Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.23

c14.23

To save South India from the Islamic onslaughts and to revive the Hindu religion, literary works had to be produced, and commentaries on ancient works had to be written to expound and explain the tenets of the Hindu religion. The foundation of Vijayanagar coincided in point of time with the outburst of a momentous literary movement in South India. Since the fourteenth century there flourished in the Vijayanagar empire a succession of eminent scholars in the different branches of literature and who were followers of the different schools of philosophy of South India. It was an age of intense literary activity beginning with Sāyaṇācārya and Vēdānta Dēśika.¹² On account of the destruction of the Hindu kingdoms in the Deccan, a large number of scholars migrated to South India and received great patronage under the Vijayanagar sovereigns. Sāyaṇācārya and his brother Mādhavācārya founded a school which wrote commentaries on the Vedas, Āraṇyakas and the Brāhmaṇas. Thus the epoch was one of great religious and literary activity.