'Little kings', or rajas, never attained the legal independence of an aristocracy from both monarchs and the local people whom they ruled. The sovereign claims of would-be centralizing, South Indian rulers and the resources demanded in the name of that sovereignty diminished the resources which local chieftains used as a kind of royal largess; thus centralizing demands were opposed on moral as well as on political grounds by even quite modest chiefs.[9]
These chiefs came to called poligars, a British corruption of "Palaiyakkarar" (Tamil: holder of "palaiya" or "baronial estate").[7] (Kannada: "pale" + "gara" = palegara).
A distant fort atop a low hill. In the foreground, extending from left to right, is a field or a body of water. A stand of trees separate it from the hill.
A late 18th century inkwash drawing of Channapatna fort established by Jagadeva Raya in 1580
Meanwhile, almost a decade after their victories at Talikota, the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar agreed in 1573 not to interfere in each other's future conquests by reserving regions to the south for Bijapur.[10] In 1577, Bijapur forces attacked again and overwhelmed all opposition along the western coast. Easily taking Adoni, a former Vijayanagara stronghold, they attempted next to take Penukonda, the new Vijayanagara capital. (See Map 3).) There, however, they were repulsed by an army led by the Vijayanagara ruler's father-in-law, Jagadeva Raya, who had traveled north for the engagement from his base in Baramahal. For his services, Jagadeva Raya's territories within the crumbling empire were vastly expanded, extending westward now up to the Western Ghats, the mountain range running along the southwestern coast of India, and with a new capital in Channapatna[10] (See Map 6.)
The territories controlled by the other poligars were also changing fast.[10] Some, such as Tamme Gowda of Sigatur, expanded theirs by performing services for the Vijayanagara monarch and receiving territorial rewards. In Tamme Gowda's case, the rewards consisted of a tract of land which, from his base in Sigatur, extended west to Hoskote and east to Punganur. Others, such as the Wodeyars of Ummattur and of Mysore (now Mysore district), achieved the same end by ignoring the monarch altogether, and annexing small states in their vicinity.[11] (See Map 3.) Through much of the 16th century, the chiefs of Ummattur in particular had carried on "unceasing aggression" against their neighbors, even in the face of punitive raids by the Vijayanagara armies.[12] In the end, as a compromise, the son of a defeated Ummattur chief was appointed the viceroy at Seringapatam.[12] The Wodeyars of Mysore too were eying surrounding land; by 1644, when the Wodeyars unseated the powerful Changalvas of Piriyapatna, not only had they become the dominant presence in the southern regions of what later became Mysore state, but the Vijayanagara empire was also on its last legs, having only a year's life left.[10] (See Map 6.)
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