The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c5.3

v1.c5.3

It is needless to insist on the importance of this period in the general history of India. Between the dates just mentioned, the already flourishing Portuguese commerce in India met its death-blow by the first appearance in the southern seas of the Danish, Dutch, French and English traders. Deccani Muhammadans, Marathas and Mughals successively invaded the South, and shook to its very foundations the venerable Empire of Vijayanagara. It was also during this period that Vaishnavism was firmly established in the South as a result of the onslaughts on Jainism and Saivism, after the preaching of Ramanujacharya. Finally the successors of St. Francis Xavier, who preached Christ's Gospel on the Fishery Coast at the close of the third dynasty, were actively spreading the Catholic Doctrine, at one time protected by the very Emperors, Nayaks and other chiefs, at another persecuted by them; and one of these missionaries, Fr. R. de Nobili, founded at this time the famous Madura Mission among the high caste people, the effects of which it is impossible to pass over in silence in a general history of the country.