Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s3.113

v1.c7.s3.113

It is well known that the Vijayanagara rulers, till the rise of the Āraviḍu family, always subscribed themselves at the end of their grants, in the name of their tutelary deity of Hampe, Virūpāksha, in the Kannaḍa language.¹ Even in their last days, the signature, not in the name of Virūpāksha, but in the name of Rāma, was in Kannaḍa,² though the Telugu influence is certainly seen in an earlier inscription dated Saka 1535 (A.D. 1613) in which the king signs in the name of Śrī-Veṅkaṭēśa in Telugu.³