succeeded Jáin rulers, whose memory is sustained by the beautifully carved temples at Halebid and Belúr, while the ruins at Hampi attest the glory of the sovereigns of Vijayanagar.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century the country was occupied by petty chiefs called Pálegárs or Náyaks, who ruled various portions of it. Those of Bednúr and Chitaldrúg were the most important, but many of the smaller states were in course of time conquered and annexed by the Wodiars of Mysore proper, whose possessions on the death of Chikka Devaráj in 1704 comprised about half of the present Mysore kingdom. The history of these latter rulers, who claim a Kshatriya descent, has a certain amount of romantic interest attached to it, the first of the race who entered Mysore having been a Paladin named Vijayaráj, who at the close of the fourteenth century, with his brother Krishnaráj, left Dwárká in Káthiáwár, and proceeded to the Karnátik country. On arriving at Hadinád near Mysore, they ascertained that the daughter of the local Wodiar or prince, a man of insane mind, was about to be forcibly married to a neighbouring chief who, in case of refusal, threatened to seize her father's possessions. The brothers by stratagem slew the obnoxious suitor and annexed his territory, while Vijayaráj himself wedded the distressed damsel, adopting at the same time
stamped with the seal of the donor, each dynasty having its own emblem, in one case an elephant, in others a boar, or a hanumán monkey.
