Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Thanjavur Nayak kingdom" in English language version.
.... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur.
..... 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.
Perhaps in order to extend more centralised control over the major resource regions, between 1500 and 1550, the Tamil country was reorganised into three major principalities, at Tanjavur, Madurai and Gingee (Senji), with Telugu nayakas as viceroys appointed by the emperor.
Kavarai (the Tamil word for Balija merchants)
