A study of nayakatana in the vijayanagar kingdom with specil reference to Krishnadevaraya period in the 16^th century

The vijayanagar empire occupied very important position in medieval south indian History. It extended to all the three major language regions of south India, and ruled by four royal dynasties. Among them Tuluva is very important. Tuluva Krishnadevaraya took this empire to zenith of power during the short term of only twenty years (1509–1529) of his administration. For this, his Nayankara system was responsible. In this field, the research have already pointed out that the Nayakas played a significant role in the political and military system of vijayanagar empire. But a research on Nayaka does not clearly mentions about their basic points. Emphasizing this iam here an attempt to answer it, on the basis of contemporary inscriptions. So I define “one who received the land or sirmai from the king through Nayakatana and in his province ruled like little kings known as Nayakas. Those who suffixed the honorific title of Nayaka to their personal names were not considered as Nayakas.”

Krishnadevarayas inscription mentions that there were 68 Nayakatana in all the three states of Andra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu distributed to 55 Nayakas. Among Brahmins were in upperhand. The others also had the Nayakatana. The powerful families who received Nayakatana from the king were the Timmarasu in Karnataka and Mallappa nayaka in Tamilnadu. Majorty of the individuals who held Nayakatana assumed different positionsin administration. It was not a compulsory for a person to hold Nayakatana to have a Nayaka title in his name. So the Nayakas were ruling mediators between King and Subjects.