A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.107

c17.107

Thus, nevertheless, ended the Karnātaka-Vijayanagar empire more than three centuries after its foundation. During that long period it had maintained a constant struggle against its Muslim neighbours on the north, destroyed the sultanate of Madura, and kept Southern India free from the inroads of Islam. True, we find Hindus in the service of Muslim rulers and Muslim troops engaged by the Hindu emperors of Vijayanagar. Diplomatic, and even dynastic alliances, also occurred often enough between these two continuously contending parties; but they do not alter the basic nature of the historic role of Vijayanagar, which was to preserve South India as the last refuge of the traditional culture and institutions of the country. The great commentary on the Vedas composed by a syndicate of scholars with Sāyaṇa at their head, and the impressive additions made to the structure of almost all important temples in the country by the rulers of Vijayanagar, form the most typical monuments of the work of the great Hindu empire. The Portuguese and Jesuits sought to Christianize the population, and to that extent they incurred the displeasure of the emperors and their feudatories, and their efforts in this direction were not allowed to proceed very far.