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Sriranga III (1642-1652 CE) was the last ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire, who came to power in 1642 following the death of his uncle Venkata III. He was also a great grandson of Aliya Rama Raya.

Before his accession to the throne, Sriranga III was in rebellion against his uncle Venkata III. He sought help from the Bijapur Sultan and attacked Venkata III in Chandragiri – Vellore in 1638. Another invasion of these two in 1642 was defeated by Venkata III’s army, who were also facing Golkonda armies near Madras. Under this troublesome circumstances Venkata III passed away, and Sriranga III who was with the Bijapur army deserted them and returned to Vellore and made himself the King of Vijayanagara.

Many of his nobles like the Nayak of Gingee and Darmala Venkatapati, the chieftain of Madras, had a dislike for him for his mischief in rebelling against the former King. Squabbles among the Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda helped Sriranga III for a while. In 1644 the Golkonda appeared with a vast army and defeated by Sriranga III.

Sriranga III, now feeling strong enough to demand money from the Southern Nayaks, marched south. Another Golkonda campaign nearing his capital was defeated with help from the Dutch in Pulicat.

In 1645 the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan instructed all his Deccan Sultans to wage a war against the southern Hindu Kingdom and capture territories. The combined forces marched south with a vast army, and Sriranga III now in the southern campaign had to revert back to Vellore.

Now his appeal for help from the Nayaks of South fell on deaf ears, and Sriranga had to battle alone, meeting with some success. Now the advance of the Muslim forces caution the Nayaks of Gingee, Tanjore and Madurai.

In 1646 Sriranga III collected a large army with help from Mysore, Gingee and Tanjore and met the Mughal forces.

The Muslim forces were losing, but later advanced, when consolidated by additional armies from Deccan. The war went on till 1652. In 1649 Thirumalai Nayak sent his forces supporting the Bijapur ruler, but upon converging at the Gingee Fort, the Madurai forces created a chaos and took sides with the Gingee army, when the Bijapur and Golkonda entered into their agreements. This led to the banishment of Gingee Nayak rule in 1649.

By 1652, Sriranga III was left with only Vellore Fort, which was finally seized by the Golkonda forces. By now he had only the support of Mysore Ruler, while Tanjore submitted to the Muslim Forces and the Madurai Nayak ended up paying huge sums to Muslim forces, but all three retaining their kingdom.

Sriranga III spent his last years under support of one of his vassal chieftains, Sivvappa Nayak of Ikkeri, and was still hoping to retrieve Vellore from the Muslim forces. Thirumalai Nayak's treachery to Sriranga III made the Mysore ruler Kanthirava Narasa wage a series of ravaging wars with Madurai, later capturing the territories of Coimbatore and Salem, regions which were retained by Mysore till 1800.

The Mysore ruler Kanthirava Narasa still recognised the King as a namesake emperor. Sriranga Raya III died in the late 1670s as an emperor without an empire, putting an end to over 3 centuries of Vijayanagara Rule in India.

• http://www.thiruvarangam.com/history.html
• Rao, Velcheru Narayana, and David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Symbols of substance : court and state in Nayaka period Tamilnadu (Delhi ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998) ; xix, 349 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 22 cm. ; Oxford India paperbacks ; Includes bibliographical references and index ; ISBN 0-19-564399-2.
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