Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s1.30

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