A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.35

c17.35

Virūpāksha II continued to rule till the middle of 1485 when he was murdered by his eldest son. The parricide, however, declined the throne and had his younger brother, Padearao (Praudha-devarāya), crowned king. The first act of the new king, however, was to procure the assassination of the brother to whom he owed the throne, and then to plunge into debauchery and neglect the affairs of state. Sāluva Narasimha saw that the only way to save the kingdom was to put an end to the old dynasty and to assume the royal title himself. He therefore commanded his general Narasa Nāyaka to proceed against Vijayanagar and capture the city. ‘Nuniz gives us a graphic account of the last scenes; how Narasimha's captain arrived at the city gates and found them undefended; how he penetrated the palace and found no one to oppose him; how he even went as far as the harem “slaying some of the women”; and how at last the craven king fled.’ Thereupon Narasimha was ‘raised to be king’ (1486) and the kingdom came to be called after him. There can be no doubt that by this act of ‘usurpation’ Narasimha and his supporters saved the empire from disruption. All the same, there was much opposition to Narasimha's elevation and he had to spend time and energy in fighting and subduing recalcitrant chieftains like the Sambetas of Peranipādu (Cuddapah district), the *pālayagars* of Ummattur near Mysore, and others. He certainly overcame his internal troubles but they greatly weakened his capacity to resist his foreign enemies. For instance, when Purushottama Gajapati took advantage of the weakness of the Bāhmani kingdom after the death of Muhammad III and conquered all the eastern coastal country south of Orissa up to the Gundlakamma river in the Nellore district by about 1489 and even advanced to Udayagiri and laid siege to it; Narasimha's attempt to raise the siege proved disastrous. Defeated in battle and taken prisoner, he only secured his release by agreeing to surrender the fort and the surrounding country.