Basavapattana

Basavapattana was the seat of a Nayaka chiefdom in the western Karnataka interior. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries its rulers held territory extending across the country between the hills and the dry plateau. Its territory included parts of the lands around Shimoga, Chitradurga and Chikmagalur. Their state belonged to the world of local Nayakas that grew under the Vijayanagara empire and survived its decline.

In the late 1630s a Bijapur army under Ranadulla Khan captured Basavapattana during its campaigns in the southern Deccan. The ruling house moved its capital southeast to Tarikere, and its chiefdom thereafter became known by that name. The change of seat marked the pressure that the Deccan sultanates brought to bear upon the former Vijayanagara frontier.