Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7: Chapter I. Introduction

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7

Language
English

Contents

Chapter I. Introduction

Section 1. The Political Situation in the First Quarter of the 14th Century in Southern India

v1.c7.s1.1

Towards the latter half of the thirteenth century A.D., there occurred a series of events which set ablaze the latent energy of the Hindu Dharma in southern India. The land south of the Vindhyas, which had been left to itself for many centuries, was now suddenly confronted with a problem the magnitude of which the Hindus of southern India realized after eight and sixty years of humiliation. But at the end of that period, the smouldering forces of Hinduism suddenly swept away the growing menace, and allowed Hindu society to run on its own course for two hundred and fifty years of uninterrupted history. This is how what has been till now known as the Forgotten Empire of Vijayanagara came into being in southern India.

v1.c7.s1.2

The terror which shook the country to its very foundation was entirely foreign; the measures adopted to meet and rout it were purely indigenous. It is in the explanation of these two that I intend to dwell on the Muhammadan conquest of southern India in the latter half of the thirteenth, and in the early years of the fourteenth, centuries; and on the remedies which the Hindus took not only to ward off the worst danger they ever had, but to stop its progress for centuries to come. The former will take us into the study of the political situation in southern India in the first quarter of the fourteenth century; and the latter into the study of the manner in which the Hindus of those times led their lives. It is only when we have understood these two points that we shall be able to appreciate the remark that "the history of Vijayanagar is a subject of considerable interest in the annals of India, as the last barrier that was opposed to Mohamedan invasions, and that preserved the southern part of the Peninsula from foreign rule until a very modern period";¹ and that the Vijayanagara age marks only "a fresh instance of Hindu vitality", in the direction of creating an empire "which was at once a centre of both political and literary life."²

v1.c7.s1.3

¹ Wilson, Preface to Ravenshaw's Inscriptions of Vijayanagar, Asiatic Researches, XX. p. 1.

v1.c7.s1.4

² Radhakumud Mookerjee, Local Government in Ancient India, p. 13.

v1.c7.s1.5

The political situation in southern India towards the end of the thirteenth century necessitated the disappearance of the old order of things in matters connected with the government, and to some extent, in questions related to the morality of the people. Four principal royal families held the divided sovereignty of the land south of the Vindhyas; and it seemed as if every one of these failed to introduce a government strong enough to preserve Hindu society on the time-honoured principles of the ancients. The western part of India was ruled in the north by the Yādavas; the regions now known as the Karṇāṭaka and Kanara were under the sway of the Hoysalas; the whole of the Malabar coast was within the jurisdiction of the ancient royal families of Travancore, Cochin and Calicut. On the eastern side the Kākatīyas governed the regions around Warangal; and the south of their kingdom was nominally under the equally, or perhaps more, ancient royal families of the Chōḷas of Tamilakam and the Pāṇḍyas of Madura. To the Hoysalas alone, of all these, was handed down the right of holding the hegemony over southern India; and so we find that about the end of the thirteenth century, the Hoysala arms had spread over almost the whole of southern India, excepting the Malabar coast.³

v1.c7.s1.6

³ Archaeological Survey Report for the year 1907-8, p. 235; Caldwell, The History of Tinnevelly, p. 44.

v1.c7.s1.7

It is in the nature of wise statesmanship to preserve the old order of things, and the Hoysalas, therefore, allowed the Chōḷa and Pāṇḍya political machinery to continue in its course. The political situation seemed to be quite normal, and it appeared as if the Hoysalas had nothing to fear from their enemies either from within or from without.

v1.c7.s1.8

But their rivals in the north, the Yādavas, who vied with the Hoysalas for the sovereignty over the Karṇāṭaka on the break-up of the Kaḷachuriya Empire, failed to close their gates against greedy invaders; while the feudatories of the Hoysalas in the south, if tradition be true, called in the aid of the very enemy who was breaking the barriers of the Hindu kingdom in the north. The Yādavas, who had at one time claimed descent from "the same original stock with the Hoysalas,"¹ ruled from Dēvagiri, the modern Daulatabād, near Aurangābād. For many years, the successors of Siṅghaṇa I, the founder of the dynasty, measured swords with the Hoysalas for the supremacy over the Karṇāṭaka. In Śaka 1193 (A.D. 1271-2) Rāmachandra, the son of Kṛishṇa, ascended the throne.² He kept up the tradition of hostilities against the Hoysalas; and in Śaka 1199 (A.D. 1277) his general Sāḷuva Tikkama became famous as the "Overthrower of the Hoysala King". The Yādava sway under Rāmachandra "extended over all the dominions in the central and southern parts of the Bombay Presidency, of the dynasties that had preceded his".³

v1.c7.s1.9

¹ Fleet, The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency, p.

v1.c7.s1.10

But troubles were soon to befall the Yādavas. About the year A.D. 1294 'Alā-ud-dīn, the nephew of Jalāl-ud-dīn, the Khilji Emperor of Delhi, discovered Dēvagiri.⁴ And the story that followed is easily told. The Islāmic career of conquest which began in A.D. 1000 in northern India had come to stay, so it appeared, even in southern India. 'Alā-ud-dīn returned to Delhi laden with "six hundred maunds of pearls, two maunds of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, one thousand maunds of silver, and four thousand pieces of silk, besides," continues Firishtah, "a long list of other precious commodities, to which reason forbids us to give credit".¹ This event, which led to the subjugation of Dēvagiri, is ascribed by Dr. Fleet, who bases his remarks on the accounts of Firishtah, to the year A.D. 1294. Sewell would have the event placed in A.D. 1293.² There is reason to believe, however, that the Muhammadan menace had already come to the land, even as far as the Hoysala-nāḍu, fifteen years earlier; for we find in a copper-plate grant from Bēlūr dated A.D. 1278, of the times of Vira Narasimha, who was ruling from the royal city of Dōrasamudra, that arrangements were made "to provide for the taxes which the residents from all parts in Vāraṇāsi must pay to the Turushkas".³ This compulsory levy, which was meant to eradicate an evil, only put off the danger for a worse day. The year A.D. 1278, therefore, may be taken to be the earliest date of the advent of the northern Muhammadan arms into the Karṇāṭaka proper.⁴

v1.c7.s1.11

⁷¹ (1st ed.) ² Fleet, ibid., p. 74: Pāli, Sanskrit, and Old Canarese Inscriptions, Nos. 6, 125, 202-5; JRAS (O.S.) II, p. 388; V, pp. 178, 183; Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 109. ³ Fleet, Dyn. Kan. Dist., p. 74. ⁴ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India, I, pp. 304-430; Elphinstone, History of India, pp. 386-408 (Cowell's ed.); Elliot, History of India as told by her own Historians, III, p. 201, seq. (Dowson's ed.)

v1.c7.s1.12

¹ Fleet, Dyn. Kan. Dist., p. 76; Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, I, p. 310.

v1.c7.s1.13

² Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), p. 4 (1900); Lists of the Antiquities in the Madras Presidency, I, p. 103.

v1.c7.s1.14

³ Rice, Mysore Inscriptions, Bēlūr C.P., pp. 276-7.

v1.c7.s1.15

⁴ Read Dr. S. K. Aiyangar, South India and her Muhammadan Invaders, pp. 69-73. Dr. Aiyangar places the first irruption of the Muhammadans into the Dekkan in A.D. 1296, p. 68.

v1.c7.s1.16

The forces of Islām soon spread themselves over the major portion of the land. From A.D. 1306, when Mālik Kāfūr started to subdue the Deccan,⁵ till about A.D. 1330, Dēvagiri, Warangal, and even Dōrasamudra fell. In A.D. 1309 that indomitable general invaded Warangal,—which was then under the Hindu Rāja whom Firishtah calls Ludder Deo (Rudra Dēva or Pratāpa Rudra Dēva),—by way of Dēvagiri.⁶ In the next year he marched against Dōrasamudra, the seat of the Hoysalas, and Ma'bar (i.e., the west coast) and took "Bilal Deo, Rāya of the Carnatic, prisoner".⁷ As the Ta'rīkhi-Firūz Shāhi gives it, "at the first onslaught Bilāl Rāi fell into the hands of the Muhammadans, and Dhūr Samundar was captured. Thirty-six elephants, and all the treasures of the palace, fell into the hands of the victors".⁸ The Minister for Peace and War, it may incidentally be noted, in the year A.D. 1309 was one Dēvappa Hariappa, the *sarvādhikāri* of Haḍavalike-nāḍ.¹ And the ruler who suffered the ignominious defeat was Ballāḷa III. That the Hoysalas received a crushing blow on this occasion there can be no doubt.² An inscription dated A.D. 1313 speaks of Ballāḷa Rāya, son of Vira Ballāḷa III, entering the city from Delhi, and the remission of all the taxes by the king as a mark of universal rejoicing. "When Pratāpa Chakravarti Hoysaṇa Vira Ballāḷa Dēvarasa was ruling a peaceful kingdom, after the Turuka war, on the occasion of his son Vira Ballāḷa Rāya, from Dilli entering the city on May 6th, 1313 (*Pramādhi-saṃvasarada Jēṣṭa- śudha- dasamiyalli*), he released the taxes, old and new, and those for destruction and injustice in Chikka Kūḍali and Hanasavāḍi, belonging to the god Rāmanātha of Kūḍali".³

v1.c7.s1.17

⁵ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, I, p. 365, seq.; Fleet, Dyn. Kan. Dist., p. 76.

v1.c7.s1.18

⁶ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, I, p. 371.

v1.c7.s1.19

⁷ Firishtah, ibid., p. 373.

v1.c7.s1.20

⁸ Elliot, Hist. of India, III, pp. 203-4.

v1.c7.s1.21

¹ *Epigraphia Carnatica*, VII, Sh. 19, p. 13.

v1.c7.s1.22

² *A.S.R.*, 1907-8, p. 235; S. K. Aiyangar, *South India*, pp. 93-4.

v1.c7.s1.23

³ *E.C.* VII, Sh. 68, p. 26.

v1.c7.s1.24

Meanwhile, the Muhammadan arms, which had devastated the whole of western India and a very large part of southern India, were called into requisition by the once-feudatories of the Hoysalas, the Pāṇḍyas of Madura. These over-lords of Madura set an example that was to be the bane of the country for centuries to come. "Sundara, the son and murderer of Kales-Dēva (i.e., Kulaśēkhara) gained the throne of the Pāṇḍya in A.D. 1310 by defeating his brother, Vira, and being defeated by him later, fled to Delhi to bring in Muhammadan intercession on his behalf".⁴ Little did Sundara Pāṇḍya realize that the foreigners into whose hands he was thus playing himself, were a people who would not rest content with sending a mere contingent to the south. Mālik Kāfūr, now that another golden opportunity was given him for the subjugation of the whole of the south, rapidly turned his attention to the little principality of the Pāṇḍyas in the extreme south of the peninsula. After subduing Ma'bar, where he destroyed a Golden Temple, and beat "two Rāis",⁵ he entered the Pāṇḍya land,⁶ where at "Sett Bund Rameswar" he set up a mosque.¹ A Muhammadan Viceroy was established at Madura,² and the victory of the Muhammadans over the Hindus seemed complete.

v1.c7.s1.25

⁴ Krishnamacharlu (referring to Sewell), *The Indian Antiquary*, LI., p. 231; S. K. Aiyangar in Satyanatha Iyer, *The Nayaks of Madura*, Intr., p. 5; S. K. Aiyangar, *South India*, pp. 69, 95-7.

v1.c7.s1.26

⁵ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, III, p. 204.

v1.c7.s1.27

⁶ S. K. Aiyangar in Satyanatha, *Nayaks*, Intr., p. 5. But according to Barani, the Muhammadan general returned to Delhi early in A.D. 1311. Elliot, *ibid.*, III, p. 204.

v1.c7.s1.28

¹ Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, I, p. 374. Briggs identifies this place with "a point of that name in Canara, south of Goa, and not that at 'Adam's Bridge,' on the Gulf of Mannar." Ibid., p. note.

v1.c7.s1.29

² Satyanatha, *Nayaks*, p. 2. Gopinatha Rao in his Introduction to *Madhurāvijayam* says that the Sultans of Madura "issued even coins of their own. One of these coins bears on its obverse the words 'Ahsan Shah 738' (of Hijra, i.e., A.D. 1377-8) and on the reverse 'Al Husainiyyu'", p. 29. Cf. Tufnell, *Hints to Coin Collectors*, pp. 26-7; *Epigraphia Indica*, VI, p. 324.

v1.c7.s1.30

The Hoysalas, realizing the immensity of the danger from the northern side, where their traditional enemies, the Yādavas, had completely succumbed to the Muhammadans in A.D. 1312, had now recourse to a measure which in the end proved beneficial to the Hindu cause. Out of sheer political necessity they continually shifted the seat of their government. From the year A.D. 1318 till A.D. 1343, Hoysala Vīra Ballāḷa III had a moving capital. In A.D. 1318 he was at Aruṇāsamudra³ but the next year he was at Dōrasamudra.⁴ In A.D. 1327 his worst fears were realized, for in that year Dōrasamudra was practically demolished.⁵ In A.D. 1328 Uṇṇāmalepaṭṭaṇa, called in one inscription Uraṇṇāmalepaṭṭaṇa (Tiruvaṇṇāmalai in the South Arcot district), was the capital.⁶ Driven from his home, Ballāḷa III was going to justify one of the titles he had—Vīra—by waging war with the enemy still. This can be made out by an inscription of A.D. 1330 which says that for the success of the arms and sword of Vīra Ballāḷa in that year a grant was made for the god Kēśava Perumāḷ of Kundāṇi in order to provide for the expenses of the festival in the month of Arpasi.⁷ In the same year he was at his neleviḍu Virūpākshapaṭṭaṇa.⁸ The next year he was again at Aruṇāsamudra.⁹ In about A.D. 1333 the Hoysala government was at Hosabeṭṭa.¹⁰ From A.D. 1334 till A.D. 1336 Ballāḷa was at Dōrasamudra.¹¹ The year A.D. 1339 saw him at Viravijayavirūpākshapura.¹ In about A.D. 1340 he was at Hosanāḍu,² which he soon exchanged for Uṇṇāmalepaṭṭaṇa where he still was in A.D. 1342.³ Then in that year he again came to Virūpākshapura, or, as an inscription would have it, Virūpākshapāda.⁴ In A.D. 1343 he returned to Uṇṇāmale.⁵

v1.c7.s1.31

³ E.C., IX, Intr., pp. 22-3. Cp. 73, p. 146.

v1.c7.s1.32

⁴ Ibid., Cp. 12, p. 138.

v1.c7.s1.33

⁵ A.S.R., 1907-8, p. 235; *Bombay Gazetteer*, I, pp. 509-10.

v1.c7.s1.34

⁶ E.C., IX, DB. 14, 18, pp. 63-4; Dv. 1, p. 74; Dv. 60, p. 81; Ht. 124, p. 104; in Dv. 60, it is called Uraṇṇāmalepaṭṭaṇa, p. 81.

v1.c7.s1.35

⁷ E.C., IX, An. 75, p. 117.

v1.c7.s1.36

⁸ E.C., V, Ak. 66, p. 135.

v1.c7.s1.37

⁹ E.C. IX, Cp. 71, p. 145. Rice locates this place in the neighbourhood of Aruṇāchala or Sōṇāśaila or Tiruvaṇṇāmalai. Intr. p. 22.

v1.c7.s1.38

¹⁰ Ibid., Nl. 9, p. 32.

v1.c7.s1.39

¹¹ Ibid., Cp. 7, p. 137, Bn. 110, p. 22.

v1.c7.s1.40

¹ E.C., IX, Ht. 43, p. 92.

v1.c7.s1.41

² Ibid., DB. 43, p. 68.

v1.c7.s1.42

³ Ibid., Bn. 21, p. 7; Bn. 24, p. 8; Bn. 129, p. 24; Ht. 147, p. 108; Dv. 46, p. 79; Dv. 54, p. 80; A.S.R. for 1907-8, p. 235, op. cit.

v1.c7.s1.43

⁴ E.C., IX, Dv. 21, p. 76.

v1.c7.s1.44

⁵ Ibid., Bn. 41, p. 10.

v1.c7.s1.45

Thus did the last prominent figure in Hoysala history, who seems to have ruled till A.D. 1343,⁶ suffering a disastrous defeat at the hands of the enemy, in his own way prepare the ground for some officers under him to gather strength against the common enemy. For with this constant changing of the last Hindu centre, the attention of the Muhammadans must have been considerably diverted.⁷ And the latter, although they had subjugated Warangal and Dēvagiri, routed the Hoysala forces in Dōrasamudra itself, and successfully intervened in the affairs of the Pāṇḍyan princes, did not succeed in wiping out completely all traces of the Hindu Power. As long as the Hoysalas held their own, so long did Hindu India remain. Whether or not the Muhammadans would have made a final attempt to crush the last stronghold of the Hindus is not certain; for about the year A.D. 1310 the minds of the Muhammadans in northern and central India were engrossed in domestic affairs which proved the ruin of their dominion in the land south of the Kṛṣṇa.

v1.c7.s1.46

⁶ Rice places his death on the 8th of September 1342, in a war against the Turushkas at Beribe: E.C., VI, Intr., p. 18; Kd. 75 of A.D. 1367. The name of the battle should be Tiruchiranāpaḷḷi, as Dr. S. K. Aiyangar correctly reads it. E.C., VI, Kd. 75, text, p. 73; Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XI, p. 22, n. Mr. Krishna Sāstri says the date was A.D. 1343. A.S.R. for 1907-8, p. 235; Epigraphical Report for the Southern Circle for 1906, para. 51. According to Bn. 41 (E.C., IX, text p. 19) Vira Ballāḷa was still ruling in A.D. 1343. Dr. S. K. Aiyangar agrees with Rice. S. India., p. 69.

v1.c7.s1.47

⁷ The fact of Ballāḷa III having changed his capital was understood in an unfavourable light by the late Mr. Krishna Sāstri. He writes: "Perhaps the change of capital by Ballāḷa III from Dhōrasamudra to Tiruvaṇṇāmalai was due not only to the fear of the Muhammadans, but also to the rising power of his feudatory chiefs Harihara I and Bukka I" (A.S.R. 1907-8, p. 236). The Rev. Heras comments on the above: "This is a totally unfounded supposition contradicted by the above facts" (Beginnings of Vijayanagara History, p. 68, note 2), and adduces in proof of what he says the same evidence from inscriptions which has been secured by independent but identical reasoning in this chapter. B.A.S.

v1.c7.s1.48

But before the narrative of the break-up of the Muhammadan power in the extreme south is taken up, it is worth while to say something about the effect of the Muhammadan conquest on the people of southern India. In A.D. 1318 the news of the inhuman punishment meted out to the last of the Yādavas, Haripāla,¹ must have caused widespread consternation in the Hindu world. This terror was heightened by the tidings of the fall of the famous temple at Madura. The entry of the Mlechchhas, as the Muhammadans were called in those days, into Madura marked at once the height and decline of their dominion in southern India. The immediate result of the destruction of the temple was the shifting of the famous deity of that ancient city. The person into whose hands the custody of the image was given was no less than the renowned scholar Vēdānta Dēśika.² The Muhammadan conquest of Madura naturally had very bad consequences for the Hindu population. The *Pandyan Chronicle* relates that the proper tutelary deity of Madura went into the Malayāḷam country. Then the wall of the temple, the fourteen towers on it, and the streets inside were destroyed. The shrine of the god, the small choultry, and the great choultry escaped.³

v1.c7.s1.49

¹ Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, I, p. 389; Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 4; Elliot, *History of India*, III, p. 215.

v1.c7.s1.50

² Gaṅgādēvī, *Madhurāvijayam*, Intr., p. 26 (Edited by Harihara and Srinivāsa Sāstri; Intr., by T. A. Gōpinātha Rao); Tatacharya, *Vedanta Deśika*, pp. 17-19 (Madras, 1911).

v1.c7.s1.51

³ Taylor, *Oriental Historical Manuscripts*, I, p. 35; Heras, *The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara*, p. 101.

v1.c7.s1.52

A more detailed account of the deplorable state into which Madura fell is given by the strange woman who presented Kumāra Kampaṇa, the eldest son of Bukka, with the divine sword which had been the heir loom in the royal Pāṇḍyan family. We have to read the remarkable poem *Madhurāvijayam* written by Kumāra Kampaṇa's talented queen, Gaṅgādēvī, for an account of this. The hero Kumāra Kampaṇa was one day accosted in the following strange manner by an unknown lady: "O King! The place now known as Vyāghrapuri (Chidambaram, Perumparrapuliyūr) has become truly so, for tigers inhabit it now where men once dwelt; the vimāna (the dome of the central shrine) of Srirangam is so dilapidated that now it is the hood of the Ādiśēsha alone that is protecting the image of Ranganātha from the falling debris. The Lord of Gajāraṇya (Tiruvānikkā, Jambukēśvaram near Srirangam), who once killed an elephant to obtain its skin for its garment, has now again been reduced to this condition, because he is stripped bare of all the clothing; while the garbha griha (central shrine) of many another temple is crumbling, its maṇḍapa over-grown with vegetation and the wooden doors of the temple eaten up by white ants. Where there resounded once the joyous music of the mṛidaṅgam (a kind of drum), there is heard at present the howl of the jackal that has made it its abode. The river Kāvēri, that was curbed by proper dams and flowed in regular channels, has begun to run in all directions. In the agrahāras where the smoke issuing from the fire offerings (yāgadhūma) was largely visible and in which the chant of the Vēdas was everywhere audible, we have now the offensive smelling smoke issuing from the roasting of flesh by the Muhammadans and the harsh voice of these ruffians alone is heard there. The beautiful cocoanut trees which were gracing the gardens surrounding the city of Madura have been cut down by these intruders, and in place of these, we see plenty of śūlas (iron tridents set before some minor local deities) with garlands made by stringing human heads together, resembling and recalling in a remote manner the cocoanut trees. The water of the river Tāmbraparṇi which used to be rendered white by the sandal-paste rubbed away from the breasts of youthful maidens who were bathing in it is now flowing red with the blood of cows slaughtered by these giant sinners. . . . O Sovereign! Once upon a time the divine Viśvakarma, gathering the splinters from the weapons of all the Dēvas and melting them together, shaped this strange sword and presented it to Paramēśvara for gaining victory over the daityas. By performing a severe penance, one of the Pāṇḍya kings obtained it from the Lord Paramēśvara. With the help of this divine sword the descendants of his race continued to rule the kingdom prosperously for a very long period; but by a misfortune, the princes of the Pāṇḍya dynasty lost the virility of their sires. Agastya, having secured this remarkable sword, presents this now to you. By wielding this weapon, you will attain unabating vigour and the weapons of the enemy will become powerless against you. Just as Kṛiṣhṇa slew Kaṁsa in Madhurā in olden times, O King! do you proceed now to the southern Madhura, and slaughter the Mussulman king, the enemy of the world, and set up several pillars of victory on the bridge of Rāma (between the mainland and the island of Rāmēśvaram). Then, during your administration of the south, you shall also build a strong dam across the Kāvēri, and make her flow in a manner useful to the agricultural population.'"

v1.c7.s1.53

The Muhammadans at this time were beset with tremendous difficulties. The seeds of disunion were already sown in the later years of 'Alā-ud-din Khilji. The rise of Mālik Kāfūr, the consequent split among the Muhammadans into the rival camps of the "Amirs of the New Mussulmans", and "Amirs of the Old", the revolt of Mālik Yakkhahi against the Sultan, the plots of Khusrau Khān, leading to the Darwari revolt,² the failure of the Prince 'Aluf Khān to capture Warangal for the first time,³—ali these showed the danger that was ahead, when the air was suddenly lit up with the flames of widespread revolt in the Empire of Muhammad Tughlaq.⁴ The career of conquest of the Muhammadans was suddenly stopped by the Muhammadans themselves, who offered to the north Indian power insurmountable barriers firstly in the kingdom of the Sultanate of Gulbārga; and when it fell, in the four principalities into which it was broken up.⁵ Thus the centrai authority at Delhi was hindered from coming to the rescue of the southern Sultanate of Madura in times of dire need.

v1.c7.s1.54

² Elliot, Hist. of India, III, p. 229, seq.

v1.c7.s1.55

³ Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise, I, pp. 403-4.

v1.c7.s1.56

⁴ Elliot, ibid., III, pp. 254, 258, seq.

v1.c7.s1.57

⁵ Elliot, Numismata Orientalia, p. 90.

v1.c7.s1.58

But the Muhammadans would not yield without one more struggle; and the Hindus would not rest in peace without another bid for independence. In A.D. 1338 Muhammad Tughlaq sent an army against his own nephew Bahā-ud-din, also known as Khūr Sarif, who had been placed over the Government of the Deccan, with his capital at Sagar, but who had now rebelled against the Emperor. Khūr Sarif fled to the court of the Hindu Rāja of Kampila, with whom he had maintained friendly relations. The Imperial army, it was evident, was driving its own men into the Hindu camp. Another force was sent against the rebel, who now took shelter at the court of "Bilal Dew" (i.e., the Hoysala king at Dōrasamudra).¹ It was to the Hindu interest that a bid for independence should be made under cover of a most un-Hindu-like act, sanctioned neither by international usage nor by ancient practice. The Ballāla Rāya, who can be no other than Vira Ballāla III, delivered the refugee into the hands of the army of Muhammad Tughlaq.² The old Hindu monarch, who had tasted the wrath of the Delhi Sultan about eleven years ago, sacrificed the interests of a royal guest for the cause of his religion and country; and thus was the Sultan made to believe that his southern dominions were still under a spell of tranquillity.

v1.c7.s1.59

¹ Madhurāvijayam, Intr., pp. 10-13.

v1.c7.s1.60

¹ Firishtah, Briggs, *The Rise*, I, pp. 418-19.

v1.c7.s1.61

² Ibid., I, p. 419.

v1.c7.s1.62

Meanwhile, the sovereignty over the south was imperceptibly changing hands. The old royal house of the Hoysalas was being replaced by the new one of the Kurubas. The transference of power took place so indiscernibly that neither the Sultan of Delhi nor his Viceroy at Madura ever realized that a small family of five brothers, guided by the profound wisdom of two ascetics, and almost with the sanction of the Hoysalas themselves, was laying the foundation of the mightiest Hindu Empire southern India had ever seen. The Hindu kingdom of the Hoysalas, however, was destined yet to linger on. In A.D. 1340 a grant refers to the *yuvarājābhishēka* ceremony of Prince Vira Virūpāksha Ballāla by Vira Ballāla III himself.³ This event took place at Hosapaṭṭaṇa. But in the same year Ballāla III seems to have given prominence to a man who was to be, in all likelihood, the prime-factor in the struggle against Islām. In that year the *Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara*, Master of Four Oceans, *Arirāya-vibhāḍa*, *Bhāshege-tappuva-rāyara-gaṇḍa*, Vira Hariappa Oḍeya was ruling the kingdom of the world, while the government of the kingdom of Kukkala-nāḍu was given over to Mayilaya Nāyaka under him.⁴

v1.c7.s1.63

³ E.C. IX, Bn. 111, p. 22, text p. 40.

v1.c7.s1.64

⁴ Ibid., Nl. 19, p. 33. Cf. Heras, *The Beginning*, p. 67.

v1.c7.s1.65

The mention of Hariappa as a *Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara* presupposes that he was under Ballāla III, although in this incomplete and illegible inscription the name of the overlord is not given. This assumption is supported by the fact that Ballāḷa III not only performed the yuvarājābhi-sheka ceremony of his son, the future Ballāḷa IV in the same year A.D. 1340, but lived to fight another war against the Turukas in A.D. 1342 in which, as narrated above, he lost his life. The absence of the sovereign's name in the inscription may be explained by saying the Hariappa Oḍeya was perhaps empowered to issue grants in his own name.

v1.c7.s1.66

He was not the only high officer who was given this privilege. In A.D. 1345 the Mahānāyakāchārya, Bhāshege-tappuva-rāyara-gaṇḍa, Vira Māji Hiriya Pemmaya Nāyaka granted land to Raṅganātha Bhaṭṭa's son Bhavbhūti Jāla in Eḷahaṅka-nāḍ as an agrahāra free of imposts.¹ Vira Māji Pemmaya Nāyaka does not mention his overlord. That the title Master of the Four Oceans assumed by Harihara in A.D. 1340 does not suggest to us the independent position of that officer under Ballāḷa, can be made out by the course of future events, and by a study of the relationship which existed between Harihara and the Hoysala family. We may suppose that this title, which, along with the two others, Arirāya-vibhāḍa and Bhāshege-tappuva-rāyara-gaṇḍa, formed the rightful beginning of the laudatory names of his successors, must have been given to him as a distinction for some act of personal bravery about which we know nothing at present. For it will be seen that in the year A.D. 1346 Harihara, on his assumption of royal power, will call himself Master only of three Oceans,—the Northern, the Western, and the Eastern—and not as he styled himself in the year A.D. 1340. It would not be far wrong to suppose that this Harihara was the same Dēvappa Hariappa, who figured as the Minister for Peace and War in the year A.D. 1309 on the eve of the destruction of Dōrasamudra.² It is quite likely that in view of the proposed part he was going to play in the great struggle, he had exchanged the ordinary Dēvappa for the more fitting Vira. However that may be, as far as the ruling powers in southern India were concerned, there was nothing in the air to show that the glory of the Hoysalas was going to be eclipsed by the rising splendour of another family. The credit of creating an opposition to Islām is given by most writers to people who were not Karṇāṭaka by birth. But whether or not the stalwart supporters of the Hindu Dharma were of Karṇāṭaka origin,—a question which will be discussed presently,—the Hoysalas saw no reason whatsoever for obstructing the members of the new family in carrying out the great duty which these latter had imposed upon themselves. This apparent indifference on the part of the Hoysalas was not without foundation.

v1.c7.s1.67

¹ E.C., IX., Dv. 3, p. 74.

v1.c7.s1.68

² Supra, p. 5.

Section 2. The Needs of the Times

v1.c7.s2.1

THE question of the race and nationality of those who led the Hindu confederacy was secondary to the question of the vital needs of the times. The first and foremost need was an organization that "would keep the aggressive Muhammadan efforts confined to the northern side of the Kṛiṣṇā".¹ The necessity of stemming the tide of foreign domination was linked with the equally difficult problem of creating a strong government. But since neither men nor money could be brought together for the maintenance of any kind of stable political machinery, there arose the third great need of preserving the Hindu society, its traditions, and its ancient Dharma from the ravaging influence of the new civilization. Hence we find this age to be an era made memorable because of the conquests of more than one mighty king; a period of intense literary life as represented by the famous Sāyaṇāchārya and his school; and by Vēdānta Dēsikāchārya, the renowned Vaiṣṇava scholar and poet;² and an epoch of religious excitement and moral awakening when the "teachings of Sankara, Rāmānuja, and Madhwāchārya; the doctrines of Vēdānta, Adwaita, Dwaita schools; the creed of the Jaṅgamas or Liṅgāyats, etc., led to interminable discussions, all urging their respective tenets with a zeal"³ which, though it showed itself at first in unwarranted "persecution of the Jainas and other sects, especially their extirpation of the Buddhists",³ still lived to create for centuries to come, chiefly through the timely intervention of the royal mediator, Bukka I and the unrecorded influence of the learned minister, Vidyāraṇya, an atmosphere of good-will and harmony which, when all other things are considered, was perhaps the greatest heritage which the Vijayanagara monarchs have given to the country.

v1.c7.s2.2

¹ S. K. Aiyangar, Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture, pp. 299-300.

v1.c7.s2.3

² Mookerjee, Local Government, p. 13; R. G. Bhandarkar, A Peep into the Early History of the Dekkan, p. 73 (1895).

v1.c7.s2.4

³ Elliot, Num. Orient., p. 92.

v1.c7.s2.5

The times craved for a leader, and a blow was struck in the name of religion and country by five brothers acting under the influence of a great ascetic. These were Harihara, Kampa, Bukka, Mārappa, and Muddappa, and were the sons of one Saṅgama.¹ Bukka in the centre, Mārappa in the west, Kampaṇa in the east, and Harihara in the north-west, with the aid firstly of Kriyāśakti, and then of Vidyātīrtha, and then again of Mādhavācārya Vidyāraṇya, directed affairs for the liberation of the Hindus from the Muhammadan yoke.² From the centre Bukka was planning the subjugation of the south. For the story of the struggle against the southern Sultanate of Madura, we have to rely on Hindu sources like the Madhurāvijayam, the Kōyiloḷugu, the Rāmābhyudayam, the Sāḷuvabhyudayam, the Jaimini Bhāratamu, the Varāhapurāṇam, and the Pandyan Chronicle. The Madhurāvijayam relates that the king Bukka, after advising his son, the elder Kampaṇa, on the bearing suitable to his princely rank, sent him to the south, first against Sambuvarāya, the ruler over the Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam, then against the Vanyarājas, and, finally, against the Turushkas of Madura.³ The young commander gradually cut off all help which the southern Sultan might otherwise have received from the enemies of the rising Hindu power. He was, as narrated in the legend, enabled to do this chiefly through the aid of the divine sword which the strange woman presented to him. The conquest of the Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam was accomplished in about Saka 1282-83⁴ (A.D. 1360-1), and in ten years' time the Muhammadan governor at Samayavaram (Kaṇṇanūr), a place six miles north of Srirangam, was defeated.¹ It did not take a long time to conquer Madura, which was recovered by the Hindus in Saka 1293.²

v1.c7.s2.6

¹ Rice, Mysore and Coorg, p. 112; Ep. Ind., III, p. 32; E.C., III, Intr., pp. 21-2.

v1.c7.s2.7

² Butterworth and Venugopala Chetty, Inscriptions in the Nellore District, II, pp. 789-90; Madhurāvijayam, Intr., p. 31. A.S.R. for 1907-8, pp. 237, n. (1), 239-40; Heras, The Beginnings, p. 93. seq.

v1.c7.s2.8

³ Madhurāvijayam, Intr., pp. 5-6; Canto, III, vv. 34-44, pp. 24-6.

v1.c7.s2.9

⁴ E. Report for the Southern Circle for 1901, No. 250; Madhurāvijayam, Intr., p. 19.

v1.c7.s2.10

¹ Madhurāvijayam, Intr., p. 29.

v1.c7.s2.11

² Ibid; Ep. Ind., VI, pp. 322-31.

v1.c7.s2.12

The story of the destruction of the Muhammadan outpost at Samayavaram is thus narrated in the great Tamil poem *Srirangam Kōyiloḷugu*:

v1.c7.s2.13

“. . . Gōppaṇārya, the Brāhmaṇa general of Kampaṇa, was placed by his master in charge of the Province of Señji (Gingee). He was a Śrīvaishṇava by persuasion, and belonged to the Bhāradvāja gōtra, and the Āpastambha sūtra. While on one occasion when he had gone to Tirupati on a pilgrimage, he found in the central shrine of the temple of Veṅkaṭēśa on the Tirumala hill an additional bronze image, and on questioning about it, he learnt that it was the image of the God Raṅganātha of Srirangam, which, after being taken away from that place shortly before the Turushkas entered Srirangam to Tirunārāyaṇapuram by way of Jōtishkuḍi, Tirumāliruñjōlai, (Aḷagarkōyil), Kōḷikkūḍu (Calicut), and Puṅganūr, was kept for some time at Tirunārāyaṇapuram (Mēlukōṭe), and then finally taken to Tirupati Tirumala. On hearing this account from the priests, Gōpaṇṇa induced them to remove the image to his capital, and keep it in *pūjā* there until such time as the Mussulmans were driven out of Srirangam. The priests permitted him to do so, he took it, set it up temporarily in the beautiful rock-cut shrine of Raṅganātha on the hill of Siṅgavaram, a suburb of Señji, and arranged for the conduct of the *pūjā* and offerings.

v1.c7.s2.14

“The Chief of the Mussulmans who were left behind at Srirangam stayed for some time in the temple of Raṅganātha, but finding his health suffering by his stay in the island of Srirangam, he removed his quarters to Samayavaram (Kaṇṇanūr), situated at a distance of six miles north of Srirangam, fortified that place with the stones obtained by demolishing one of the outer enclosures of Srirangam, and was living there. At this time a Kāṇiyāḷa Brāhmaṇa, named Siṅgappirān, of an adjoining village, through the influence of a Hindu dancing-girl of Srirangam, who had entered into intimacy with Mussulman chief solely with the object of saving the temple from destruction, secured

v1.c7.s2.15

a post in the service of the Muhammadan chief, and was continuing to discharge his duties apparently faithfully to his new master. As soon as the news of the establishment of a powerful kingdom at Anegundi (Vijayanagar), the conquest of the Tondaimandalam by the representatives of that kingdom, and the establishment of a gubernatorial seat at Senji by a Vaishnava Brahmana reached the people of Srirangam, Tirumanattun-nambi, the son of Singappiran, despatched Uttama-nambi, one of the Sthalattar to Senji to inform Gopanarya that he would be communicating to the Governor news of the affairs of the Mussulmans from time to time, and that he should be prepared to start out with his army to crush the Muhammadans when the proper opportunity was intimated to him. Thus, then, was established communication between Senji and Samayavaram. Finally in Saka 1293, just 10 years after Kampana occupied Conjeeveram, an invitation was sent to him by Tirumanattun-nambi to march against the Muhammadans in Samayavaram and Srirangam, who had degenerated by drink and debauchery, and become thoroughly powerless to resist an attack." Gopanarya proceeded against Srirangam, crushed the Mussulmans, and on the 17th day of Vaikasi, in the year Paritapi, of the Saka 1293 (A.D. 1370-1), reset up the image of Ranganatha with great éclat. On this occasion old Vedanta Desika returned also to Srirangam from his retreat at Satyamangalam, and praised Gopanarya in two Sanskrit verses; these were engraved on the eastern wall of the first prakara of the Ranganatha temple.¹ The person, it is surmised, who suffered defeat and death at the hands of Kampana "must be the successor of Ahsan Shah".²

v1.c7.s2.16

¹ Srirangam Koyilolugu quoted by Gopinatha Rao in his Introduction to Madhuravijayam, pp. 25-9; Taylor, O.H. MSS. II., pp. 17, 111; A Catalogue Riasonée of the Oriental MSS. III., p. 439; 18 of 1899; Heras, Aravidu, p. 105; S. K. Aiyangar, South India, p. 116.

v1.c7.s2.17

² Gopinatha Rao, Madhuravijayam, p. 29; Ep. Ind., VI., p. 324. op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.18

The people heard the news of the downfall of the enemy with great joy and attributed to gods what men had failed to do. Thus the story of the opening of the doors of the Madura temple and what the people saw there, is narrated in the Pandyan Chronicle: "During these Mahomedan days, in the Virothikiratu year, of the era of Salivahana one thousand two hundred and ninety-three, the general of the King of Mysore, named Kampanudiaver, a native of Carnata, having conquered the Mahomedans, took possession of the kingdom. He opened the Siva and Vishnu temples, which had been locked-up, (throughout the country). He opened the god's temple at Madura; and obtained a personal view of the god. Things were found precisely as on the day when the temple was shut: the lamp that was lighted on that day, the sandal wood powder, the garland of flowers, and the ornaments usually placed on the morning of festival days, were now found to be exactly as it is usual to find them on the same evening of such festival days. The general seeing this miracle, was glad; struck his eyes and with great piety made the customary offering; he gave many villages to the temple, and many jewels, and established ordinances for the regular performance of worship. He (the general), with his son Yembanudiaver, and his son-in-law Porkashudiaver, ruled the kingdom thirty-three years, from Virothikirathu to Sitterabanu year. These last two also gave many jewels to the Siva and Vishnu temples, and ordered the sacred services to be conducted".¹ Kumāra Kampaṇa had saved the honour of the land; and there is no wonder, therefore, in the people calling him by the name of the province from which he hailed—Kampaṇa of Karṇāṭaka.²

v1.c7.s2.19

¹ Taylor, O. H. MSS., I, pp. 35-7; Heras, Aravidu, p. 114.

v1.c7.s2.20

² Taylor, ibid., I, pp. 35, 203.

v1.c7.s2.21

While Kampaṇa was shaking off the shackles of slavery in the south,³ and Kriyāsakti, Vidyātirtha and Vidyāraṇya were advising the young warriors as to the mode of administration, the Hoysala kingdom had already disappeared under the stress of the new movement. It must be remembered that the indefatigable sons of Saṅgama threw upon the enemy a united front; and this concerted action of theirs had the double effect of silencing all opposition at home, where, as we shall see, there was really none, and of annihilating the forces of Islām, which took two centuries and a half to combine again against the Hindus of southern India. We know that in A.D. 1343 Virūpāksha Ballāḷa, son of Ballāḷa III, was crowned king. This can be inferred from an inscription dated in that year which records the granting of a śāsana by Ballappa Daṇḍanāyaka, on the occasion of the anointment ceremony of Srī Vīra Virūpāksha Ballāḷa, to the farmers of Halle Hiriyūr. (ā Ballappa Daṇḍanāyakaru śri Vīra Virūpāksha Ballāḷa Dēvarige paṭṭavādalli etc.).¹ It could not have been, therefore, in that year that the new rulers unfurled the Vijayanagara banner. Three years later one of the brothers called Mārappa from Kallāsa, "acquired a kingdom in the west", by defeating, firstly, an unknown ruler, and then by directing his attention to the north, where he defeated the Kadamba king, surrounded like Śakra by an army composed of elephants, horses, and foot-soldiers, in a great battle. Thence Mārappa in order to see Śiva, the Lord of Gōkarṇa, the original creator of the world, came to Gōmantaśaila in Chandrugupti, where he ruled in peace.² In that same year (A.D. 1346) Harihara, hitherto known as Hariappa, assumed regal titles, and proclaimed himself the ruler of the whole country between the Eastern and Western Oceans.³ That this was indeed the real date of the foundation of the Vijayanagara Empire can be made out from an inscription of Harihara, dated in the same year (A.D. 1346) which says that "having conquered the Earth from the Eastern to the Western Oceans, in order to celebrate the festival of his victory (jayōtsavaṁ khyāpayituṁ akarōd dharmmaṁ uttamaṁ), he made an excellent grant".⁴ And that this was the Vīra Hariappa of A.D. 1340 can be gathered by noting the similarity of the titles which he assumed in that year⁵ to those which he had in A.D. 1346,⁶ and which his successors lived to prefix to their names.

v1.c7.s2.22

³ Ep. Ind., VI, p. 324, op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.23

¹ E. C., VI, Cm. 105, text, p. 202.

v1.c7.s2.24

² E. C., VIII, Sb. 375, p. 66.

v1.c7.s2.25

³ Ibid., Tl. 154, p. 193; E.C., VI, Intr. p. 21, Sg. I, p. 92; A.S.R. for 1907-8, p. 230. Sewell places the death of Harihara in or about A.D. 1343. For. Emp., p. 26.

v1.c7.s2.26

⁴ E.C., VI, Sg. 1, text, p. 347.

v1.c7.s2.27

⁵ E. C., IX, Nl. 19, p. 33, op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.28

⁶ E. C., X, Mr. 61, translit., p. 204.

v1.c7.s2.29

The year A.D. 1346, therefore, marks a new era in the history of southern India. It saw the land rise out from a period of eight and sixty years of struggle, during which the intrepid hoofs of alien soldiers had defiled the country in all directions, into an age when the new rulers did all they could to make the people more happy and peaceful than they had ever been before. After half a century of humiliation the people at last realized the need of winning freedom from alien rulers in order to protect their homes and their ancient heritage.

v1.c7.s2.30

The prompt action of the founders of Vijayanagara, and the fact of there being no revolution against them, need now to be explained. It may be argued that the Hoysalas acquiesced in the growing power of the new-comers,—two of whom, Harihara and Kampaṇa (the sons of the third of the five brothers, Bukka) had already seen service under Ballāḷa III, the former as the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara probably over a region which included Kukkala-nāḍu, and the latter, according to the local chronicles of Madura, as the door-keeper of Vira Ballāḷa III,¹—out of sheer political necessity, or because of some alliance between themselves and the rising feudatories, the nature of which may be hypothetically summarized to be as follows.

v1.c7.s2.31

¹ S. K. Aiyangar in Satyanatha, *Nayaks*, Intr., p. 3.

v1.c7.s2.32

We are told that Harihara, along with his brothers, some nobles, and one Ballappa Daṇṇāyaka, went in A.D. 1346, on a pilgrimage to the famous Śringēri Maṭha which was then under the guidance of Bhārata-tīrtha Śrīpāda.² This Ballappa Daṇṇāyaka is mentioned as the *Aliya* or son-in-law of Harihara. A guess may be hazarded as to the lineage of this Ballappa whom Harihara, the founder of a great dynasty, thought fit to make his son-in-law. In A.D. 1297 we have Dāṭiya Sōmeyya Daṇṇāyaka’s son Singeya Daṇḍanāyaka and inhabitants of Periya-nāḍu remitting certain taxes for the god Dāmōdara.³ About the year A.D. 1314 we have under Ballāḷa Dēva his great minister Sōmeyya Daṇṇāyaka.⁴ In about A.D. 1319 the same minister was under the same monarch.⁵ In A.D. 1334 while Vira Ballāḷa was ruling, Singeya Daṇṇāyaka’s younger brother, Vallappa Daṇṇāyaka, made some grants.⁶ In A.D. 1336 Vallappa, younger brother of Dāṭi Singeya Daṇṇāyaka, figures again.⁷ In A.D. 1343 Vallappa, son of Dāṭi Sōmeyya Daṇṇāyaka, is the chief minister of Ballāḷa III.⁸ In the same year under Vira Ballāḷa’s son, Virūpāksha Ballāḷa, we have Ballappa Daṇḍanāyaka, son of Pāḍiya Sōmaya Daṇḍanāyaka.¹ In A.D. 1346 Vallappa was a Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara under Harihara.² Hence this Vallappa Daṇḍanāyaka was the younger brother of Singeya Daṇḍanāyaka, son of Dāḍiya Sōmaya or (Sōmeyya) Daṇḍanāyaka.

v1.c7.s2.33

² E. C., VI, Sg. 1, op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.34

³ E. C., IX, An. 84, p. 119.

v1.c7.s2.35

⁴ Ibid., Kn. 37, p. 125.

v1.c7.s2.36

⁵ Ibid., Kn. 69, p. 129.

v1.c7.s2.37

⁶ Ibid., Ht. 96, p. 99.

v1.c7.s2.38

⁷ Ibid., Ht. 134, p. 105.

v1.c7.s2.39

⁸ Ibid., Ht. 75, p. 96.

v1.c7.s2.40

¹ E. C., VI, Cm. 105, p. 49.

v1.c7.s2.41

² E. C., X, Mr. 61, p. 169, op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.42

We shall first ascertain the status Vallappa occupied in Hoysala history; and then trace the relationship between him and the Vijayanagara king. It is well known that the tendency of mediaeval monarchs was to bestow high offices on their near relations. Thus we find in A.D. 1339 the father of Vallappa and Singeya, Dāḍiya Sōmeyya, called "the minister descended from that king" (Ballāḷa III), [*tasya-rājānvaya*].³ This settles the princely rank of the father of Vallappa, and, therefore, of Vallappa himself. An inscription dated A.D. 1339 confirms this fact. It speaks of Vallappa Daṇḍanāyaka as being the younger brother of Dāḍi (Dāṭi) Singeya Daṇṇāyaka, who was the son of Vira Ballāḷa Dēva.⁴ Then again, as related above in A.D. 1334, we have the fact that in the reign of Ballāḷa Dēva, "during the times of one of his sons," Singeya Daṇṇāyaka's younger brother Vallappa made some grants.⁵ It is evident, therefore, that Dāḍi Sōmaya Daṇṇāyaka and his two sons, Singeya and Vallappa belonged to the Hoysala house. This Vallappa written in the Hosakōṭe inscription in Tamil is to be identified with Ballappa of the Śringēri Maṭha inscription. The name Pāḍiya Sōmaya of the Chikkamagalūr inscription is probably written by error for Dāḍiya or Dāṭiya Sōmaya.⁶

v1.c7.s2.43

³ E. C., IX, Ht. 43, p. 92.

v1.c7.s2.44

⁴ Mysore Archaeological Report for 1913-4, pp. 44-5.

v1.c7.s2.45

⁵ E. C., IX, Ht. 96, op. cit.

v1.c7.s2.46

⁶ I am glad to note that the Rev. Heras comes to the same conclusion as regards the relationship between Vallappa and Harihara. He says: "All these facts undoubtedly disclose that the three families of Ballāḷa III, of Harihara I, and of Dāḍiya Sōmaya, who so frequently intermingled with one another, were not only Yādavas but also belonged to the same common stock of the Hoysala-vaṁśa". The Beginnings, p. 93.

v1.c7.s2.47

If this is allowed, then, the wisdom of Harihara I, who gave his daughter in marriage to Vallappa or Ballappa, may be well appreciated. The Hoysala and Vijayanagara houses were thus united in the reign of Harihara. Firishtah's remark that the centre of activity might be traced to the "House of Bilal Deo", therefore, may be justified.

v1.c7.s2.48

That it was to the interest of these new relations of the Hoysalas to allow matters a free movement, can be seen by the way in which the *yuvarājābhiṣheka* ceremony of Virūpāksha Ballāḷa, or Ballāḷa IV, was conducted in A.D. 1340. The absence of any political struggle and the rapid rise to power of the founders of Vijayanagara may be explained, therefore, not by saying that the dumb millions in their traditional apathy did not mind who ruled over them; or by saying simply that the Vijayanagara dynasty was "a necessary continuative substitute for the fallen dynasty after the circumstances of a crushing foreign conquest",¹ but by tracing the true relationship which existed between the old and the new families; and especially by understanding the ideal which the founders of the latter placed before themselves, and which, in spite of foreign wars and palace intrigues, they and their successors succeeded in maintaining with firmness and splendour till the end of the sixteenth century. The vanishing rulers as well as the common people realized that the honour of their homes and the destiny of the country were safe in the hands of the descendants of Saṅgama.

v1.c7.s2.49

¹ Krishnamacharlu, I. A., LI, p. 233.

v1.c7.s2.50

The ideal which these new rulers set before them was extremely simple; for they understood that if their rule was to last long, their Empire was to be the channel through which the ancient currents of Chōḷa and Karṇāṭaka life were to flow undisturbed for the betterment of the land. That they fully comprehended the magnitude of their task can be understood by the extreme care with which they introduced any change either in the social or political sphere. From the setting up of pillars to commemorate a victory to the performance of the *tulāpurushadāna* ceremony; from the checking of revenue registers to the exemption of some of the most useful commodities, or classes of men, from taxation, the new dynasty set to work on the principles of the old ones which had guided the affairs of the Tamil and the Karṇāṭaka lands from the dawn of history till the fourteenth century. But this did not prevent them from setting before them an ideal which, in the strange words of an inscription dated A.D. 1341, was the following:

v1.c7.s2.51

"In the Kali age, evil having greatly increased, Dharma seeing that it was impossible for it to move about, went to the side of its master, the creator and benefactor of the world, and said: 'With only one leg (left), how can I travel about in the troubles of this Kali age? Show some mercy, lord, yours it is to remove the difficulties of those who bow before you.' Hearing this from Dharma, the Father (tāta) being favourable to the prayer he thus for a long time presented, made in the great royal line of which Sailaṅka was the lord, a king named Saṅgama".¹ Another epigraph gives the ideal in clearer terms. It is dated in the year A.D. 1376, and it runs thus: "In the world Achyuta (Kṛiṣhṇa) was born to Yasōdha and Naṅda Gōpa, and gave them a promise that he would eventually re-appear as a king to deliver the world when it was overspread by Mlēchchhas. Accordingly he was born in the region of Pampāpuri to Saṅgama and his wife Kāmābikā as Bukka-mahipati".²

v1.c7.s2.52

¹ E.C., VIII, Sb. 375, pp. 65-6.

v1.c7.s2.53

² E. C., IV, Intr., p. 23. Yd. 46, p. 58.

v1.c7.s2.54

Therefore, "the one object was the preservation of Hindu independence in South India, with all the multiplicity of its religions, Hindu and Jain, perhaps even to a very slight extent Buddhist, and providing, for the further development of these on peaceful lines, a home in the country, south of the river Kṛiṣhṇa".³ And Vijayanagara stood, not as an expression of Force, as some would have it,⁴ but "as the visible embodiment of the national resistance to save this enclave for the Hindus and keep it free from being overrun by the Muhammadans".⁵ That the Vijayanagara Empire shared the fate of all mediaeval empires is no justification for our condemning it as an organization which "contained no principles of development, and therefore could not be lasting", and that "like many of its kind, it was ruined by those very causes which had brought it into existence".⁶ The disaster which overtook the Empire in A.D. 1565 should not cloud our imagination in our endeavour to appreciate the genuine attempts of the founders, and even of their successors after the battle of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi, who, whatever may have been their defects as statesmen and soldiers, lived to work out a noble ideal, and to preserve with scrupulous care all that was great and good in the realms of Hindu thought and culture.

First 122 of 257 passages. Read on

Linked texts (15)