Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s2.154

v1.c9.s2.154

Nevertheless, from the very commencement of their career as conquerors, the sons of Saṅgama were deeply indebted to the wisdom, and perhaps wealth too, of the Śṛṅgēri Maṭha. It is true that we are unable with the materials before us to trace the circumstances under which the preceptorship of the gurus of the line of Kriyāsakti was exchanged for that of the priests of the Śṛṅgēri Maṭha. The obligation which Harihara and his brothers owed to the latter institution is expressed in the inscription already cited, which says: "Obeisance to Vidyātīrtha guru, with his form of celestial glory, whose friendship gained is never lost. . . The Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Hariapoḍeyar, Kampaṇ-ṇoḍeyar, Bukkaṇṇoḍeyar, Mārappoḍeyar, Muddappoḍeyar, son-in-law Ballappa-dannāyaka, Kumāra Sōvaṇṇa Oḍeyar and others made to Bhārati-Tīrtha Śrīpāda, his disciples and others, and the forty Brahmans residing in that tīrtha of Śṛṅgēri, for the performance of rites and services", a gift of nine villages.⁴ This profound veneration to the head of the Śṛṅgēri pontificate in A.D. 1346 was given a concrete expression in A.D. 1376 when Vidyātīrtha assisted Bukka to become great. "He (Bukka) with the assistance of Vidyātīrtha muni, became very great, the earth being as his wife, and the four oceans his treasury".⁵ It is quite likely that on the nearing of the completion of the capital in A.D. 1378, the Vijayanagara monarch gave further expression to his willingness to be guided this time by the *guru* of the Sringeri Matha. For, we believe that it was in this year A.D. 1378 that the services of Vidyāraṇya, who was then the minister to the son of Bukka, Yadugiri Virūpaṇṇa, the viceroy over Āraga, were transferred to the Emperor at Vijayanagara. Our assertion that in A.D. 1378 Vidyāraṇya was in Āraga is gathered from the following epigraph: "When (with the usual titles) Vira Bukka Rāya's son Yadugiri Virūpaṇṇa-Rāya was governing the Āraga kingdom in peace and wisdom—a grant was made of land in the Mēlubhāgi-bayal of Sāntalige-nāḍ for the offerings of the god Prasanna-Viśvēśvara on the western bank of the goddess Tuṅgabhadrā. . . by order of Vidyāraṇya Srīpāda, at the time of the moon's eclipse".¹ Preceptors alone in their capacity as prime ministers "ordered" the viceroys and even the Vijayanagara emperors to give grants of land. While the fact of Vidyāraṇya being the *guru* of Yadugiri Virūpaṇṇa is thus confirmed, we are again in the dark as to the precise events that made Vidyāraṇya go to Vijayanagara. As regards the legend of his having helped Harihara in the construction of the capital and of the dogs and the hare, we may dismiss it as an invention of a later age, realizing nevertheless that popular fancy may have attributed to Mādhava Vidyāraṇya, because of his vast learning and wide celebrity, much of the credit, at least so far as the early days of the kingdom were concerned, which historically falls to the share of his learned and illustrious predecessor Vidyātīrtha-svāmi.²