Kalyan Naik informs that a battle took place between the soldiers and the followers of Sevabhaya and they defeated the soldiers of Maharaja by the blessings of Sri Mariamma (battle of water or Panika ladai). Kalyan Naik further states that the piece of information is recorded and is availabe in the library of Maharaja of Thanjavur. By this time Sevabhaya had become the Pramukh (Naik) of his group. From Thanjavur, they moved towards Chennai (Chinapatna). In Chennai, Sevabhaya purchased a white umbrella (Chathar, Chamara) to present to Lord Venkateswara (Sri Balaji) as a respect, a Hindu tradition as he was planning to visit Tirupathi next.
It appears that Sri Mariamma used to appear in the form of Bhairavi or appear in dreams and guide the movements of Sevabhaya and his group. From Chennai, they proceeded to Tirupathi, During his stay at Tirupathi, he served as a Mahant (Priest) and worshipped Sri Balaji daily. It is stated that he stayed at Tirupathi for 1-2 years at Hathiram Bawaji Ashram. Hathiram Bawaji was also another saint philosopher and social worker and worshipped Sri Balaji earlier to Sevabhaya (Heera Naik).
This is recorded in the Ashram of Hathiram Bawaji in Thirumala as Sevadas Maharaj. Hence Sevabhaya is also called as Sevadas Maharaj (Kalyana Naik).
Devi Keri re Sevalalena
Chala Jama Hyderabadena
From Tirupathi the group moved to Hyderabad.
Here they stayed at Banjara hills (the name is derived by the stay of banjaras) where the facilites were available for their stay. Two incidents have been described at Hyderabad. 1) Some farmers complained
to Nizam against Sevabhaya and his group that the cattels of Sevabhaya have grazed the crops of paddy, wheat and chana (Bengal gram)
Sepoy Kerore rajena an
Ghanvu chana kheth kharan
Mutibharan anaj nikaleni
Raja sepoyina kero vatha
Somabhangina balavo atha
When Nizam of Hydrabad learnt this he ordered his soldiers to bring leaders of banjaras to him. Sevabhaya refused to go and meet the Nizam. The Nizam became angry and wanted to teach a lesson to these people. He asked his soldiers to distribute sweets mixed with poison. Accordingly the soldiers brought the sweets mixed with poison and gave to Sevabhaya to distribute to his followers. It is stated that Sri Mariamma forewarned Sevabhaya not to eat the sweets, Sri Mariamma asked Sevabhaya to mix the sweets with her prasad (ash) and asked first to give to garasiya bull to eat The garasiya bull ate and nothing happened.
When garasiya bull was safe every body ate the sweets
which became panchamrutha for them. People rejoiced and praised Sri Mariamma. When Nizam came to know about this incidence he was very much surprised ;(Harilal Pawar, Kalyan Naik). continue…Part 7
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