Rama Deva Raya

Rama Deva Raya

Rama Deva Raya (or Vira Rama Deva Raya) (1617–1632 CE) ascended the throne after a gruesome war in 1617 as the King of Vijayanagara Empire. In 1614 his father, Sriranga II the preceding King and his family were gruesomely murdered by rival factions headed by Jagga Raya, who was one of their kins. Rama Deva himself was smuggled out of the prison by Yachama Naidu, a faithful commander and the viceroy of earlier king Venkata II.

Jagga Raya made a claim of a putative son of Venkata II’s queens as the King, which was strongly challenged by Yachamanedu, who claimed the throne for Rama Deva, the rightful heir. In a long drawn battle between the two factions in which the whole of the kingdom took part, Jagga Raya was in slain and his Gobburi estates in south west of Nellore was seized by Yachama Naidu.

The defeated Jagga Raya sought refuge in the jungle but bounced back and sought help from the Nayaks of Gingee and Madurai, both eager to get out of the Vijayanagara bond, to attack Yachama Naidu and Rama Deva. Yachama Naidu and Ramadeva sought support from the Tanjore Nayaks, who still treated the Vijayanagar as their authority.

Jagga Raya and his allies, the Nayaks of Madurai, Gingee and Chera ruler, chieftains of Madurai, and some Portuguese from the coast assembled a large army near Tiruchirapalli. Yachama led his forces from Vellore and was joined in midway by Tanjore forces headed by the Tanjore King Raghunatha Nayaka. Yachama - Tanjore forces were further strengthened by nobles from Karnataka and (according to some accounts) Dutch and Jaffna armies.

...
Wikipedia