[1] Sevappa was the successor of his father Timmappa Nayaka, also known as Timmabuban and Timmabhupati, the Viceroy of northern Arcot and his wife Bayyambika.

The Nayak of Madurai is said to have fortified Tiruchirappalli by building a double-walled fort therein and by constructing a big tank inside it.

The necessity for fortifying the place, it is said in the chronicles, was due to the predatory ravages and hardships from which the country suffered at the hands of robbers who swooped down on the pilgrims bound for Rameshwaram and caused much injury to them, both bodily and materially.

He continued this tradition of loyalty with Emperor Sadasiva Raya when the latter's general Ramaraja Vittala stationed himself and his army in Tiruchirappalli during Empire's wars against the expanding king of Tiruvadi and the Paravas of the fishery coast in 1545.

In the Chola country, his benefactions impartially extended to both the Siva and Vishnu temples situated on either side of the holy river Cauvery.

A biography of Luso-Christian colonial missionary Francis Xavier from Nagapattinam says that the Portuguese "were greatly favoured by the lord of the country who is a very powerful captain of the king of Bisnaga".