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The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16: Chapter X. The End of the Tuluva Dynasty

The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c16

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English

Chapter X. The End of the Tuluva Dynasty

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SUMMARY. 1. Influence of the battle of Raksas-Tagdi on the history of the South of India.—2. A criticism of Rama Raya and his rule.—3. Tirumala succeeds Rama Raya as Regent of the Empire.—4. The Vijayanagara court flies up country.—5. Triumphal entry of the Muslim Sultans into the city of Vijayanagara.—6. The sack of the city.—7. Departure of the Muhammadans.—8. Return of Tirumala and the court.—9. The imperial palace at this time.—10. Intercourse between Tirumala and Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golkonda.—11. Sadasiva under the Regency of Tirumala.—12. Tirumala transfers the capital of the Empire to Penukonda.—13. Previous history of this place.—14. Further information about the city of Vijayanagara.—15. The abandonment of Vijayanagara deals a death blow to Portuguese commerce in India.—16. Muhammadan conquests in the North of the Empire.—17. Internal state of the Empire.—18. The Krishnapuram grant at Srirangam.—19. Murder of Sadasiva.—20. An estimate of his reign.

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CONTEMPORARY SOURCES. 1. Hindu inscriptions and grants.—2. Ferishta, Anonymous chronicler of Golkonda, *Burhan-i-Ma'asir*, *Basatin-us-Salatin*.—3. Couto, Correa, Faria y Sousa.—4. Frederick, Anquetil du Perron.—5. *Chikkadevaraya Vamsavali*, Poona Persian Poem.

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THE battle of Raksas-Tagdi is the milestone that separates the era of Hindu splendour in the South of India from the age of Muhammadan expansion. Impartial history acknowledges its influence centuries after, since it paved the way for the Maratha cavalry of Sivaji and his successors, fostered the ambitious ideals of Aurangzeb and his Nawabs, and attracted the ambitious Haidar Ali to overthrow the old Hindu dynasty of Mysore. The glorious Empire of Vijayanagara, faithful trustee of the inheritance of the Hoysalas for two centuries and a half, was now seriously menaced by its secular opponents, the Muslim powers of central India. Perhaps this action would mark the end of its existence, but for a new family of fresh and vigorous blood, that succeeded in saving the imperial crown from the midst of that turmoil of death. The Empire of Vijayanagara thus lasted another century. Such was the destiny of the Aravidu family.

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Nevertheless, Vijayanagara never wholly recovered from that tremendous blow; the foundations of this marvellous Empire, which was the wonder of both merchants and travellers, were deeply shaken, and its star never rose again to the zenith of its sky. "The Kingdom of Vijayanagara," wrote Ferishta at the close of that century, "since this battle has never recovered its ancient splendour" 1. The victory meant for the Muhammadans the immediate recovery of all the districts which had been taken from Ibrahim Qutb Shah by the efforts of the deceased Rama Raya, as the anonymous chronicler of Golkonda informs us 2. Accordingly the P. P. P. states that "with the falling of the head of the infidel (Rama Raya), you may say the day of resurrection appeared" 3. The Deccani Sultans were elated at their good fortune. Hence farmans with accounts of this important victory were sent at once to their several dominions and to the neighbouring states 4. Ali ibn Aziz says that these letters "were sent to all parts of the world" 5.

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2. The death of Rama Raya, as it had been welcomed with great joy and exultation by the allied Sultans, so was, no doubt, a great and irremediable loss to the Hindu Empire. The chief of the Aravidu family had saved the Empire from the chaos created by Salakam Timma Raju and maintained the lustre which had belonged to it during the time of Krishna Deva Raya and Achyuta Raya. That chief's indisputable qualities as a statesman, combined with his victorious campaigns as a warrior, place him among the great Hindu rulers of India. His reputation is indeed clouded by his usurpation of the throne and by the imprisonment of Sadasiva. But perhaps even this fact was due more to the incapability of the young puppet sovereign than to his own ambition. From this point of view, his usurpation provides a special sidelight of self-sacrifice for the welfare of the country and the salvation of the Empire.

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¹ Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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² Ibid., p. 415.

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³ P. P. P., Ap. A.

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⁴ Ferishta, III, p. 130.

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⁵ Burhan-i-Ma'asir, Ep. Ind., L, p. 194.

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As a matter of fact, the inscriptions and grants of that time have nothing but praise for Rama Raya and his government. "While having uprooted all the enemies," we read in a grant of 1554, "Rama Raya ruled over the earth, as famous as Bharata and Bagiratha" 1. "This heroic Rama Raya," the Kuniyur plates of Venkata III state, "resembled by his great fame Bharata, Manu, Bagiratha and other kings" 2. He is said, in the Vellangudi plates of Venkata II, to have "ruled the earth with justice after having destroyed his enemies" 3; in the Krishnapuram plates of Sadasiva, to have been "endowed with valour, nobility and kindness" 4; and in one of his grants of 1561 he is "noted for valour, generosity and mercy" 5. His generosity towards his subjects seems to have become proverbial: Manucci extolled it a century later 6, and the aforesaid Vellangudi plates of Venkata II affirm that "he surpassed even the wishing tree of the gods in his gifts" 7.

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The *Burhan-i-Ma'asir* gives an interesting account of the power of Rama Raya just before the battle in which he met his end. It runs as follows: "Sadasiva Raya (Rama Raya) was distinguished above all the kings of Vijayanagara for the strength of his army and for his power, and was puffed up with pride owing to the extent of his dominions. It possessed the whole of the kingdom of Vijayanagara with its sixty sea-ports. Its length was near 600 leagues and its revenue 120,000,000 huns; and that accursed infidel had reigned over this kingdom for a long time" 8.

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¹ *M. A. D.*, 1923, pp. 125-7.

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² *Ep. Ind.*, III, p. 252, v. 13.

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³ *Ep. Ind.*, XVI, p. 319, vv. 17-18.

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⁴ *Ep. Ind.*, IX, p. 340, vv. 28-30.

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⁵ *Ep. Carn.*, V, Hn, 7.

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⁶ Cf. Ch. III, No. 6.

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⁷ *Ep. Ind.*, XVI, p. 319, vv. 17-18.

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⁸ *Burhan-i-Ma'asir*, *Ind. Ant.*, L, p.

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¹⁴³ Ferishta, III, pp. 133-4, also speaks of the 60 sea-ports of the Vijayanagara Empire.

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3. Five sons were born to Rama Raya by his four wives ¹; but none of them was destined to succeed his father in the difficult task of ruling over the Empire. Tirumala, Rama Raya's brother, who had been his prime minister during the last stage of the latter's life, was naturally the one man able to take over that responsibility, and he actually did so. Whether he was appointed by the King, or whether it was the result of circumstances and more in the nature of a self-nomination, we do not know; but from the Krishnapuram plates of Sadasiva ² and from the two Tirumala's grants of Holalkere, mentioned in the preceding chapter, we know that Tirumala succeeded his brother in the regency of the Empire ³. Moreover, in another inscription of Sadasiva, Gutti Tirumalayyadeva Maharaja, of the Aravidu family, is stated to have been the prime minister of the King ⁴. The Chikkadevaraya Vamsavali records, too, that after the death of Rama Raya "his younger brother, Yera Timma Raja, then made himself ruler" ⁵. If we are to believe this statement, Tirumala appointed himself the Regent of the Empire.

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¹ Cf. Ch. II, No. 4.

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² Cf. a little further on No. 18.

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³ Cf. p. 214, notes 4 and 5.

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⁴ 412 of 1911.

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⁵ S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources, p. 302.

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4. What were his first steps on this rough road to save the Empire from a Muhammadan invasion? It seems that when the first news of the defeat and execution of Rama Raya reached Vijayanagara, nobody thought of anything else but of hurrying to escape either certain death or ignoble slavery. Tirumala with his relatives, his wives and those of his brothers and sons, the ministers and nobles of the Empire, the generals and soldiers together with their Emperor Sadasiva, who then for the first time appeared in public after six years of rigorous imprisonment ⁶, left the city of Vijayanagara a few hours later ⁷. A great convoy followed them: one thousand five hundred and fifty elephants laden with treasure in gold, diamonds and precious stones, coins of the Empire, and other things of this kind, valued altogether at more than a hundred millions sterling. They also carried away the famous jewelled throne of the kings, celebrated and mentioned in the inscriptions in every corner of the Empire ¹.

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⁶ A circumstance only given in Frederick, Purchas, X, p. 93.

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⁷ The Maratha account says that "the mother and the wives of Rajbhuwar (Rama Raya), as soon as they came to know this untoward incident (the defeat and execution of the Hindu chief), set fire to the palace." Chandorkar, l. c., p. 181. If this is true, the palace referred to must be the zenana, since the palace of the King was seen and described one year later by C. Frederick. Cf. No. 9.

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¹ Couto, VIII, pp. 92-3; Faria y Sousa, II, pp. 433-4.

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According to modern authors this convoy, as well as the noble retinue which preceded it, made for the fort of Penukonda ²; but nothing of the kind is said in the original contemporary sources. Ferishta does not speak of this retreat; Frederick only remarks that they "fled away" ³; Faria y Sousa mentions no destination at all; Couto alone gives a hint, so long forgotten, which is the real solution of this problem. "They," says he, "with all this outfit left for the interior, and stored everything in the palace of Tremil; for it was very well fortified on an impregnable mountain, at ten days' distance from Bisnaga" ⁴. Now, where was this palace of Tremil? We cannot offer a satisfactory answer, but it seems to us that the circumstances mentioned by the Portuguese author,—viz. that it was a fortified up-country place, standing on the top of an impregnable mountain and ten days distant from Vijayanagara, and that its name was Tremil,—cannot be applied to any other spot but to the temple on the Tirumala hill at Tirupati ⁵. Its shrine of Sri Venkatesvara Perumal, surrounded by three stone walls on the top of the holy hill Tirumala, 2,500 feet high, might easily be called by the Portuguese writer the impregnable palace of Tremil. Moreover, Correa states that the sovereigns of Vijayanagara had a house or palace at Tirupati¹, and Sadasiva himself in the beginning of his reign used to go to the sacred fair held there². On the other hand we recognize that its distance from Vijayanagara does not agree with the ten days' journey given by Couto; but for a man who never travelled through the country, one or two days more does not make much difference. Indeed it would not be at all strange that the first monarch of the Aravidu Dynasty took shelter for a while, in those days of distress, in the same country where his successors settled finally: first at Chandragiri, just at the foot of the Tirumala hill, and then at Vellore.

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² Cf. for instance Sewell, p. 206; Rice, Mysore and Coorg, p. 120.

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³ Purchas, l. c.

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⁴ Couto, VIII, p. 93.

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⁵ The Jesuits who lived at the court of Venkata II called the temple of Perumal, at Tirupati, the temple of Perumal or Primal. See Ap. C, No. VIII. Is not this a corruption similar to that of Couto? Even Wilks, History of Mysore, I, p. 42, writes Tremul instead of Tirumala. Cf. Ch. IV, No. 4 and note 3 of p. 60. But the best proof is given by Correa, IV, p. 232, who evidently speaking of Tirupati says that "the temple of Tremelle, that is the chief and richest house of the whole Kingdom of Bisnega (Vijayanagara), is in the port of Paleacate (Pulicat)." (So the Portuguese believed). Dos Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, II, p. 304, likewise calls Tremel, this famous Hindu temple: "Um pagode tem estes gentios da India, a que chaman o

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¹ Correa, IV, p. 300.

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² Ibid., pp. 302-3.

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5. After the departure of the Emperor and the nobility from the capital, no garrison remained within its walls to defend it against any attack. And Couto says that then the Bedues "who are jungle people" pounced down on the helpless city, and in six different attacks looted all its houses, carrying away numberless precious things left by the nobles in their hasty flight³.

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³ Couto, l. c. Couto does not say that the Bedues entered Vijayanagara on the day following the departure of the Emperor, nor that their six attacks all occured on the same day. I cannot trace where Sewell, p. 207, takes this information from. Were not these Bedues the Bergies whom Ferishta III, p. 141, speaks of as people living around Vijayanagara? Their chief at the end of this century was Handistan Nayaka, of whom we shall again speak when discussing the reign of Venkata II. Most of them were finally put to death by the Sultan of Bijapur. Ibid., p. 142.

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pagode de Tremel, mui nomeado, assim pela muita riqueza, e thesouro, que dizem ter, como por ser casa de muita romagem dos gentios, en que se acham ordinariamente cada dia infinitos, que ali vem de diversas partes e reinos, e muito mas no dia da festa do dito pagode". According to this, Sadasiva retired to where he had been first crowned. Cf. Ch. II, No. 1.

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But this calamity was nothing in comparison with the one which befell the unfortunate city some days after.

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The four Muhammadan Sultans of the Deccan ¹, after the ten days' rest on the battlefield, proceeded towards Vijayanagara with all their troops. Ferishta relates that they halted in the city of Anegundi on the other side of the Tungabhadra river, while their advanced armies penetrated to Vijayanagara itself ². This was done, no doubt, to prepare the great triumph, described by Frederick, of the four Kings on their entry into the capital of their enemy ³. From Anegundi they crossed the river by the bridge built some years previously by Rama Raya, the piers of which can still be seen in the centre of the river. As soon as they reached Vijayanagara, the temple of Achyuta Raya stood before them with its high entrance gopuram, at the end of the so-called dancing girls' street; but turning to the right, and passing in front of the temple of Kodanda Rama, they followed the way paved with large granite slabs that runs by the river side, until they reached the end of the broad bazaar of Hampi, just at the foot of the tremendous monolythic Nandi that watches silently over the first steps leading to the top of the abrupt ridge on the left. Here the state procession was probably arranged first; the soldiers, then the captains; the prisoners next, and finally the four Sultans riding on elephants or on horseback; and it is not even improbable that the head of Rama Raya was carried aloft before the Kings, on the top of a long spear, and shown to the terrified inhabitants of that desolate city. The gorgeous cavalcade, probably did not reach the Pampapati temple; but turning to the left, started the ascent of the rocky hill crowned by the two small shrines where the colossal statues of Ganesa were once worshipped. After a while they entered the enclosure of Krishna's temple, a fine specimen of the architectural work of Krishna Deva Raya: the road turns then to the right; and on reaching the plains the victorious sovereigns of the Deccan passed before the shrine containing the huge monolythic statue of the god Narasimha, which was mutilated by their soldiers shortly after. Subsequently, they entered the citadel, where the Sultans took up their residence either in the enclosure of the royal palace or in the Danayak’s enclosure; the zenana enclosure was also probably reserved for their wives.

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¹ Frederick, Purchas, X, p. 92.

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² Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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³ Frederick, l. c.

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6. The Mussulman sovereigns spent six months at Vijayanagara¹. During this time their troops were occupied in plundering the city and its surroundings. "The efforts of the conquerors," says the anonymous chronicler, "were directed to the plunder of the country and of the city"²; and Frederick states that they were "searching under houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden"³. The booty was enormous. Couto and Faria y Sousa state that Ali Adil Shah got from the spoil a diamond as large as a hen’s egg, and this was affixed to the base of the plume on the headdress of his favourite horse; he also got another diamond not so large but very uncommon, besides a multitude of jewels and precious things⁴.

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¹ Anonymous chronicler, Ferishta, III, p. 415; Basatin-us-Salatin, p. 106; Frederick, Purchas, X, p. 93; Couto, VIII, p. 93. Faria y Sousa II, p. 432, says that they were at Vijayanagara five months only. The Burhan-i-Ma'asir, l.c., p. 194, states that they remained at Vijayanagara four months only.

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² Ferishta, III, p. 414. Cf. Ibid., p. 131.

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³ Purchas, X, p. 93.

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⁴ Couto, VIII, p. 93; Faria y Sousa, II, p. 433. Probably several pearls and precious stones the Sultan of Bijapur got from the sack of Vijayanagar were finally presented to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, after the peace concluded between the Deccan and Prince Khurram in 1617. Cf. Memoirs of Jahangir, I, p. 399-401.

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Was this sack so destructive as it has been supposed? I regret to say that Mr. Sewell, whom we may rightly call the pioneer historian of Vijayanagara, has completely misdescribed the state of Vijayanagara as caused by the Muhammadans during those six months⁵. More than three centuries have elapsed since those memorable days, and time is as sure a destroyer as man. His statement is perhaps founded on the Muhammadan authors, who seem to give a picture of a most tremendous havoc. Ferishta says: "They plundered, rased the chief buildings to the ground and committed every species of excess" ¹. The anonymous chronicler states that "the conquerors were directed to the destruction of the stone buildings" ², and Ali ibn Aziz relates that during their stay they were busy "destroying the temples and dwellings of the idolaters and utterly laying waste all the buildings of the country" ³. I do not doubt that many a temple was desecrated in those days, that many idols were partially broken or completely destroyed, or that several shrines were, perhaps, razed to the ground by the fanatical iconoclasts; but I cannot admit Ferishta's saying, that the chief buildings were razed to the ground, for the simple reason that the chief buildings of the capital of the old Hindu Empire may be partly seen even now. The huge imposing basements both in the royal enclosure and in the zenana; the partly destroyed gopurams of the Vitthalaswami, Krishna and Achyuta Temples, of which only the brick-work has partially disappeared; the beautiful well-kept gopuram of the Pampapati temple at Hampi, one of the first the invaders saw on their coming from Anegundi; even the two small shrines of Ganesa between the Hampi temple and the one of Krishna, of which not a stone has crumbled down after three centuries, are manifest proof of the exaggeration in Ferishta's statement. His religious prejudice against the idols and the temples of the unbelievers made him suppose things done in the imperial city of which its invaders were never guilty.

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⁵ Sewell, p. 207, says: "They slaughtered the people without mercy; broke down the temples and palaces; and wreaked such savage vengeance on the abode of the kings that, with the exception of a few great stone-built temples and walls, nothing now remains but a heap of ruins to mark the spot where once the stately buildings stood." (Italics are mine). How can it be supposed that the destruction we see at present is the effect of the plunder of the Muhammadans only?

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¹ Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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² Ibid., p. 414.

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³ Burhan-i-Ma'asir, l.c., p. 194.

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I feel sure that almost all the idols worshipped at Vijayanagara were destroyed during those days, because they are not, as a general rule, discoverable in the ruined temples. The huge Narasimha was mutilated, no doubt, at the time, since it is not in the power of centuries to cut off such big limbs as that idol's. Two images, nevertheless, inexplicably escaped the general destruction; they are the above mentioned statues of Ganesa. As to the temples, the crumbling of the brick-work of the gopurams, the falling in of the ceiling slabs and the consequent shaking of the whole building, are things that require no help from any iconoclast invader. Time does it more quietly and more easily than any human agency can.

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IX. Vijayanagara. Hindu-Muslim bath.

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Moreover we must admit that several edifices of the city were destroyed by the invaders, partly while searching for treasures and partly by order of Husain Nizam Shah, who set on fire a number of houses, according to the information given by Mirza Ibrahim Zabiri¹. As a matter of fact we have often found traces of a conflagration while going through the ruins.

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¹ Basatin-us-Salatin, p. 106.

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Besides, the poor inhabitants of the city, who had taken refuge in the valleys of the surroundings, were diligently searched for by the Muslim soldiers; and when found, tortured till something was exacted from them².

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² Ibid., p. 107.

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7. Anyhow the Mussulman sovereigns did not intend to destroy Vijayanagara. Their long six months' stay within its walls seems to demonstrate their purpose of retaining the city for themselves. Another fact, which has never been pointed out hitherto, tells the same story: their construction of new buildings in the old Hindu capital. There are still at Vijayanagara five or six buildings (such as the bath on the east side of the royal enclosure, the so-called elephants' stable, the lotus-palace in the zenana, the small building at the opposite corner of the same enclosure, the tower house in one of the corners of the Danayak's enclosure and the octogonal pavilion on the road to Hampi), that do not belong to the old Vijayanagara style, but to a new school that marvellously combines both Hindu and Muslim styles, the latter predominating. Moreover, the ancient Hindu structures of Vijayanagara were built without mortar: the basements of the royal enclosure, the walls of both the city and the different enclosures and the ruins of the temples show their mortarless construction. But for building the edifices in question mortar was used, and such mortar as has gloriously defied the destructive inclemency of the weather for three centuries and a half. Now, speaking of the buildings of Bijapur, and specially of the flat ceiling of the famous Ibrahim Rauza, Mr. H. Cousens, in his monumental work on Bijapur, says: "The whole secret of the durability of the masonry of those days is the great strength and tenacity of the mortar"¹. Such was the secret of the masons of Bijapur. For these reasons I am inclined to believe that the buildings mentioned above were the work of the Deccani Sultans during their sojourn in the capital of the Hindu Empire. My opinion is confirmed by the following words we read in the Basatin-us-Salatin: "After this (the battle) they (the Sultans) devoted their attention to Vijayanagara and raised mighty and lofty buildings"².

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¹ Cousens, Bijapur, p. 72.

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² Basatin-us-Salatin, p. 105.

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Yet six months after their triumphal arrival, that is, at the end of July or at the beginning of August of the same year 1565, they, with their respective armies, left Vijayanagara. "They departed to their own kingdom," Frederick relates, "because they were not able to maintaine such a kingdom as that was, so farre distant from their owne Countrie"³. But before leaving, they received an embassy which ought to have been for them the cause of immense joy: "Venkatadri," says Ferishta, "who escaped from the battle to a distant fortress, sent humble entreaties to the kings, to whom he agreed to restore all the places which his brother had wrested from them"⁴. By whose authority did Venkatadri make such an overture? No doubt by Tirumala's. If the distant fortress to which Venkatadri escaped was Chandragiri, as we have supposed; and if the palace of Tremil, where Tirumala and Sadasiva took refuge after the battle, is in upper Tirupati, as we have pointed out as probable in the beginning of this chapter, both brothers could have communicated with each other on important state matters; and Venkatadri could have opened these pourparlers with the Muhammadan sovereigns, as generalissimo of the Vijayanagara army on behalf of his brother, the new Regent of the Empire.

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³ Purchas, X, p. 94.

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⁴ Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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Misunderstandings among the four Sultans and among their respective generals, that had probably arisen during these six months, hastened their departure. Both the Golkonda chronicler and Ali ibn Aziz, as well as Mirza Ibrahim Zabiri, refer quite clearly to this disagreement among them ¹; and the wars that ensued soon after, and of which we shall speak a little further down, confirm our supposition. Nevertheless, no public manifestation of this mutual enmity was then given. They went together as far as Raichur, where they "took leave of each other and returned to their respective dominions" ². The anonymous chronicler informs us that before leaving Vijayanagara, the four Sultans deputed three of their generals, Mustafa Khan, Maulana Inayatullah and Kishwar Khan "to attack Mudkal (Mudgal) and Raichur, which places were easily reduced" ³.

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¹ Ferishta, III, pp. 414-5; *Burhan-i-Ma'asir*, l.c., p. 194; *Basatin-us-Salatin*, pp. 109-10. Cf. Scott Waring, *History of the Maharattas*, p. 40.

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² Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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³ Ibid., p. 414. Cf. *Burhan-i-Ma'asir*, l.c., p. 196.

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8. Vijayanagara was thus abandoned by its own conquerors; and soon after, its natural lord again entered its gates. Tirumala "returned to Vijayanagara after the departure of the Dekanese," says Anquetil du Perron ⁴. Mr. Sewell seems to attach little importance to the Regent's return; but to my mind it is one of the outstanding events of those days. It signifies that after the battle of Raksas-Tagdi the ruler of Vijayanagara did not despair of restoring the Empire to its ancient grandeur; to maintain the capital next to the boundaries of their enemies showed the indomitable courage that could still challenge the Deccani Muhammadans, with the sure hope of crushing them as in former days: for Vijayanagara was the City of Victory!

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⁴ Anquetil du Perron, l.c., p. 166.

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No inscription at Vijayanagara records this second stay of Tirumala within its walls after the battle of Raksas-Tagdi ⁵. But fortunately we have an account by an eye-witness of this return of Tirumala to Vijayanagara after the departure of the Muhammadans. C. Frederick, who had seen it with his own eyes, describes the royal palace as invested with no less splendour than before the Muslim invasion; and he relates an episode relating to Tirumala, which is quite characteristic of that ruler. It is worth while to quote it in his own words :—

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⁵ Cf. H. Krishna Sastri, *The Third Vijayanagara Dynasty*, l.c., p. 181, note.

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"When the kings were departed from Bezeneger, this Temiragio returned to the Citie, and then beganne for to repopulate it; and sent word to Goa to the Merchants, if they had any Horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them; and for this cause the aforesaid two Merchants, that I went in companie withall, carried those Horses that they had to Bezeneger. Also this Tyrant made an order or law, that if any Merchant had any of the Horses that were taken in the aforesaid battell (of Raksas-Tagdi) or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would give as much for them as they would: and beside he gave generall safe conduct to all that should bring them. When by this meanes hee saw that there were great store of Horses brought thither unto him, he gave the Merchants faire words, until such time as he saw they could bring no more. Then hee licenced the Merchants to depart, without giving them any thing for their Horses; which when the poore men saw, they were desperate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe" 1.

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This episode clearly shows the determination of Tirumala to continue the war with the Muhammadans. For which purpose he was in need of horses and money; that was why, after obtaining the horses, he refused to make any payment to the poor merchants. This fact discredits Tirumala’s character in the light of impartial history; a ruler who oppresses his foreign benefactors in order to carry out his designs is not a ruler but a tyrant.

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9. Frederick goes on to say that he "rested in Bezeneger seven months" 2. His description of the imperial palace again proves that the Muhammadans did not raze to the ground every chief building in the city, as stated by Ferishta. "I have seene many Kings Courts," says he, "and yet have I seene none in greatnesse like to this of Bezeneger; I say for the order of his Palace, for it hath nine Gates or Ports. First when you goe into the place where the King did lodge, there are five great ports or gates: these are kept with Captaines and Souldiers: then within these there are foure lesser gates, which are kept with Porters. Without the first Gate there is a little porch, where there is a Captaine with five and twentie Souldiers, that keepeth watch and ward night and day; and within that another with the like guard, where thorow they come to a very faire Court; and at the end of that Court there is another porch as the first, with the like guard, and within that another Court. And in this wise are the first five Gates guarded and kept with those Captaines: and then the lessor Gates within are kept with a guard of Porters: which gates stand open the greatest part of the night, because the costume of the Gentiles is to doe bisinesse and make their feasts in the night, rather then by day " 1.

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¹ Purchas, X, p. 94. This fact is also narrated by Sewell, p. 209, but as having occurred in Penukonda. No doubt it took place at Vijayanagara. Frederick says that he went there with the merchants.

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² Ibid.

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10. The return of Tirumala to Vijayanagara, and his attempt to repopulate this city, must have coincided with the attack of Bijapur against Ahmadnagar, in which even the Sultan of Golkonda took some part. Husain Nizam Shah had died shortly after his retreat from the Hindu capital; and his son Murtaza Nizam Shah, although young, became very unpopular on account of his excesses; so that before the end of the same year 1565, or perhaps in the beginning of 1566, Kishwur Khan wrote privately to the Sultan of Bijapur, inviting him to attack Ahmadnagar where there was, he said, a strong party in his favour. Such was the origin of this war in which Golkonda and Birar supported the Sultan of Ahmadnagar 2. This was an ideal opportunity to enable the energetic Regent of Vijayanagara to carry out his plan.

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And such was the luck of Tirumala that, shortly after, he himself was invited to interfere again, like his brother Rama Raya, in the destiny of their opponents. For Murtaza Nizam Shah, in order to be revenged on Ali Adil Shah, "sent an envoy to Golkonda,” says the anonymous chronicler, “inviting Ibrahim Qutb Shah to form an alliance against the king of Bijapur: while at the same time an envoy had been previously despatched for the same purpose to Ahmadnagar by the king of Golkonda, proposing that they should march to the river Krishna, when Yeltumraj (Tirumala), the brother of the late Ramraj, might be invited to join with his forces, when they could all proceed to the reduction of Bijapur. After reaching the Krishna, the kings of Golkonda and Ahmadnagar wrote to Yeltumraj, requesting him to become a member of the confederacy”.

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¹ Purchas, X, pp. 97-8.

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² Anonymous chronicler, Ferishta, III, pp. 416-8.

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This was an excellent chance for Tirumala to recover the countries taken by Ali Adil Shah from Rama Raya, which he expected would be restored by the allies to Vijayanagara; he also seized this opportunity to enfeeble his enemies by fostering war among them, following the Machiavellian policy of his late brother. But at the same time he received another despatch from the Queen Dowager of Ahmadnagar; Khunzah Humayun, who was ruling over the kingdom during the minority of her son, demanding from him the sum of two lakhs of huns for aid to be given him by the allies against the encroachments of the Sultan of Bijapur. Tirumala, very much astonished at the Queen’s demand, sent a message to the Golkonda Sultan informing him of the circumstance. Ibrahim Qutb Shah promptly deputed a person to Ahmadnagar to express to the Queen his surprise at this unexpected demand, remarking that “it appeared very impolitic, in the present posture of affairs, to make demands of money on Yeltumraj, instead of conciliating one who was a useful ally at the head of ten thousand men, and who had reason to bear great enmity towards the powerful state which they were on the point of attacking”. Khunzah Humayun, instead of acting on this advice, persisted in her demand, and even accompanied it with threats. Tirumala could not tolerate this; accordingly, he not only refused to pay the money, but set out from his capital against the allies. Ibrahim Qutb Shah did not expect such an unfavourable turn of events; and fearing the power of the Hindu army, dispatched an envoy to Tirumala, advising him to retreat to his country, and promising that his own troops would also move simultaneously. On the following day, both armies struck camp and retreated to their own countries¹.

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¹ Ferishta, III, pp. 418-20. The chronicler says that Tirumala marched to Penukonda; he seems to ignore the fact that the Regent was at Vijayanagara at this time, as we know from the sources mentioned above. This campaign of the Golkonda Sultan against the Sultan of Bijapur is mentioned, too, in the Telugu poem Tapatisamvaranam. Cf. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources, p. 238; and hinted at in the Basatin-us-Salatin, pp. 113-4.

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II. It seems quite certain that Sadasiva did not come back to Vijayanagara with the Regent of the Empire; the contemporary sources do not give any information on this point, and from their silence we may deduce that he probably remained in the palace of Tremil, Upper Tirupati, or that perhaps he was transferred to the neighbouring fortress of Chandragiri. Frederick merely says that Tirumala "had in prison the lawful king"². This statement is confirmed by the Chikkadevaraya Vamsavali, which states that Tirumala governed "setting aside the nominal sovereign Sadasiva"³. We know from these testimonies that Sadasiva's imprisonment did not end at the death of Rama Raya. Tirumala, who had probably formerly rebelled against his brother on hearing of his sovereign's imprisonment, now followed the same policy himself. Chandragiri was a splendid prison for a king; and since the only place where we find Sadasiva hereafter is Srirangam, where he made the Krishnapuram grant, we may reasonably suppose that he never went back to the North of his Empire. Venkatadri who was probably at Chandragiri, might have been his jailor; or perhaps this office was filled by the third son of Tirumala, Venkata, the future Venkata II, who seems to have governed a portion of the Empire during the reign of Sadasiva⁴, and during the reigns of his father and of his brother Ranga I, had been their viceroy at Chandragiri, and was at this time, according to an inscription of Markapur, of 1467, already one of the ministers of the Empire¹. In the year 1567 he made a grant to the Puranist Parankusan Lakshmanaiya². Another of his gifts is recorded in an inscription of 1568³.

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² Purchas, X, p. 97.

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³ S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources, p. 302.

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⁴ M.E.R., 1905-6, para 49.

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¹ Cf. H. Krishna Sastri, *The Third Vijayanagara Dynasty*, l.c., p. 187.

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² 163 of 1905.

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³ 240 of 1897.

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Tirumala therefore was the sole ruler of the Empire. We know of several grants made in his own name without any mention of Sadasiva at all; such was the one given in 1567, as recorded in an inscription close to Siva’s temple at Kandakuru, Cuddapah⁴. One year later he granted Holalkere as an *amara-magam* to the great Kamagetti Kasturi Medakeri Nayaka⁵. In another similar inscription of the same place, the donee is called Maha-nayakacharya; and it is further stated that he made over the village to his brother-in-law, Gulliyapa Nayaka, as an *umballi*⁶. In the same year he made two grants to the temple of Vishnu at Khairuwale⁷. Then the fort villages granted to Jvarakandesvara “the lord of Vellore”, at the request of Chinna Bomma Nayaka, were the gift of Tirumala alone⁸. Occasionally, however, some grants of Sadasiva are found among the inscriptions of those days; one, for instance, of the year 1567 comes from Ahobilam, Karnul⁹. Sometimes both the sovereign and the Regent are mentioned in the inscriptions, showing the subordinate office of Tirumala: for example, during the reign of Sadasiva, Tirumala, under his orders, made a charitable grant to the barbers of Battepadu, Udayagiri, and exempted them from taxes¹⁰; the Krishnapuram plates, of which we shall speak a little further on, are another instance of the same. But we know two inscriptions in which Sadasiva and Tirumala are placed on the same level. The one states that during the reign of Sadasiva, by his command and by order of Tirumala Rajaya, a private person gives a grant to a god for cars and festivals¹; the other is a Telugu copper plate of Komarunipalli, Cuddapah, which records that in the reign of Sadasiva and Gutti Tirumalayya, the fourteen villagers of Utukuru district gave to Lakkanayadu lands and fees at three panams for a marriage in these villages². In 1569 one Chinnapanayaningaru declares himself subject to Tirumala, while no mention of Sadasiva is made³. Nevertheless, it seems that the Regent never took imperial titles until after Sadasiva's death⁴.

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⁴ Sewell, I, p. 132.

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⁵ *Ep. Carn.*, XI, Hk, 7.

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⁶ Ibid., 6.

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⁷ Sewell, I, p. 93.

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⁸ Cf. Ch. VIII, No. 12.

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⁹ Sewell, I, p. 101.

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¹⁰ Butterworth, I, pp. 217-8.

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¹ Ep. Carn., X, Gd. 52.

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² Rangacharya, I, pp. 580, 58.
3. 166 of 1905.

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⁴ Cf. H. Krishna Sastri, The Third Vijayanagara Dynasty, l.c., p. 180.

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12. But Tirumala's stay at Vijayanagara did not last very long. Anquetil du Perron states that "not long after he transferred his court to Panegorde" (Penukonda)⁵; and the Chikkadevaraya Vamsavali records that "after a short time he changed his capital from Vijayanagara to Penukonda"⁶. But Frederick gives the date of this important event: "In the year of our Lord God 1567, for the ill successe that the people of Bezeneger had.. the King with his Court went to dwell in a Castle eight dayes journey up in the land from Bezeneger, called Penegonde" (Penukonda)⁷. We must say here that the transfer of the capital to Penukonda could not have taken place in the beginning of this year 1567, because this traveller went to Vijayanagara in the same year⁸, and spent six months in that city⁹, without witnessing the departure of Tirumala, of which he was made aware later on. Now if we suppose that his return to the city after the departure of the Muhammadans occurred at the end of 1565 or the beginning of 1566, (since the enemy had left either in July or August) we must admit that Tirumala spent about two years at Vijayanagara.

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⁵ Anquetil du Perron, l.c., p. 166.

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⁶ S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources, p. 302.

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⁷ Purchas, X, p.

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⁹⁷ Not in Saka 1493, immediately after his usurpation of the throne, as H. Krishna Sastri, The Third Vijayanagara Dynasty, p. 181, says; the inscriptions and grants are not the only sources of information.

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⁸ Purchas, X, p. 92.

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What was the motive of his final departure? Frederick seems to attribute it to another war with the Muhammadans¹; and the *Chikkadevaraya Vamsavali* says clearly that he changed his capital "on account of the constant attacks of the Muhammadans"², which naturally baffled all attempts on the part of the Regent to repopulate the city.

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¹ Cf. Gubernatis, *Storia*, p. 290.

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² S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, *Sources*, p. 302.

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Now, we know from Ferishta that about that time, Ali Adil Shah of Bijapur led his army against the Hindus of Vijayanagara and Anegundi. The Hindu chief then applied for relief to Khunzah Humayun, the Regent of Ahmadnagar, who herself marched at the head of an army, accompanied by her son, against the dominions of Bijapur. Ali Adil Shah was compelled by this sudden attack to retreat from Anegundi to defend his own country³. The Muhammadan writer does not mention any action between the two armies. But we feel sure that some fighting ensued; and it was probably in the course of this war that Tirumala's minister, Chennappa Nayadu, defeated the Muslim general Rambikesaru Khanu (Kishwar Khan?), as is recorded in an inscription at Penukonda⁴.

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³ Ferishta, III, pp. 131-2 and 251.

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⁴ 341 of 1901.

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Nevertheless, this war showed the Hindus that life in the capital was insecure on account of the proximity of the Muhammadan possessions; the few inhabitants who had come back to repopulate the city retired to a more secure place; and Tirumala was obliged to abandon the old capital for good. This however betrayed a certain faintness of heart on the part of the Regent of the Empire. He had returned to Vijayanagara, after the retreat of the Muhammadans, as an enterprising hero and worthy successor of Krishna Deva Raya and of his brother Rama Raya; but now, giving up possession of the old capital in favour of Penukonda was equivalent to retiring from the front line to the second post of the Empire, and at the same time to abandoning all hope of victory over his enemies. Vijayanagara was giving up its offensive lines, and retreating to a position of defence.

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13. The new capital of the Empire of Vijayanagara deserves some notice here. Penukonda was a hill fort, three thousand feet high, in the South of the present Anantapur District; “eight dayes journey up in the land from Bezeneger (Vijayanagar)”, in the words of Frederick. The town is situated at the foot of a hill which gives its name to the place: Penukonda means ‘big hill’.

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Kriyasakti Wadeyar, an ancestor of the Rajas of Bellur, is said to be the founder of the fort of Penukonda¹; but its main fortifications were built or enlarged during the reign of Bukka I. According to an inscription of 1354 on the eastern side of the northern gate of the fort, Bukka entrusted the province of Penukonda to his son Vira Virupana Udaiyar, by his wife Janema Devi; and during the rule of this Virupana over Penukonda, the fort was enlarged and fortified by his minister Anantarasa Odeyaru². Subsequently, when Narasa Nayaka deposed the last representative of the Saluva dynasty, Immadi Narasimha, the unfortunate young prince was first confined and then, according to Nuniz, murdered in Penukonda by the usurper³. This was one of the favourite towns of Krishna Deva Raya, who, according to tradition, made it his residence for some time⁴. We read in an ancient inscription that Penukonda is a god-built city and that no man could possibly boast of taking its surrounding fortifications⁵.

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¹ Kriyasakti Wadeyar, Wilson, The Mackenzie Collection, p. 345.

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² 339 of 1901.

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³ Sewell, p. 308.

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⁴ Cf. Francis, Anantapur Gazetteer, p. 191. In an inscription of 1543, Rama Raya is said to be ruling the Empire of the world in Penukonda. Ep. Carn., IV, Kr, 79. This is probably a spurious inscription, since it represents Rama Raya with imperial titles, “seated on the jewelled throne,” which was unusual in the first days of Sadasiva’s reign.

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⁵ 341 of 1901.

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Such was the place selected by Tirumala for the capital of the Empire. The Muhammadans were not likely to shake again the throne of the Telugu Empire as long as it was lodged within such a fortress, especially after the Regent himself had repaired its fortifications, under the direction of Chennappa Nayadu¹. Penukonda was to be, according to him, a worthy successor of the old capital, the second *City of Victory*. And it seems probable that it was called at this time *Vijayanagara-Penukonda*, because the *History of the Karnataka Governors* begins as follows: "Vizianagaram-Penu-Kondaipatnam was for many years the capital of the Rayer" ².

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¹ 336 of 1901.

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² Taylor, *O. H. MSS.*, II, p. 3.

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14. The transfer of the capital to Penukonda was the cause of the abandonment and destruction of Vijayanagara. Two inscriptions of Tirumala, of the following year 1568, describe the city as 'destroyed and in ruins'³. We cannot believe that the buildings of the city were in a ruinous state only a year after the departure of the court; the above mentioned inscriptions refer, no doubt, to the moral body of the citizens, to the *Civitas*, not to its buildings. Anquetil du Perron expressly says that "the town of Bisnagar, being abandoned, became the dwelling of wild beasts" ⁴. And Frederick in his memoirs wrote: "The Citie of Bezeneger is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts" ⁵. Orme records that at the end of the 16th century, "the city of Bisnagar was part of the dominion of the Mahomedan king of Viziapore (Bijapur)" ⁶. Accordingly when Filippo Sassetti passed through Vijayanagara in 1584-5, he found a Muhammadan Governor there, as a letter of his, dated Goa, November 9th, 1585, relates ⁷. But at the close of the century Ferishta wrote: "The city itself.........is now totally in ruins and uninhabited" ¹.

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³ *Ep. Carn.*, XI, Hk, 6 and 7.

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⁴ Anquetil du Perron, l. c., p. 166.

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⁵ Purchas, X, p. 97.

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⁶ Orme, *Historical Fragments*, p. 61.

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⁷ Gubernatis, *Storia dei Viaggiatori*, p. 202.

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¹ Ferishta, III, p. 131.

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The information of the Muhammadan writer, however, is not up-to-date: because a servant of the East India Company passed through Vijayanagara in that year and found inhabitants there: hence the city was not yet totally destroyed. A letter of Peter Floris to Mr. Tho. Aldworth at Surat, dated Mislopatam (Masulipatam), June 17th, 1614, gives this information: "Yesterday arrived here a fellow who calleth his name John, saying, he come sent from you with letters from Sir Thomas Smith our Governor, brought by land; and that he hath been but thirty three days from you, or the next day that you did send your letter per this peon; and coming to Barampur (Burhampur) in company of a certain English merchant John Bednall, and one Thomas Lock with one Frenchman whom he did leave at Barampur; and this John coming from Barampur (Burhampur) towards Bagnagar (Bisnagar) was robbed by the way, by his own report, of a camel, a horse, six fine clothes, a hundred pagodas in money and other apparel. So coming to Coulas, he did send back two servants for Barampur and one for Surat; but he himself came to Bagnagar, where he did meet with a certain gentile, being a goldsmith, an old acquaintance of mine, who did take him into his house and did write me of it what is passed with this John". And a little later he adds: "Because he tells me that the English merchants from Barampur will be here within this ten or twelve days, I have been content to write Attmachan and Malicktosuer in Bagnagar in his behalf, to see if he can get his stolen goods again," etc. ². It is quite evident from this letter that at the beginning of the 17th century there were still some inhabitants at Vijayanagara. And in the middle of the same century Timma or Tirumala, a nephew of Ranga III, by his brother Venkatapati, built there the lofty eastern gopuram of the temple of Virupaksha ³.

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² Letters Received by the E. I. C., II, pp. 60-1.

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³ Ramarajiyamu, S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources, p. 311.

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15. Nevertheless, the ancient populous capital of the Empire had become a small village, showing only in its temples and palaces the past grandeur which was crumbling away little by little. Its decay was the first death-blow to Portuguese commerce in India: "From that time onwards", says Couto, "the inhabitants of Goa have been on the decline" ¹. And Filippo Sassetti, in the above quoted letter, says also that the traffic between the two cities had completely perished, and gives the following instance to illustrate the great loss that this entailed to Portuguese commerce: "The revenue of the tax on the horses that came from Persia for Vijayanagara was from a hundred and twenty thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand ducats; and the present revenue does not reach even six thousand" ².

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¹ Couto, VIII, pp. 93-4.

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² Gubernatis, o. c., p. 202. See Ap. B, No. VI.

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For the King of Portugal, this news was naturally most disappointing; for precisely on February 27th, 1568, a few months after the departure of Tirumula from Vijayanagara, he wrote from Lisboa to Dom Luiz de Taide (d'Ataide) as follows: "If the merchandise that comes from Cananor, Cochin and other places, to be sold in Narsinga (Vijayanagara), passes through Goa, the revenue derived from the tariff duties on them will be a great service to me" ³. The Portuguese sovereign was never to see the finances of his *state of India* increased by the commerce with Vijayanagara; the Portuguese trade in that city had perished for ever.

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³ Archivo Portuguez Oriental, III, p. 14.

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16. The departure of the Court from Vijayanagara to Penukonda naturally encouraged the secular covetousness of the Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda; that confession of the weakness of the Hindu government was a tacit invitation to them to seize the territories North of the Empire. Accordingly Ali Adil Shah, in the year 1568, captured the fortress of Adoni, which "was fortified with eleven walls, one within another, so that it appeared impossible to reduce it by force" ⁴. It was then that Malik Rahiman Khan was appointed first Mussulman governor of Adoni ¹.

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⁴ Ferishta, III, pp. 134-5.

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¹ Cf. Sewell, I, p. 103.

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But the campaign most calamitous for the Hindu Empire was the one led by Rifat Khan, the Golkonda general, in the North-East corner of the Empire, which wrenched for ever that province from the central power. The anonymous chronicler of Golkonda gives a detailed account of this expedition, which is sometimes rendered somewhat obscure by his lack of geographical knowledge.

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This general had before the battle of Raksas-Tagdi reduced part of the country surrounding Rajamundri and, after the rupture of relations between Tirumala and Ibrahim Qutb Shah, was sent again to that province to accomplish its reduction. But before capturing the city of Rajamundri he had to take the two forts of Pentapur and Rajpundi which were in the possession of a chief called by Ferishta Setupati. The first was taken by storm without much opposition; and Setupati and his family made their escape through the woods to the fortress of Rajpundi. After some days the Muhammadans followed them thither; whereupon Setupati fled to Rajamundri and took refuge in the Court of Vidiadri (sic), the Raja of that place. After the capture of Rajpundi Rifat Khan invested Rajamundri. After a siege of four months his artillery began to produce some effect on the walls, and made a breach of nearly fifty paces in one of the curtains. At this stage the Raja surrendered the fort on condition "that Vidiadri and Setupati, with their families, should be permitted, after evacuating the fort, to proceed whithersoever they chose without molestation". Accordingly Vidiadri proceeded to Krishnacota and Setupati to Vijayanagara, and the campaign was over by the end of 1567 ².

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