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TRANSLATION OF INSCRIPTIONS 



We will next hear what Caesar Frederick writes ; — " About 30 years 

 before the defeat and death of the king of Vijayanagar, three brother 

 tyrants had usurped the throne, keeping the rightful king as a prisoner, 

 shewing him once a year to the people, and themselves exercising the royal 

 authority. They had been officers in the service of the father of the king, 

 and had seized the government upon his death, leaving his son an infant. 

 The eldest was named RamarXja, and he sat upon the throne and was 

 called king ; the second was named Temmaraya, who discharged the 

 function of governor ; the third, Venkataraya, was the commander of the 

 forces. The first and last disappeared after the fatal battle, and were 

 never heard of more either living or dead." 



However these different accounts differ in detail, they agree in the 

 essential features of the story, and shew that the usurpation which com- 

 menced with Krishnaraya was continued by his kinsmen, and that the 

 sons of VfRANARASiNHA werc like himself, mere pageants in the hands of 

 their ministers and chiefs. Had not the European traveller asserted that 

 TuMMU Rao returned to JBisnagar after the Muhammedan kings had 

 pillaged and left it, and was actually the ruling sovereign at the time that 

 CiESAR Frederick remained there, we might have suspected that he was 

 the HXji Tumul of Ferishta — who had veiled his own ambition by 

 supporting Achyuta. This, however, could not have been the case, and 

 we may be content with Ferishta's account of the transaction. 



The reign of Ramaraja was, however, fatal to the principality of 

 Vijayanagar. After being on alternating terms of friendship and enmity 

 with the Muhammedan princes of the Dakhariy and given asylum and aid 

 to Ali A'dil ShXh of Bijapur, who had been even adopted as a son by 

 the mother of the Raja, the kings of Golconda, Sijapur, Daulatcihdd, and 

 Serar, alarmed at his power and offended by his arrogance, combined 

 against him. A sanguinary battle was fought at Talikota, on the banks of 



