Mathurantagam was completely brought under control of Vellore. Yachama later spent his life in under the protection of Udaiyarpalaiyam chieftain.
[edit] Successor
Rama Deva Raya,with no brothers and sons nominated his cousin Peda Venkata (Venkata III),grandson of Aliya Rama Raya,now governing Anekonda as successor and passed away on 1632,aged 30 after a troublesome rule of 15 years.
[edit] Reference
- Rao, Velcheru Narayana, and David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Symbols of substance : court and state in Nayaka period Tamilnadu (Delhi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998) ; xix, 349 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 22 cm. ; Oxford India paperbacks ; Includes bibliographical references and index ; ISBN 0-19-564399-2.
- Sathianathaier, R. History of the Nayaks of Madura [microform] by R. Sathyanatha Aiyar ; edited for the University, with introduction and notes by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar ([Madras] : Oxford University Press, 1924) ; see also ([London] : H. Milford, Oxford university press, 1924) ; xvi, 403 p. ; 21 cm. ; SAMP early 20th-century Indian books project item 10819.
- K.A. Nilakanta Sastry, History of South India, From Prehistoric times to fall of Vijayanagar, 1955, OUP, (Reprinted 2002) ISBN 019560686-8.
| Preceded by Sriranga II |
Vijayanagar empire 1617 –1632 |
Succeeded by Venkata III |
