A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.62

c17.62

Pre-eminent as a warrior, Krishnadeva Rāya was equally great as statesman, administrator, and patron of the arts. The grandeur of his court excited the warm admiration of many foreign visitors and their description of the great wealth of Vijayanagar, its festivals, its military strength and its heroic king make eloquent reading. All South India was under Krishnadeva Rāya's sway, and many quasi-independent chiefs—like those of Bankapur, Gersoppa, Bhatkal, and so on—were his vassals. The empire, although under his direct rule, was itself divided into a number of governorships under generals, each of whom enjoyed practical independence so long as he maintained a certain quota of horse, foot and elephants in constant readiness for action and paid his annual contribution to the central treasury. For such a system to work efficiently, the monarch had to command the universal respect of his subjects and exhibit great energy, tact and vigilance in the performance of his public duties. Krishnadeva proved himself more than equal to this task, and there was no confusion or disorder anywhere in the realm during his reign. He was a scholar and poet and the Telugu poem *Amuktamālyada* passes under his name; it contains an exposition, by the way, of the principles of political administration practised by the monarch. The illustrious Telugu poet Allasāni Peddana graced his court as Poet Laureate, and many of the foremost scholars of the time were attracted by the discriminating liberality of the emperor. ‘King Krishna Rāya was in no way less famous for his religious zeal and catholicity. He respected all sects of the Hindu religion alike, though his personal leanings were in favour of Vaishnavism. Krishna Rāya's kindness to the fallen enemy, his acts of mercy and charity towards the residents of captured cities, his great military prowess which endeared him alike to his feudatory chiefs and to his subjects, the royal reception and kindness that he invariably bestowed upon foreign embassies, his imposing personal appearance, his genial outlook and polite conversation which distinguished a pure and dignified life, his love for literature and for religion, and his solicitude for the welfare of his people, and, above all, the almost fabulous wealth that he conferred as endowments on temples and Brahmins, mark him out indeed as the greatest of the South Indian monarchs.’