Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c24.s1.1

v2.c24.s1.1

The Vijayanagara Empire, some institutions of which we have outlined in the previous pages, did not owe its origin to any supernatural agency that suddenly enabled the sons of Saṅgama to establish their sovereignty over the southern peninsula. We admit that they received considerable support from the religious leaders of the times. But the contribution of the common people was greater for the cause of the country. The Gauḍas of different *sīmes* were as much responsible for the growth of the Empire as the *gurus* of Śṛṅgēri. The part played by the latter has been unduly magnified, while the share of the former has not been estimated. Five brothers aided by one or two intellectual prodigies would never have been able to achieve that measure of success but for the support which they received from the people. When one realizes how stroke upon stroke of the Muhammadans shattered the hopes of the Hindus in the latter half of the thirteenth and in the beginning of the fourteenth centuries, one cannot help feeling that religious merit alone, however profound and great it might have been, would have hardly been able to create a solid wall of opposition out of what was nothing but a universal chaos. Something equally great and profound was needed to achieve that noble end, and that was found in the remarkable spirit of co-operation which all classes of people brought to bear upon matters of social importance.