Sonda

Sonda, also called Sode or Svadi, was the capital of a small kingdom in the forested hills of western Karnataka. Its rulers held territory reaching from the uplands towards the Arabian Sea. The town was fortified, and a Jain monastery stood here under the patronage of its chiefs. Their principality formed part of the political landscape left by Vijayanagara’s decline.

Arasappa founded the Svadi dynasty in the middle of the sixteenth century, and his successors extended their authority across the hills and coastal country. They fought neighbouring chiefs of Keladi and Bilgi and faced pressure from the Marathas and Bijapur. The rulers fortified their capital and obtained arms from Portuguese merchants. Sadashiva Raya II was also remembered as a writer; his surviving work Sadashiva Niti contains verses on a wide range of subjects. The dynasty’s rule ended in the eighteenth century as Mysore expanded into the western country.