Vijayanagar Empire

 Origin and Expansion

• Two brother Harihara and Bukka, earlier serving the Hoysala rulers of Karnataka, asserted their independence in 1336.
• Happened soon after the death of the Hoysala king Ballala III at the hands of the Madurai Sultan.
• Initial capital Anegondi, later shifted to Hoylsala town, Capital was expanded and renamed Vijayanagara or Karnata-Vijayanagara or city of victory.
• Adopted the emblem of the Chalukyas, the boar, or varahaas their royal insignia.
• Four dynasties ruled Vijayanagar kingdom
1. the Sangama dynasty (1336–1485),
2. the Saluva dynasty (1485–1505),
3. the Tuluva dynasty (1505–1570) and
4. the Aravidu dynasty (1570–1650).
• Three big states: Pandyas in Tamil Nadu, Hoysalas in Karnataka & Kakatiyas in Andhra destroyed by Delhi Sultanate.
• Opportunity to the five Sangama brothers, headed by Harihara, to consolidate and expand the territory.
• Good care was taken to administer this part under a successive line of pradhani or governors.
• Bukka I, attention was turned to Tondai-mandalam, under the rule of the Sambuvaraya chiefs. Kampana (Kumara Kampana – son oh Bukka I), his faithful general Maraya-Nayak, slaying the Madurai Sultan & bringing to an end that Sultanate in about 1370 - mentioned in Madura-vijayam, by Kampana’s wife, Gangadevi.
• Kaveri delta - administration of the Sangama and Saluva dynasties.
• Stretched from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the peninsula.
• 1565, Sacked & subsequently deserted. Ruin in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries.
• Fell into ruin in the 17^th - 18^th centuries, Krishna-Tungabhadra doab.
• Hampi, mother goddess, Pampadevi.
• Discovery of Hampi
• Light in 1800 by an engineer, Colonel Colin Mackenzie.
• In 1815 Colin Mackenzie, first Surveyor General of India.
• 1976, Hampi was recognised as a site of national importance.

Vijayanagar – Bahmani conflict

• Both wanted to annex and dominate the fertile area between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra (the Raichur doab).
• Hindu Vijayanagar and the Muslim Sultanate was the basic cause of this continuous fight. Actually the Vijayanagar kings fought also with many Hindu, non-Muslim rulers.
• control of horse trade that passed through Goa and other ports was another reason for the fighting.
• Coastal Andhra, the power struggle was between the Gajapati kingdom of Orissa and Vijayanagar.

Devaraya II (1422–46)

• Greatest ruler of the Sangama dynasty.
• Defeated the Orissan army in some battles but no territory was added.
• Strengthened his cavalry by recruiting trained Muslim cavalry for his army and giving archery training to his soldiers.
• Abdur Razaak, the Persian ambassador who visited the Zamorin of Kochi and the Vijayanagar court.
• Received tribute from the king of Sri Lanka too
• the inefficient successors encouraged the Gajapati king to dominate the coastal Andhra.
• Thus, Tirumalaideva and then Konerideva began to rule independently in the Thanjavur– Tiruchirappalli.
• Rise of the Saluva rule.
• Power passed on to the trusted commander Saluva Narasimha who defended the kingdom from the Gajapatis and recovered parts of coastal Andhra. Around 1485 declare himself king.
• Assisted by his general and great warrior Narasa Nayak.
• Saluva Narasimha died in 1491 leaving his young sons under the care of Narasa Nayak.
• 1505, Narasa Nayak elder son Viranarasimha started Tuluva Dynasty.
• Short but eventful reign and was succeeded by his younger brother Krishnadevaraya.

Krishnadevaraya (1509–29)

• Strong military base laid by his father and elder brother.
• Rebellious Ummattur chief & brought him to submission.
• Fight almost continuously on two fronts, Bahmani Sultans & Orissa king Gajapati.
• Finally, put a pillar of victory at Simhachalam.
• Portuguese, establish power in the Malabar and Konkan coast, helped Krishanadevaraya with military aid, and got permission to build a fort at Bhatkal.
• Made very large donations to many of the greatest Siva and Vishnu temples of the day- Srisailam, Tirupati, Kalahasti, Kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai, Chidambaram, etc.
• Author of the famous poem Amuktamalyada (the story of Andal).
• Reorganization of the Nayak or nayankara system and giving legal recognition to the system.

The battle of Talikota

• Krishnadevaraya’s death his son was a small child and so his younger brother Achyutadevaraya became king.
• Ramaraya, the son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya wanted to dominate the affairs by crowning the infant as king. Achyutadevaraya supported by Chellappa (known as Saluva Nayak),
• Later Chellapa became rebel, Achyutadevaraya take a big expedition to south to subdue him.
• After his death, his nephew Sadasivaraya (1542-70) succeeded. Bt real power lay in the hands of Ramaraya, got support from close kinsmen (of Aravidu clan) by appointing them as Nayak of many strategic localities.
• Commercial treaty with the Portuguese whereby the supply of horses to the Bijapur ruler was stopped.
• Battle was fought at Talikota or Rakshasi-Tangadi in January 1565, Ramaraya personally commanded the forces along with his cousins and brothers, but battle was lost.
• Tirumala, brother of Ramaraya, declared himself king in 1570, starting the Aravidu dynasty, that is the fourth dynasty. Ruled from Penukonda and later from Chandragiri (near Tirupati).
• After two generations, Real power was wielded by the many Nayak chiefs in various parts of the country. Fights between the loyalists and Others.
• 1601, Bitter fighting near Uttaramerur between the loyalist Yachama Nayak of Perumbedu and the Nayak of Vellur (Vellore).
• Vellur Nayak was supported by Tanjavur, Madurai and Senji Nayak.
• Relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile “establisher of the Yavana kingdom”

Administration

• King is ultimate authority, supreme commander of the army.
• Chief minister was known as the mahapradhani.
• Number of lower-ranking officers, like Dalavay (commander), Vassal (guard of the palace), Rayasam (secretary/ accountant), Adaippam (personal attendant), and Kariya-karta (executive agents).
• Creating administrative divisions called rajyas or provinces each under a governor called pradhani. Administrative divisions like nadu, sima, sthala, kampana, Village (lower Unit).
• pradhani had his own revenue accountants and military to assist in his administration.
• The rajyas lost their administrative and revenue status under the Tuluva dynasty due to the development of the Nayak system under Krishadevaraya.

Nayak System

• Assigning the revenue of a particular locality to the Nayak for their military service
• Similar to the iqta system.
• Accounts of Nuniz and Paes, say vijayanagara has more than 200 captains and they were compelled in turn to keep certain number of military forces (horses and foot soldiers) to serve the king in times of need:
• Amara-nayakas were military commanders.
• they were also required to pay certain amount of the revenue to the king in particular times of a year, like during the nine-day Mahanavami festival.
• Palayagars, who were mostly successors of the old Nayak families,
• Nayak were the Kannadiga and Telugu warriors besides some local chiefs.
• Chiefs controlled production within their Nayaktanam territories by creating commercial centres (pettai) and markets, encourage settlement of cultivators & artisans with tax concessions.
• After the Talikota battle, the Nayak chiefs became more or less independent of the Vijayanagar king.
• Many of these nayakas established independent kingdoms.
• 17^th century was the century of these bigger Nayak kingdoms.

Society and Economy

• Continuous warfare and the resultant widespread sufferings.
• Conflicts in Bahmani courts were much due to the migration of Turks, Afghans and Persians into the Deccan.
• Vijayanagar area is concerned there took place migrations of Kannada and Telugu warriors and their followers into Tamil areas.
• Nayaka chiefs belong to these language groups.
• Worship of the image, worship of the state horse & sacrifice of buffaloes.
• All royal orders were signed “Shri Virupaksha”, usually in the Kannada script.
• Rulers also indicated their close links with the gods by using the title “Hindu Suratrana”
• Revenue only by taxing the people. Dduring Sangama dynasty, harsh in tax collection & Provoked the toiling people to rise in revolt.
• During the sixteenth century, under the Nayak system, the local Nayakas tried to encourage craft production, like weaving, by giving tax concessions now and then.
• Development in the field of non-agrarian crafts.
• Until 13^th Century economy mainly agrarian, from 14^th Century became more commercial.
• Beginning of the era of money economy, circulation and use of coined money increased manifold.
• Sharing of ideas espically in field of architecture, borrowed concepts and building techniques.
• Non-agrarian groups were generally called the pattadaior (workshop people) and kasaya-vargam -that is- the group that pays taxes in cash.
• Textiles became main commercial attractions for the Portuguese and other European traders who started coming from the early sixteenth century.

Fortifications and roads

• Between the first, second and the third walls there are cultivated fields, gardens and houses.
• Second line of fortification went round the inner core of the urban complex, third line surrounded the royal centre.
• Urban Core
• Fine Chinese porcelain
• North-eastern corner of the urban core and suggest that these areas may have been occupied by rich traders.
• Muslim residential quarter.
• Numerous shrines and small temples

Royal Center

• South-western part of the settlement over 60 temples.
• Structures and temples is that the latter were constructed entirely of masonry.
• Superstructure of the secular buildings was made of perishable materials.
• Lotus Mahal
• Hazara Rama temple – Used only by king and his family.
• Most impressive platforms, usually called the “audience hall” and the “mahanavami dibba”.
• Audience hall is a high platform with wooden pillars.
• Rituals associated with the structure probably coincided with Mahanavami (ten-day Hindu festival), Dusehra (northern India) & Durga Puja (in Bengal) and Navaratri or Mahanavami (in peninsular India).

Scared Center

• Monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva mentioned in the Ramayana.
• Pampadevi, the local mother goddess, did penance in these hills in order to marry Virupaksha, Shiva – guardian deity.

Architecture

• Building some fine temples and adding impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples.
• Art historians refer to this style as Indo-Islamic.
• Mandapas found in the temples of Hampi.
• Vijayanagara was inspired by the existence of the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi.
• Beautiful statue of Krishnadeva Raya placed on the gopuram of the temple at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu.
• Gopurams and mandapas
• Raya gopurams or royal gateways include mandapas or pavilions - Virupaksha temple and the Vitthala temple (Maharashtra - principal deity was Vitthala).

Water Resource

• Natural basin from river Tungabhadra. Flow north-easterly direction.
• Arid zones of the peninsula, Kamalapuram tank, Hiriya canal separated the “sacred centre” from the “urban core” by Sangama dynasty.

Trade

• Effective cavalry.
• Trade was initially controlled by Arab traders. Local communities of merchants known as kudirai chettis or horse merchants.
• Portuguese - establish trading and military stations.
• Vijayanagara - markets dealing in spices, textiles and precious stones.