INSCRIPTIONS. 



245 



installed as crown-prince or Yuvaraja, and superintended the 

 administration of Kuntala, Lata, Yatsadesa (Magadha),Kanci 

 and Anga. He made himself also master of Srlrangapatnam, 

 the well-known island in the Kaverl river. Of Srirdmardja 

 nothing is particularly known, Venkatardja is reported to 

 have resided at Candragiri. 



As Tirumalaraja, the brother of Ramaraja, was the patron 

 of Ramabhusana, the author of the Yasucaritram, and as his 

 nephew Narasaraja was the patron of Saradamurti, the author 

 of the Narasabhupaliyam, it is clear that the author or 

 authors of these two works could not have lived two hundred 

 years later at the court of Yijayanagaram in the time of 

 Krsna Raja and of Kodanda Rama Raja, 65 his son-in-law. 

 And yet this is the common tradition which has been even 

 adopted by scholars of reputation. Horace H. Wilson makes 

 repeatedly this wrong assertion 66 ; so does the Rev. William 



65 Kodanda Kama Raja occupied the throne till 1564. 



66 See Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection, I, pp. 297, 341, 

 and 352. On page 297 Wilson says : " Of the learned men of his court, 

 eight are distinguished as the eight Big-gajas or elephants who uphold the 

 world of letters. The names of the whole have not "been ascertained, but 

 the following five were of the number — Appdya Dikshit, Allasdni Peddana, 

 Venkatapdta, Bhattumurtti, Pingala Surandrya." On page 341 he observes 

 that the Vasucaritram was written ' ' by Bhattumurtti, said to have been one of 

 the poets of the court of Krishna Raya and Rama Raja, composed by desire 

 of Terumala Raya Raja of Pennaconda after the downfall of Vijayanagar, 

 one of the five grandsons of Rama Raja." Here Wilson is entirely wrong. 

 The Tirumala alluded to is not the brother of Rama Raja of Vijayanagaram 

 who succeeded after the battle of Talikota to establish himself at Penugonda, 

 but Tirumala Raja, the brother of the first Rama Raja, who reigned at Penu- 

 gonda. He was the grandson of Rama Raja and one of Jive brothers. Rama 

 Raja of Vijayanagaram was the grandson of Venkata Rdja and one of three 

 brothers ; and on page 352 he contends that the Narasabhupaliyam " derives 

 its name from Narasa, the father of Krishna Raya, whose genealogy is 

 traced by the poet from the sun through the solar race of princes to 

 Kalikala Chola. In his family, it is said, Pochi Rdja was born, and from him 

 Narasa is made the 28th in descent. Narasa Raya was Prince of Vijayanagara 

 about 1495." Compare the genealogical table on page 277. Messrs. Higgin- 

 botham and Co. in Madras have lately carefully reprinted Wilson's Catalogue, 

 and there these remarks occur respectively on pages 295 and 301. 



