Nayaka dynasties

The Nayaka dynasties refers to a group of Hindu dynasties who emerged during the Kakatiya dynasty and the Vijayanagara Empire period in South India. Many of these dynasties, such as the Madurai Nayaks and the Thanjavur Nayaks, were originally military governors under the Vijayanagara Empire, who, after the Battle of Talikota, declared themselves independent and established their own polities.^[1]^[2]^[3] Many of them were Telugu-speaking Balijas.^[4]^[5]^[3]

^ Talbot, Cynthia (20 September 2001). Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-803123-9.
^ Kamath, Suryanath U. (2001). A concise history of Karnataka: from pre-historic times to the present. Bangalore: Jupiter Books. pp. 220, 226, 234.
^ ^a ^b Eugene F. Irschick, ed. (1969). Politics and Social Conflict in South India. University of California Press. p. 8. The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus
^ Sheldon Pollock, ed. (2003). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. p. 413. ISBN 9780520228214. ....in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur.
^ David Dean Shulman, ed. (2020). Classical Telugu Poetry. University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520344525. .....in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century.