Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s2.5

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