Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s2.109

v1.c9.s2.109

The name of this great capital does not figure in any authentic record till A.D. 1368. In the earliest trustworthy epigraph of Harihara, which deals with the famous pilgrimage to Śringēri in A.D. 1346, no capital is mentioned. In the next year, as we have just remarked, he is said to have ruled from a place called Hastini "which was protected by him along with his brothers".¹ We lose sight of the capital till the Śaka year 1274 (A.D. 1352-3) when Bukka was at Dōrasamudra.² No capital is mentioned in a grant dated A.D. 1354 where Bukka I gave to the illustrious astrologer Rāmaṇṇa-Jōyisha a village as a gift.³ Penugoṇḍa was probably the capital of Bukka Oḍeyar in the same year.⁴ Hosapaṭṭaṇa in A.D. 1355 was the capital of Bukka.⁵ This place, as we have already seen, was called the royal city of Nijagali Kaṭaka Rāya.⁶ As regards Hosapaṭṭaṇa Mr. Rice remarks thus: "There is no certainty as to this place. Sir Walter Elliot says (Num. Or. p. 91) that the first name of Vijayanagara was Hosapaṭṭaṇa, which is quite possible, as the word merely means New Town. But that would not be in the Hoysaṇa country. Some other place must therefore be meant. No reference has been found to Nijagali Kaṭaka Rāya".⁷ In the next year A.D. 1356 Bukka was in the same capital.⁸ Although Bukka's name figures in an inscription dated A.D. 1358, yet the capital is not given.⁹ In A.D. 1359 the capital appears to have been Basapaṭṭaṇa,¹⁰ which may be an engraver's or copyist's mistake for Hosapaṭṭaṇa. About A.D. 1360 we have an inscription of Bukka without mention being made of the capital.¹¹ Likewise in A.D. 1363 the engraver is silent about the capital of Bukka.¹² It is unfortunate that in an inscription of about A.D. 1365, there should be a gap as regards the neleviḍu.¹³ There is an effaced inscription of A.D. 1368 from which nothing can be gathered about the capital.¹ Bukka in the same year is spoken of thus—"Champion over kings who break their word, lord of the Eastern and Western Oceans, Vira Bukka-Rāya Oḍeya was ruling the kingdom of the world".²