Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c7.s3.50

v1.c7.s3.50

In refuting thus the theory of Mr. Venkayya, Mr. Gopinatha Rao has rightly concluded that the disparity in the ages of Harihara II and the Yādava ruler goes entirely against the theory of the Vijayanagara king having married the daughter of Rāmachandra. But Mr. Gopinatha Rao has failed to identify the king called Rāma in the drama entitled Nārāyaṇavilāsa. This little point has until now remained unexplained. It is hardly possible that Virūpāksha could have been mistaken in the name of his maternal grandfather. Rāma Dēva, therefore, must have been a real name. This Rāma Dēva, I believe, is to be identified with the Sāḷuva Rāma Dēva, son of Sāḷuva Kāya Dēva. In an inscription dated A.D. 1384 it is said that when Harihara's son Bukka was ruling, the Vijayanagara army went to the Orangal country, and then the Turushkas came and attacked Koṭṭakoṇḍa, whereupon the Nāyakāchārya of Harihara Raya's house, Kāchi Nayaka's grandson Kampaṇa fell upon the enemy; and in the fight that ensued, Sāḷuva Kāya Dēva's son, the Maṇḍalika Sāḷuva, the shelter of the good in Talakkāḍ, and the terrifier of the Turuka army, Sāḷuva Rāma Dēva fell fighting nobly against the Turuka army.¹ According to Mr. Gopinatha Kao's own calculation, the dates of Harihara's reign fall between Saka 1298 (A.D. 1376) and Saka 1326 (A.D. 1404). Sāluva Rāma, who fell fighting in A.D. 1348, therefore, was a contemporary of Harihara II, and there is nothing improbable in his daughter Mallā Dēvī marrying Harihara. This would explain the fondness of the Vijayanagara monarchs for the Sāluva name and titles. Through the Sāluvas the Vijayanagara kings could lay some pretensions for a lunar descent, although their desire to be of the Yādava stock fails to carry conviction with it. At the present stage of our investigations, we may rest satisfied with the conclusion of Sir Walter Elliot on this matter: "However uncertain the source of the other families might be, the correctness of that assigned to the earliest Vijayanagar dynasty cannot be questioned, for it has always been known as the Kuruba line".²