Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s4: Section 4. The Past Glory of the Region where the Capital was built

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s4

Language: English

Section 4. The Past Glory of the Region where the Capital was built

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The region which thus served as the site for the new capital was celebrated in the history of southern India. Nurtured in the memories of ancient Kishkindhā, it was fed on the inspiration which flowed from Hampe (Pampā), and allowed to mature on the recollections of three historical centres of strife—Kurugōḍu, Kampili and Ānegundi. To mediaeval minds the very atmosphere of the city and its surroundings seemed to animate them with a new life of vigour and renown, and to infuse into them the spirit of struggle which was so essential for the preservation of Hindu religion and culture at the hands of their inveterate enemies. It is no wonder, therefore, that then, as now, the whole region became a place of pilgrimage, and that even foreign travellers were constrained to probe into the past history of Bisnaga.

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The earliest memories which rise up with the name Vijayanagara are those of Kishkindhā. According to the *Jaina Rāmāyaṇa* of the 12th century, "there existed (in ancient times) in the south three great empires or kingdoms. These were the Rākshasa kingdom, with its capital at Laṅka; the Vānara-dhvaja kingdom, or kingdom of the monkey-flag, with its capital at Kishkindhā; and the Vidyādhara kingdom, with its capital at Rathanūpura-chakravāla-pura. The first embraced Ceylon, in which Laṅka was situated, and the maritime districts of the south; the second, whose capital was on the Tuṅgabhadrā at the site of the modern Vijayanagara and Āneguṇḍi. . . the third kingdom was north from these, and its capital may possibly be the Ratnapur in the Central Provinces".¹ It was at this place where Vijayanagara was built that, according to legend, Sugriva could ascend the hill and Vāli could not. Perhaps it was one of these five hills which guarded the city—Mālyavanta, Hēmakūṭa, Basavaśṛṅga, Mataṅgaparvata, and Kishkindhā.² Some maintain that evidence of an earlier town can be seen at Hampe.³

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¹ Rice, *My. Ins.*, Intr., pp. xxix-xxx; *Mys. Gaz.*, I, pp. 277-8. (Rev. ed.); *Bombay Gaz.*, I, P. II, p. 142; Longhurst, *Hampi Ruins*, pp. 6-7. ² Taylor, *Cat. Rais.*, III, p. 180. ³ Cf. Slater, *Q.J.M.S.*, II, p.

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The second name which has made the region famous is that of the god Virūpāksha, the patron deity of Hampe. The locality was known as Pampā-kshētra or Bhāskarakshētra.⁴ But the former was the more popular name of the two. Sewell records a tradition that at Pampā there existed a town as early as A.D. 1100.⁵ There is every reason to believe that a town existed at Hampe anterior to that date. Pampā is mentioned in a grant of the Western Chālukya ruler Vinayāditya dated in Saka 611 expired (A.D. 689-90).⁶ It has been suggested that the reference here is only to a *tirtha* and not to a town.⁷ Since Vinayāditya Satyāśraya would not have pitched his "victorious camp" "located on the bank of the Pampā”, if that region had not contained a temple in it, and since we cannot conceive of a Hindu temple in the early times without some sort of a town around it, we believe Pampā in A.D. 689-90 was perhaps a town of some celebrity. Indeed in the times of the Western Chālukya king Jegadēkamalla Jayasimha, Hampe was already a town. This we gather from an inscription dated Śaka 940 (A.D. 1018-9) which records a royal visit to Pampāpura.¹ In A.D. 1112 it figures as Svāmi-Pampā-sthala in a grant of the Western Chālukya general Mahādēva.²

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⁵¹ See below. ⁴ *My Arch. Report* for 1911-12, p. 47; *E.C.*, V. P. II, Hn. 133, p. 38. ⁵ Sewell, *Lists*, I, p. 106. ⁶ Fleet, *I.A.*, VI, p. 85; *Bombay Gaz.*, I, P. II, p. 369. ⁷ *Ep. Report* for 1923, p. 101.

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¹ 87 of 1904.

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² Ep. Ind., XIII, p. 40.

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According to the Dharma-karta of the temple of Virūpāksha, who gave the information to Sewell, inscriptions in the temple record that the great gōpura of the first prākāra of the temple was originally built in A.D. 1199, when a certain Bōdhayya Rāya gave the village of Hampe, as a charitable gift for the use of the temple.³ The only ruler of the name of Bōdhayya Rāya known to Karṇāṭaka history is he who governed from his seat at Drugga in A.D. 1371.⁴ How a person could have given the village of Hampe to the temple which existed centuries before he built it, is a difficult matter to understand, especially when we realize the fact that in A.D. 1346 the sons of Sangama, whose patron deity was the god Virūpāksha of Hampe, had already declared themselves masters not only of Hampe proper but of the whole of the Karṇāṭaka. That the temple of Virūpāksha existed in that same year (A.D. 1199) is clear from an inscription of Śaka 1121 which mentions a grant of land by the son of Immaḍi Rājamalla, the ruler of Curagode-Chowdayah for the daily ceremony of Virūpāksha of Hampe.⁵ In the same year Hāchale, the wife of the same ruler Chauḍeya of the Serpent-race (Phaṇi-vaṃśa), granted lands for the maintenance of the same temple.⁶ The Hoysalas also continued the same tradition of bestowing grants on the temple. In A.D. 1236-7 the Pampāpati or Virūpāksha temple received gifts from the king Sōmēśvara.⁷

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³ Sewell, Lists, I, p. 106.

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⁴ E.C., VI, Mg. 87, p. 74.

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⁵ Rangachari, Top. List, I, By. 332, p. 304.

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⁶ My. Arch. Report for 1920, p. 14.

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⁷ Ibid., p. 14; A.S.R. for 1925-6, p. 140; A.S.R. for 1907-8, p. 236, n. (a); Q.J.M.S., XI, p. 21.

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The spirit of struggle which the sons of Sangama imbibed was mainly drawn from the history which surrounded the three principalities of Kurugōḍu, Kampili, and Āneguṇḍi. The first of these was the capital from where the ancient Phaṇi-vaṁśa rulers governed. It figures in the early Western Chāḷukyan history.¹ In the eighth century A.D. Kurugodu (or Kurugode, or Kurumgoḍu) was reckoned to be a capital renowned for its strength, its wealth, and its famous gardens.² It was the neleviḍu of the Hoysala king Sōmēśvara.

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¹ 53, 61, and 68 of 1904; Rangachari, Top. List., I, 111, p. 269.

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² As. Res., IX, p. 428. Ballāḷa II captured Kurugōḍu, Bom. Gaz., XXII, p. 399; Sewell, Lists, I, p. 103.

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The second little state which cast its shadow over the rising kingdom of Vijayanagara was that of Kampili.³ A strenuous attempt has been made, as we remarked in connection with the origin of the monarchs,⁴ to link the lineage and history of the founders with the state of Kampili. Whatever may be the importance of the MSS. styled Paradāra Sōdara Rāmana Kathe and Kumāra Rāmana Sāngatya in the field of Hoysala history, they throw no light on the question of the origin of the Vijayanagara Empire.⁵ In addition to what we have said about these MSS., the following may also be noted. Kampili as a city was not created by the exertions of the chieftains of the thirteenth century. It existed in A.D. 1022 as the capital of the Noḷambavāḍi rulers.⁶ The Western Chāḷukya king Viṣṇuvardhana Vijayāditya ruled over Noḷambavāḍi with Kampili as his neleviḍu.⁷ The Chōḷas considered its conquest a fact of sufficient importance to be recorded on a pillar of victory. This was done when the city was burnt by Rājarāja I.⁸ A king of Kampila was slain in A.D. 1325 in the war between the officers of Ballāḷa III, Baicheya Daṇṇāyaka together with Siṅgeya Daṇṇāyaka on the one hand and an unknown enemy on the other.¹

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³ The southern Kampili is not to be confounded with Kampilya in the N.-W. Provinces, (see Ep. Ind., VI, p. 287), nor with a place of a similar name on the Ganges. (Firishtah, Briggs, The Rise., I, p. 428 and note.)

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⁴ Supra, Chapter I, pp. 32-33.

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⁵ Cf. Saletore, J.B.H.S., III, pp. 105-126.

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⁶ E.C., X, Mk. 10, p. 91. Here it is called Kapili, obviously an error for Kampili.

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⁷ Bom. Gaz., I, P. II, p. 454; Ep. Ind., IV, p. 212; E.C., XI, Mk. 29, p. 95.

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⁸ S.I.I., III, P. II, p. 194, n. (3); E.C., IX, Dv. 75, p. 85, dated A.D. 1046.

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¹ E.C., XII, Tp. 24, p. 46.

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Anegunḍi was the third principality from which the Vijayanagara emperors drew their abiding vigour to rule over the southern peninsula. Its Sanskrit name was Kuñjarakōṇa.² It had the unique privilege of being the mother-city of Vijayanagara.³ This was the Nāgumdym and Sēnagumdym of the Portuguese chronicles. It is situated in 15° 21' N. and 76° 30' E. on the left bank of the Tuṅgabhadrā.⁴ That this was the first capital of the Vijayanagara kingdom can be made out from the account of Paes, who writes the following about it: "There is a city built there which they call Senagumdym, and they say that of old it was the capital of the kingdom". According to the same traveller, "A capital lives in the city for the king".⁵ It relapsed into the pre-Vijayanagara insignificance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.⁶ That the memory of the ancient greatness of the whole region lived even till the days of Nuniz there can be no doubt. "These matters", writes he, "concerning (i.e., the power and greatness of) the kingdom of Bisnaga, though it may seem to you that I have exaggerated, yet the people of this country assert them to have been even more notable in times past, and greater than they now are".⁷