Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar

Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar II (22 September 1645 – 16 November 1704) was the fourteenth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1673 to 1704. During this time, Mysore saw further significant expansion after his predecessors. During his rule, centralised military power increased to an unprecedented degree for the region. He also fought battles against maratha king Sambhaji. Aurangzeb made him ally to counter Marathas. Earlier in battle Chikka devraja was winning because of venom arrows but later Sambhaji developed leather suit for his soldiers which lead to the victory of Marathas.

Early years Chikka Devaraja was born on 22 September 1645, the eldest son of Maharani Amrit Ammani and Dodda Deva Raja (Devaraja Wodeyar I's elder brother), who had been the governor of a Mysore Kingdom town. He succeeded his uncle, Devaraja Wodeyar I upon the latter's death on 11 February 1673. He was installed on the Mysore throne on 28 February 1673. He continued his predecessor's expansion by conquering Maddagiri, thereby making Mysore contiguous to the Carnatic-Bijapur-Balaghat province administered by Venkoji, the Raja of Tanjore, and Shivaji's half-brother.

Taxation and the Jangama massacre In the first decade of his rule, Chikka Devaraja introduced various petty taxes that were mandatory for the peasants, but those from which his soldiers were exempted. The unusually high taxes and the intrusive nature of his regime created wide protests in the ryots which had the support of the Jangama priests in the Virasaiva monasteries. According to , a slogan of the protests was: "Basavanna the Bull tills the forest land; Devendra Indra gives the rains;Why should we, the ones who grow crops through hard labour, pay taxes to the king?"

According to sources, the king, resolving upon a treacherous massacre, used the stratagem of inviting over 400 priests to a grand feast at the famous Shaivite centre of Nanjanagudu, and upon its conclusion having them first receive gifts and then exit one at a time through a narrow lane, whereupon his royal wrestlers strangled each exiting priest. Although it had uniformly expanded in size from the mid-seventeenth century to the early eighteenth, it had done so as a result of alliances that tended to hinder the very stability of the expansions. Some of the southeastern conquests described above (such as of Salem), although involving regions that were not of direct interest to the Mughals, were nonetheless the result of alliances with Mughal Faujdar Diwan of Sira and with Venkoji, the Maratha ruler of Tanjore. S.G. Narasiṃhācāryar and M.A. Rāmānujaiyaṅgār speculate that Chikka Devaraya may have had the work organized by Tirumalārya, among other writings about the king. The Binnapaṃ is a versified theological work, dealing with many key issues of Śrīvaiṣṇava teaching.