Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c17.s1.26

v2.c17.s1.26

But no Vijayanagara monarch could put forth such substantial claims for the honour of defending and promoting the Hindu Dharma as Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya. Sōmanātha in his *Vyāsayōgicharitam* showers an uncommon eulogy on that ruler which, but for the fact that it is confirmed by foreign as well as Indian sources, would have been given hardly any credence by students of history. Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya was the crest jewel of kings—शिरोमणिः भूपतीनां, and when he died, after making obeisance to the celebrated Vyāsarāya, his *guru*, it seemed to the people that Kṛṣṇa himself had departed from the ken of mankind at the end of His *avatāra*.