South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.14

c9.s2.14

The Hoysala Empire in the Period.—About the time to which we have come the Hoysala empire had for near forty years remained divided into two kingdoms. Somēśvara had associated with himself, since A.D. 1254-5 his son Vīra Rāmanātha, who succeeded him in the southern division of the empire. His alternative capitals were Kaṇṇanūr near Śrīrangam, and Kundāṇi in the northern frontier of the Salem district; the territory above the ghats was ruled by his half-brother Vīra Narasimha III. Vīra Rāmanātha died about A.D. 1293, and a son by name Vīra Viśvanātha ruled only for three years, perhaps four. Vīra Narasimha died almost about the same time as Rāmanātha, and was succeeded by his son Vīra Ballāḷa III in whom, in the early years of the last decade of the thirteenth century, the Hoysala empire again united. He maintained the three capitals at the three strategic points of the empire, namely, Halebīḍ in the north or north-west, Kundāṇi in the middle keeping communication with the country below, and Kaṇṇaṇūr in the south, with Tiruvaṇṇamalai as an alternative. The country immediately north of the Hoysalas and west of the Kākatīyas on the southern side of the Vindhya mountains was under the dynasty of the Yādavas of Dēvagiri with their capital at Dēvagiri. This was the political division of the south when the Muhammadans made the first irruption into the Dekhan under Alau-d-din Khilji in A.D. 1296.