Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s2.108

v1.c9.s2.108

It is imperative that we should ascertain the year of the foundation of the capital, the name of the king, and of the ascetic who helped him in building it. Here it would be worth while to recount the facts we discussed in the previous pages about the political situation in southern India. The Hoysalas were powerful till A.D. 1342. In A.D. 1360 the Toṇḍaimaṇḍala was conquered by the new rulers; and about ten years later, the southern Sultanate was brought to an end. The desperate situation which presented itself to the sons of Saṅgama in A.D. 1346 assumed a brighter hue in A.D. 1370. There is no evidence to prove that Harihara, who had won over to his side Vallappa Daṇṇāyaka, the most powerful representative of the Hoysala dynasty, ever desired to hasten the end of the Hoysala rule by founding a new capital in the Karṇāṭaka. When the founders of the new principality had got the situation wellnigh under control, and when the Hoysalas as a ruling power had completely disappeared, acting under the advice of the head of the most powerful religious institution in the land, they thought of commemorating their victories over their enemies by the erection of a city called Vijayanagara.