Madurai’s capture of Thanjavur

01A marriage refused

Vijayaraghava Nayak had ruled Thanjavur for nearly forty years, a patron of music and of Telugu poetry, and a devotee of Vishnu. Chokkanatha Nayak of Madurai asked for his daughter in marriage. The old king refused, and the Madurai court took it as an insult. In 1673 Chokkanatha sent his army under Venkatakrishnappa into the Thanjavur country. The towns fell one by one and the army closed round the fort of Thanjavur, under the walls of the great Brihadeeswara temple.

02The last stand

When the walls were breached, the women of the palace were put to death or took their own lives so as not to fall into the enemy’s hands, as the Tamil and Telugu chronicles of the time record. Vijayaraghava and his son went out to fight and were killed. Chokkanatha gave Thanjavur to his foster-brother Alagiri. Alagiri soon threw off Madurai’s control, and a surviving Thanjavur prince appealed to Bijapur, whose Maratha general Ekoji Bhonsle, Shivaji’s half-brother, came in 1675 and took the throne for himself.

Dynasty · 1529–1736 CENayakas of MaduraiThe Nayakas of Madurai began as Vijayanagara governors in 1529 and ruled the far south for two centuries. Much of the Meenakshi temple as pilgrims see it today, its towering gopurams and pillared halls, was built in their time.Read →