Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s2.9

c14.s2.9

The evidence of this Śrī Vaiṣṇava work indicates that the faith of the king Virūpākṣa had begun to change. S. K. Aiyangar thinks that the Virūpākṣa referred to in the work is the successor of Mallikārjuna, who according to the Śrīśailam plates won the throne ‘by the valour of his own sword.’ But T. A. Gopinatha Rao is inclined to think that the Virūpākṣa referred to in that work was Virūpākṣa II who won in the triangular fight for the throne on the death of Harihara II in A.D. 1404, and ruled for a short time. He bases his conclusion on the evidence of the sign manual Śrī Virūpākṣa used in the Śrīśailam plates of Virūpākṣa, and argues that the statement of the Prapannāmṛtam is contradicted by the sign manual used in the later inscriptions of the king. (E. I., XV, p. 25). But there is no other evidence to show that Virūpākṣa II changed his sign manual for Śrī Rāma. Hence the argument of Gopinatha Rao appears to lack support. But since the successors of Virūpākṣa II were staunch Śaivas, though tolerant towards the Vaiṣṇavas, and the successors of Virūpākṣa III came to have greater predilection for Vaiṣṇavism, it is reasonable to take the view that the Virūpākṣa referred to in the Prapannāmṛtam was the successor of Mallikārjuna, though there is no inscriptional evidence to show that he changed the sign manual; nor did the Sāḷuvas, the Tuḷuvas and the early rulers of the Aravīḍu line change the sign manual.