Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s2.158

v1.c9.s2.158

There is one point, however, which remains still to be solved : how and when did the story of Vidyāraṇya helping Harihara or of the latter's having built the capital with the aid of the former ever originate; and who is the Harihara who may be said to have had anything to do with that great man of learning? From the discussion of the question of the building of the capital as given above, it is clear that the city of Vijayanagara could only have made its appearance somewhere in the middle of the year A.D. 1368. If this is granted, then Harihara I had nothing to do either with the construction of the capital or with the name of Vidyāraṇya. Now the figure of Mādhava comes in another connection, and this time with the name Harihara too. We are told in an inscription of A.D. 1565 that Rāma Dēva Rāya Mahāraya was the "lord of the throne of Vidyānagari which Harihara Mahārāya built and consecrated in the name of Vidyāraṇya Srīpāda". (Harihara-dēva-mahārāyaru kaṭ(t)i pratiṣṭeyāgi niṇta ā-Vidyānagariya simhāsanake-karttarāda etc.).¹ Since the birudu of mahārāya was never assumed by Harihara I, and since during his life-time the state of the country was too unsettled to allow him the means of constructing a jewelled throne, we may reasonably infer that the Harihara referred to in the inscription of A.D. 1565 could