Vijayaraghava Nayaka of Thanjavur

Vijayaraghava Nayaka was the son and successor of Raghunatha Nayaka of Thanjavur (then Tanjore), in the 17th century.¹² Like his father, he wrote in Telugu.³⁴ His court is linked with Kshetrayya, the composer of love songs.⁵⁶ A Telugu chronicle tells how his line ended in a war with the Nayaka of Madurai.²⁷

Author

Vijayaraghava wrote a Telugu play, the Raghunathabhyudayamu (the rise of Raghunatha), on his father’s deeds.³ S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar printed parts of it in his Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919).³ In the opening, Vijayaraghava says that his favourite god, Mannar (Gopala) of Mannargudi, came to him in a dream.³ The god told him to write the work.³ His teacher, Satakratu Tatacharya, took the dream as a sign of good fortune.³

K. Sitaramaiya, writing in Hyderabad in 1943, also wrote that Vijayaraghava “wrote a few dramas”.⁴ Among the women poets of the southern courts he names Rangajamma, author of the Ushaparinayamu and the Mannarudasa Vilasamu.⁴

Patron of Kshetrayya

Sitaramaiya calls Kshetrayya “a contemporary of Vijayaraghava Nayak of Tanjore on whom he wrote a number of songs”.⁵ P. T. Raju, in 1944, wrote that “Kshetrayya’s patron was Viziaraghava Raya of Tanjore”.⁶

Ruler and builder

The play describes Vijayaraghava’s own deeds as well as his father’s, as Krishnaswami Aiyangar sums it up:¹

he made the “sixteen gifts” laid down in the sacred law books in the year of his coronation
he built a new fortress at Pandanallur in a single day
he fought for the Vijayanagara king Sriranga Raya when the Nayakas of Madurai and Gingee rebelled
he set up many rest-houses where crowds were fed every day
he gave jewels, a chariot, elephants and horses to the god Rajagopala, and built walls, towers and halls for his temple
he founded a Brahmin village named Raghunathapura after his father¹

A bronze image of Vijayaraghava worshipping the god, Krishnaswami Aiyangar noted, stands opposite the god.¹ A Telugu chronicle, the Tanjavuri Andhra Rajula Charitra, adds that he began four forts on his frontier in a single day.²⁸ It says he fed 12,000 Brahmins every morning before he ate.² It also says he went daily from Thanjavur to the temple at Srirangam and back.²

The end of the Nayaka line

The same chronicle tells the story of his fall, as Krishnaswami Aiyangar sums it up.²⁷ Chokkanatha Nayaka of Madurai sent envoys to ask for one of Vijayaraghava’s daughters in marriage.² Vijayaraghava refused in anger.² He recalled that Chokkanatha’s grandfather had stabbed his Thanjavur wife over a small quarrel, after which the two houses had stopped marrying.²

Chokkanatha sent an army, which took the fort of Vallam and then stormed Thanjavur.⁷ Vijayaraghava freed his son Mannaru Dasa, whom he had kept in chains, and the two fought to the death.⁷ On their orders, the women of the palace killed themselves as the city fell.⁷ One queen sent her four-year-old son away with a nurse.⁷ The chronicle goes on to tell how that boy was later briefly set up as ruler, before the Maratha Ekoji moved against Thanjavur.⁷⁹ See Marathas.

Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 255 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 324, extract 98, the Tanjavuri Andhra Rajula Charitra (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 254, extract 85, the Raghunathabhyudayamu of Vijayaraghava Nayaka (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 49 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 325 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), addenda, p. ix (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 326 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Author

Patron of Kshetrayya

Ruler and builder

The end of the Nayaka line

Footnotes

References