Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "பேளூர் நாயக்கர்கள்" in Tamil language version.
After a period Ramappa abdicated, and the province of Balam, yeilding a revenue of three lacs of pagodas, was in A.D. 1397, made over by the rulers of Vijayanagar to Singappa Naick, one of their generals, and son of an old Poligar, named Mancha Ayyappa Naick. Belur was therefore a grand city in the 12th and 13th centuries, and must have been equally so during the middle of the 15th century.
The Nayaks of Belur became prominent during the period of the third and fourth dynasties of Vijayanagar
Kodagu under the Belur Nayakas : For about a hundred years during the seventeenth century the Nayakas of Belur ruled the western part of present Hassan district and the northern part of Kodagu
To understand the historical process of the reducing of the Nayakas as an open status group into a mere shell of what they had formerly been and the growth of respective caste identities, the Telugu Balija caste and its history may give an important clue. Many Nayakas, including the three major Nayakas in the Tamil area and the Nayakas of Cannapattana, Beluru, and Rayadurga in the Kannada area, are said to have been Telugu Balijas.
