History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c30.5

v1.c30.5

The Portuguese writer Nunez has preserved a valuable account of the series of campaigns conducted against Pratāparudra of Orissa by the greatest emperor of Vijayanagara. According to him Narasa Nāyaka had enjoined upon his son in his last will and testament the necessity of capturing Raichuru Mudkal from the Musalmans and Udayagiri from the Oṛiyās. The army collected by Kṛṣṇadeva consisted of 34,000 foot and 800 elephants and arrived at Udayagiri. Though the Oṛiyā garrison consisted of 10,000 foot and 400 horse the place held out for a year and a half on account of its great natural strength. Kṛṣṇadevarāya cut roads through the surrounding hills and carried the place by assault. On this occasion an aunt of the king Pratāparudra was captured. According to inscriptions one Tirumala Rāūtarāya or Tirumalai Rāhuttarāya, an uncle of Pratāparudra called Rāghavarāya or Kaṇṭharāya, was captured at Udayagiri. Evidently, Pratāparudra had made Koṇḍaviḍu the base of his operations in the last war against Vijayanagara. When Udayagiri fell in 1513—the date is certain as an image of Bālakṛṣṇa captured at Udayagiri was dedicated by him in 1514—Kṛṣṇadevarāya turned against Koṇḍaviḍu. Pratāparudra hastened with a large army in order to relieve Koṇḍaviḍu but was defeated about four miles from the fortress on the bank of the Kṛṣṇā estuary. The siege of Koṇḍaviḍu continued and the great fortress capitulated two months after the battle. The renowned minister Sāḷva Timma was placed in charge of Koṇḍaviḍu. The Vijayanagara army proceeded to invest Koṇḍapalle and occupied the whole country as far as Rājamahendri. Koṇḍaviḍu was captured on Saturday the 23rd June 1515 and the date is given many times in the Mangalagiri inscriptions. In this campaign one of Pratāparudra’s sons was captured by Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya.¹ According to the local chronicle of Koṇḍaviḍu, this son Virabhadra was the Viceroy of Koṇḍaviḍu Daṇḍapāṭa till its capture in 1515.² Vijayanagara inscriptions prove This image is blank and contains no text to transcribe.