Nayaks of Gingee

Gingee Nayak Kingdom
1509–1649
CapitalGingee Fort
Common languagesTamil, Telugu
GovernmentGovernors under the Vijayanagara Empire
Monarchy
King 
History 
• Established
1509
• Disestablished
1649
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Chola Empire
Vijayanagara Empire
Adil Shahi dynasty
British India

The Nayaks of Gingee (Senji) were Telugu rulers of the Gingee principality of Tamil Nadu between 16th to 18th century CE.[1] The Gingee Nayaks had their origins in the Balija warrior clans of present-day Andhra Pradesh.[2] They were subordinates of the imperial Vijayanagara emperors, and were appointed as provincial governors by the Vijayanagar Emperor who divided the Tamil country into three Nayakships viz., Madurai, Tanjore and Gingee. Later, after the fall of the Vijayanagara's Tuluva dynasty, the Gingee rulers declared independence. While they ruled independently, they were sometimes at war with the Tanjore neighbors and the Vijayanagara overlords later based in Vellore and Chandragiri. Gingee ruler Surappa nayaka had a brother called Era Krishnappa Nayak whose son established himself in Karnataka and his family came to be known afterwards as the Belur Nayakas.[3]

  1. ^
    • Mukund, Kanakalatha (1999). The Trading World of the Tamil Merchant: Evolution of Merchant Capitalism in the Coromandel. Orient Blackswan. p. 43. ISBN 978-81-250-1661-8. Perhaps in order to extend more centralised control over the major resource regions, between 1500 and 1550, the Tamil country was reorganised into three major principalities, at Tanjavur, Madurai and Gingee (Senji), with Telugu nayakas as viceroys appointed by the emperor.
    • Sonti Venkata Suryanarayana Rao, ed. (1999). Vignettes of Telugu Literature: A Concise History of Classical Telugu Literature. Jyeshtha Literary Trust. p. 55. After the fall of the Vijayanagara empire, Tanjore, Jinji (also known as Gingee or Chenji) and Madura became political and cultural centres under the Telugu Naik kings.
    • George Michell, ed. (1995). Architecture and Art of Southern India: Vijayanagara and the Successor States 1350-1750. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-521-44110-0. It was under the Tuluvas in the first half of the sixteenth century that the first of the warrior chiefs from the Telugu region were posted as Nayakas at the strategic centres of Gingee , Thanjavur and Madurai.
    • Jennifer Howes, ed. (2003). The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India: Material Culture and Kingship. Routledge. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-135-78996-1.
  2. ^
  3. ^ Noboru Karashima (2002). A Concordance of Nayakas: The Vijayanagar Inscriptions in South India. Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780195658453.

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