King Tirumalai Nayak The Great....

The rise of the Madurai Nayaks began in 1559 A.D. with Visvanatha's victory over his rebel father on behalf of the Vijayanagar Emperor. Visvanatha's viceroyalty lasted till 1563, and under the guidance of his able minister Aryanatha, passed to his descendants. Aryanatha died in 1600 A.D. The infant Raj grew steadily in strength, and reached its zenith under The Great Tirumala Nayaka, who acceded in 1623 A.D.
King Thirumalai Nayak had a difficult game to played it ably and unscrupulously. The empty fiction of imperial suzeraintly was no longer consistent with a strong centralised government. The Madura frontier was already in hostile contact with the growing kingdom of mysore. Chama Raja was chafing to revenge a reverse his arms had recently suffered. In the north loomed the cloud of Mughal invasion. so long as the energies of the Deccan Sultans were absorbed in the MUghal war, the Hindu kingdoms were safe from their inroads. Immediately the pressure was relaxed, the fighting sultans must inovitably seek compensation for their losses by the invasion and pillage of South India. Tirumala adopted and perfected the policy of his predecessors for the defence of his northern frontier.
The power of the Nayakas wa established in a frankly feudal basis. "There were 72 bastions to the fort of Madura, and each of them was now formally placed in charge of a particular chief, who was bound for himself and his heirs to keep his post at all times and under all circumstances. He was also bound to pay a fixed annual tribute, to supply and keep in readliness a quota of trrops for the Governor's armies, and to keep the Governor's peace over a particular tract of country; and in consideration of his promise to perform these and other services, a grant was made to him of a tract and other services, a grant was made to him of a tract of country." Among the seventy-two chief Poligars of the Madura feudal system were Ramachandra Nayaka and Gatti Mudaliyar of Kongu.
Each of these names is that of a line of Poligars, rather than of an individual. For instance Robert de Nobili found a Ramachandra Nayaka established at Senda-mangalam in 1623. The horoscope of another of these Ramachandra Nayakas came into the hands of colonel Mackenzie, from which it appears he was born in October 1652 and died in 1718. The name is associated with Talai-malai, a hill overlooking the Kaveri in the south of Nammakkal Taluk, and the Namakkal fort is said to have been built by a prince of the line.
The gatti Mudaliyars ruled in power and splendour the most dangerously exposed province of the kingdom. Kaveri-puram, on the right bank of the Kaveri, was their strategic capital, commanding, as it does, one of the principal passes to the Mysore Plateau. The centre of their power seems, however, to have, to have been Tara-mangalam, where they built a costly temple. It is said that their dominions extended as far as Talai-vasal to the east, Dharapuram in the west, and Karur in the south. the forts of greatest strategic importance held by then in salem District were omalur and Attur. A glance at the map will show that the disposition of these forts guarded against an invasion from Mysore. Kaveri-puram guarded the foot of the only ghat at which the Madura dominions touched Mysore. Omalur served as a apointed'appui against any force proceeding by the routes through Toppur or Perumalai. In this quarter the petty poligars of Denkani-kota, Ratnagiri, Alambadi, etc., intervened between the two great rivals. Attur commanded the shortest route to the coast, and guarded against any flank move on Trichinopoly by way of the Vellar valley. The Gatti Mudaliyars are also associated with Amara-kundi, samkaridrug, Trichengodu, Mecheri, Idanga-salai, and Pullapatti. SAlem itself appears, at least during part of the seventeenth century, to have been ruled by an independent Poligar, Chennappa Nayaka, whose name tradition also connects with Tenkarai-kottai.
The opening of hostilities between Mysore and Madura is obscure for want of accurate dates and synchronisms. It would appear that early in Tirumala Nayaka's reign, Coimbatore was invaded by Chama Raja, who penetrated as far as Dindigul, and was there checked by Tirumala's able general Ramappayya. The Madura army then took the offensive, and drove the Mysore troops up the Ghats, storming one of their principal fortresses. The quarrel then assumed a new aspect, with the sudden intervention of the Sultans of Bijapur and Golgonda.
Bijapur and Golconda intervene. In 1634 A.D. the Mughals (under Shah Jahan) captured Ahmadnagar and ended the dynasty of the Nizam Shahs. The sultan of Bijapur made his peace with the Mughals, and then arranged with the Sultan of Golgonda to conquer the Carnatic. They had been invited south by several hindu princes, who solicited their aid in finally throwing off the yoke of Vijayanagar. About 1635 A.D. a new Raya, Ranga, ascended the throne and determined to revive the authority of his house. Thirumalai Nayak formed a league against him, which the Nayakas of Tanjore and Ginjee joined. The only state which remained loyal to the Raya was Mysore. When the Raya marched against him,Tirumala invited the Sultan of Golconda to attack the Chandragiri territory from the north. The Raya countermarched to meet his new enemy, was routed, and took refuge with the Nayaka of Ikkeri (North Mysore). The Golconda army then marched south to reduce the rebels who had so rashly invoked its aid, and laid siege to Ginjee. Tirumala then asked the Bijapur Sultan to help him. When the Bijapur troops arrived at Ginjee, they at once joined with their fellow Muhammadans. Ginjee fell; Tirumala lost heart, and purchased peace by becoming their humble feudatory. The date of these events is uncertain. The war was apparently over by 1644 A.D.
Bijapur conquers Baramahal. Meanwhile the main army of Bijapur had been otherwise employed. In 1636 and expedition started under Randhula Khan, with Shahji (Sivaji's father) as second in command. After raiding the country near Bednur, the invaders appeared in 1638 before Seringapatam, where, after a political revolution, Kantirava Narasa Raja had been placed on the throne by the Dalavay, (Commander-in-chief). The new king was no puppet; he beat off the assaults delivered by the Muhammadans, and the siege was raised. The invaders then turned east, took Bangalore from the Poligar, Kempe Gauda, and reduced the north and east of what is now Mysore State. In the course of this campaign the Baramahal was made subject to Bijapur, and, by 1644 A.D. the new conquests were formed into two provinces (Carnatic-Balaghat and Carnatic-Payinghat) and bestowed as a Jaghir on Shahji, who fixed his head quarters at Bangalore.
Later on (the date again is uncertain) the Raya, aided by Mysore, made one last attempt to recover his authority. Thirumalai Nayak threw open to the Muhammadans the passes into Mysore which he commanded, and the last flicker of the great Hindu Empire was extinguished.
Kantiraya Narasa Raja. Kantiraya Narasa Raja adopted the policy of appropriating territory whenever he could do so with impunity. According to Wilks, he took several places in coimbatore from Gatti Mudaliyar in 1641 A.D. Six years later, he seized Ratnagiri from one Itibal Rao, and in 1652 he was strong enough to take from Bijapur the Western Baramahal, including Virabhadradrug, Pennagaram, and Dharmapuri. In the same year he took Denkani-kota from the Itibal Rao, from whom he had wrested Ratnagiri. In 1653 he again raided Coimbatore, and took several important fortresses from the Madura feudatory. In the next year, Hosur was taken from one Chandra Sankar. The reigns of Kantirava Narasa Raja and Tirumala Nayaka closed in 1659 A.D. with one of the most vindictive wars on record. The offensive was taken by the Mysoreans, who threatened Madura itself. THe invaders were then driven back, and the Madura historians claim that Mysore was invaded, its king captured and his nose cut off in revenge for the cruelty of the Mysoreans, who bad cut off the noses of all their captives.

Tirumalai Nayak, who ruled the former kingdom of Madurai between 1623 and 1659, is said to have recruited the services of an Italian architect, (apparently one of the many unknown European adventurers that swarmed these parts before the advent of British colonial rule) , when he designed his royal abode.Wars and other depradations have left only a quarter of the original building standing today. But even this is enough to awe casual visitors with its massive colonnade of 250 pillars each, measuring 40 feet in height, and connected to each other by foliated arches that form a vast open courtyard. Vast domes stand at the far end of the courtyard, reaching a height of 22.32 metres and surmounting vast spaces over the 'swarga vilasam' or celestial abode, where Thirumala sat enthroned and undoubtedly impressed ambassadors from near and far with his pomp and pelf.

''The admixture of Saracenic forms, developed by the Romans and later spread by the Arabs with Hindu details, is fascinating and singularly picturesque,'' for some.But, not everyone shares this view. The distinguished late art historian Percy Brown, for example, admired the palace as a ''work of considerable magnitude'' but also found it an example of ''architectural regression''.''while the synthesis of three cultures was a unique and a laudable attempt, their individual characteristics could not be successfully assimilated at the palace.The foliated arches are Hindu in form and Mohammedan in application and the columns supporting them Christian, but the overall engineering and designing of the palace is of a high standard,''

Thirumala's grandson Chokkantha Nayak thought nothing of demolishing large portions of the palace and carting off the material to build another palace for himself in the nearby city of Trichy. The British saw fit to use the palace as a horse stable, barracks and, disastrously, as an ammunition dump.But in 1858 Lord Napier, then governor of Madras, allocated 500,000 rupees (five million dollars in today's terms) for restoration work.