Sriranga III (1642–1678/1681 CE) was the last ruler of the
Aliya Rama Raya
.
Early rebellions
Before his accession to the throne, Sriranga III was in rebellion against his uncle Venkata III[
Madras.[citation needed] Under these troublesome circumstances Venkata III died, and Sriranga III who was with the Bijapur army deserted them and returned to Vellore and made himself the King of Vijayanagara.[citation needed] Sriranga III brought the English East India Company into South India.[1]
Downfall
Many of his nobles like the Nayaka of
Tanjavur and Gingee formed a league against Sriranga III.[3] In response, Sriranga III sent his army against Ginjee. Tirumala urged Golkonda to invade while Sriranga III was focused on Ginjee. When the nayaka of Tanjavur allied himself with Golkonda, Tirumala, worried that the alliance would turn against him, asked Bijapur to send help, but the strategy backfired. Bijapur and Golkonda came to an agreement to divide the conquests between them, and by 1648, Bijapur had conquered Ginjee, Tanjavur, and Madurai.[4] Sriranga III was left without a kingdom. He lived as a guest of Tirumala in Madurai until 1647, when he moved to Tanjavur. In 1648, after the nayaka of Tanjavur gradually decreased the king's allowance, he moved to Kannada
territory.
Battle of Virinchipuram
In 1646 Sriranga III collected a large army with help from
entered into their agreements. This led to the banishment of Gingee Nayak's rule in 1649.
By 1652, Sriranga III was left with only
Tanjore had submitted to the Muslim forces and the Madurai Nayak ended up paying huge sums to Deccan forces, and all three had to cede large amounts of their territories to the Muslim kingdoms. Sriranga III and his allies were defeated in the resulting Battle of Virinchipuram which took place at the village of Virinchipuram just west of Vellore on the southern banks of the Palar River
. The allied Sultanate forces scored a huge victory and Sriranga's forces were forced to retreat. This battle and defeat significantly weakened the authority of Sriranga III.
Last years
Sriranga III spent his last years under the support of one of his vassal chieftains,
Bijapur Sultanate
.
Death
The Mysore ruler Kanthirava Narasaraja I still recognised Sriranga as a namesake emperor. Sriranga died in 1678/1681 as an emperor without an empire, putting an end to over three centuries of Vijayanagara rule in India. Sriranga's only daughter was married to Srivallabha, a descendant of Narasimhacharya.
References
^Copley, Antony R. H. (1986). C. Rajagopalachari, Gandhi's southern commander. Indo-British Historical Society. p. 4. It was a Pretender of Vijayanagara, Sri Ranga Raya III (also known as the Raja of Chandragiri and Nayaka of Vellore) who had brought the English Company into South India and had given it title to its first petty principality. It was the Baniyas (Balijas, Chettiars, Komartis, &c) and Brahmans of Tirupati who had provided the Company with the coins from the mints of Sri Venkateswara at Tirupati.
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay; Shulman, David (2008). "The Men who Would be King? The Politics of Expansion in Early Seventeenth-Century Northern Tamilnadu". Modern Asian Studies. 24 (2): 225–248.
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)
