Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s3.121

v1.c7.s3.121

We have to go the times of Krishna Dēva Rāya to understand why Harihara was anxious to renovate the temple of Bēlūr and restore its grants. An inscription dated A.D. 1524 records that Basavappa Nāyaka, son of Jākaṇṇa Nāyaka, a servant of Krishna Dēva Rāya, made a grant for god Chennakēśavanātha of Vēlāpura, the god of the Mahārājādhirāja's royal family.¹ Then again in A.D. 1548 we have god Chennakēśavanātha of Vēlāpuri called the original (kulādhidēvate) family god of the Mahārājādhirāja Sadāśiva.² This inscription of Sadāśiva confirms not only that of his illustrious predecessor but also lends support to the view that the deity at Bēlūr was perhaps the family god of the earlier rulers as well. But when they exchanged Chennakēśavanātha of Bēlūr for Virūpāksha of Hampe is a point which is difficult to solve for the present. It is not denied that the Vijayanagara rulers continued to sign, till the end of the III dynasty, all their grants and deeds in the name of Virūpāksha. But so intimately were the people acquainted with the Karṇāṭaka origin of the monarchs that they always called the Vijayanagara kings Karṇāṭaka monarchs, and their viceroys Karṇāṭaka overlords. And even in A.D. 1571 in the time of Tirumala, the elaborate inscriptions of the king call them kings of Karṇāṭaka.³