 As a ready source of rice , pepper and teak , the Kanara coast was important to the Estado da India . For much of the 16th century , Portuguese had been able to negotiate favorable terms of trade with the weak principalities that constituted the Kanara coast . Towards the end of the century , the Nayaka ruler of Keladi ( and Ikkeri ) , Venkatappa Nayaka ( r . 1592 – 1629 ) , " assumed independence " from the residual Vijayanagara empire . Asserting power , he and his successors , Virabhadra Nayaka ( r . 1629 – 1645 ) and Shivappa Nayaka ( r . 1645 – 1660 ) forced a revision of the previous trade treaties . By the 1630s , the Portuguese had agreed to buy pepper at market rates and the rulers of Ikkeri had been permitted two voyages per year without the purchase of a cartaz ( a pass for Portuguese protection ) as well as annual importation of twelve duty @-@ free horses . 
