Nayaka dynasties explained

Nayaka dynasties emerged during the Kakatiya dynasty and the Vijayanagara Empire period. The Nayakas were originally military governors under the Vijayanagara Empire. After the battle of Talikota, several of them declared themselves independent.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Many of them were balijas and had a common descent from the vasudeva, father of krishna (khāṃḍalavaṃśa lineage of chandravanshi rajputs). They are believed to be veerashaiva in faith. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

Major Nayaka kingdoms

The Nayaka kingdoms included the following:

• Ravella Nayaks, 13th-17th century chieftains from Andhra Pradesh
• Musunuri Nayakas, 14th century warrior-kings from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• Recherla Nayakas, 14th-15th century rulers from Telangana.
• Pemmasani Nayaks, 15th–17th century ruling clan from Andhra Pradesh.
• Madurai Nayaks, 16th–18th century Telugu rulers.^{[8] [9]}
• Thanjavur Nayaks, 16th–17th century Telugu rules of Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.^[10]
• Nayaks of Gingee (Senji), 16th–17th century Telugu rulers from Tamil Nadu, previously governors of the Vijayanagara Empire.^[11]
• Nayakas of Belur, 15th-18th century rulers from Karnataka.^[12]
• Nayakas of Chitradurga, 16th–18th century from Karnataka, previously feudatory chiefs of Hoysala and Vijayanagara Empire.
• Nayakas of Keladi, 16th–18th century ruling dynasty from Keladi, Karnataka.
• Nayaks of Vellore, 16th century Telugu chieftains under the Vijayanagara Empire from Channapatna and Rayadurgam.^{[13] [14]}
• Nayakas of Kalahasti, 17th–18th century rulers of Kalahasti and Vandavasi.
• Nayaks of Kandy, Telugu rulers of the Sri Lanka between 1739 and 1815.
• Nayakas of Shorapur, rulers of Shorapur, Karnataka (final ruler was the 19th century Raja Venkatappa).
• Hande Nayakas, the Hande Nayakas were the de facto rulers of Bellary, between 15th to late 18th century.

Notes and References

1. Book: Talbot, Cynthia . Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra . 2001-09-20 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-803123-9 . en.
2. Book: Kamath, Suryanath U. . A concise history of Karnataka: from pre-historic times to the present . Jupiter Books . 2001 . Bangalore . 220, 226, 234.
3. Irschick, Eugene F. Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 8: "The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus."
4. Book: Appadorai, A. . Economic Condition In Southern India Vol. 1 . 1936.
5. Book: . Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. . 2003. 413. 9780520228214. .... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur..
6. Book: . Classical Telugu Poetry. . 2020. 57. 9780520344525. ..... in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century. .
7. Book: . Politics and Social Conflict in South India. . 1969. 8. The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus.
8. Book: Rao . Velcheru Narayana . Symbols of substance : court and state in Nayaka period Tamil Nadu . Shulman . David . Subrahmanyam . Sanjay . Oxford University Press . 1998 . 10 . Originally part of the great Telugu migrations southward into the Tamil country in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Balija merchant- warriors reveal the rise of hitherto marginal, and only recently politicized.. These mobile, aggressive, land-hungry, Telugu-speaking warriors....helped to build the Nāyaka state-system and to impregnate it with their particular cultural vision; strong surviving traditions; supported by contemporary evidence, assert Balija origins and / or marital connections for the major Nāyaka dynasties in the Tamil country quite apart from the well-known Balija role in restructuring the revenue systems of Nāyaka Tanjavur and Madurai.
9. Irschick, Eugene F. Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 8: "The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus."
10. Irschick, Eugene F. Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 8: "The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus."
11. Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Penumbral visions: making polities in early modern South India, page 198. BS Baliga. Tamil Nadu district gazetteers, page 427.
12. Book: K. D. Swaminathan. The Nayakas of Ikkeri. P. Varadachary . 1957. 56. The Nayaks of Belur became prominent during the period of the third and fourth dynasties of Vijayanagar .
13. Noboru Karashima (ed). Kingship in Indian history, Issue 2 of Japanese studies on South Asia. Page 192.
14. Howes, Jennifer (1 January 1998). The Courts of Pre-colonial South India: Material Culture and Kingship. Psychology Press. p. 28. .