Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s3.1

v1.c9.s3.1

The kingdom of Vijayanagara has been known by various names. To the people of southern India it was the kingdom of Vijayanagara or Vidyānagara, (or merely Vidyā), Anegondi (Anegundi), Kuñjarakoṇa, Hosapaṭṭaṇa, or sometimes Virūpākshapaṭṭaṇa, Hampe-Hastināvati, or merely Hastināvati. Thus, as we saw in an unauthentic inscription, Bukka I was seated on the jewel throne in the city named Vidyā, distinguished as the abode of Vijaya.¹ In the inscriptions ranging from A.D. 1531 to A.D. 1563 the capital was called Vidyānagara. The attempt made by Rice to trace the derivation of the word Vijayanagara to Vidyānagara appears wholly untenable.² Sewell is, therefore, justified in asserting that the common derivation of the name of the city from that of the great sage is erroneous.³ The name Anegundi or Kuñjarakoṇa properly belongs to the parent city on the northern side of Tuṅgabhadrā. But in some suspicious documents it has been applied to Vijayanagara.⁴ In A.D. 1413 Anegundi is said to have been the capital of Vira Vijaya.⁵ The Vijayanagara Empire is called in the popular parlance of the present times Anegundi samsthānam. In A.D. 1347 the capital was called Hastinī.⁶ Hastināpura-Vijayanagara appears in A.D. 1395.⁷ In A.D. 1404 we have Vijayanagara Hastināvati.¹ Under Dēva Rāya the capital was styled Hampe-Hastināvati in A.D. 1436.² This name changed into Hastināvati Vidyānagari, is met with even in A.D. 1563.³ Hosapaṭṭaṇa was the designation of the capital in A.D. 1354 and A.D. 1355⁴ when Vijayanagara had not yet been built.