Vijayanagara Empire: Politics, State, Society and the Economy

Vijayanagara Empire: Politics, State, Society and the Economy

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• The decline of the Delhi Sultanat was accompanied by the rise of the Vijayanagara and Bahmani kingdoms, which dominated the region south of the Vindhyas for more than 200 years. Although these two kingdoms were in almost constant conflict with each other, each maintained law and order within its own territory and, on the whole, provided stable governments that allowed trade and commerce to flourish. Many rulers devoted themselves to the growth of agriculture, and built cities and capitals adorned with magnificent buildings; several were also notable patrons of art and culture.
• Thus, in contrast to north India, two large territorial states emerged and functioned in south India from the middle of the 14th century onwards. A new situation arose with the break-up of the Bahmani kingdom towards the end of the 15th century, followed by the disintegration of the Vijayanagara Empire after its defeat at the Battle of Talikota in 1565.
• This was also the period when a European power, the Portuguese, entered the Asian scene and, on the strength of its naval power, sought to dominate the seas and their bordering regions and capture the overseas trade.

Vijayanagara Empire

Sangama Dynasty

Saluva Dynasty

Tuluva Dynasty

Aravidu Dynasty

The Vijayanagara Empire — Its Nature and Conflict with the Bahmani Kingdom

• The Sangama dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire was founded by two brothers, Harihara I (also called Vira Harihara or Hakka Raya) and Bukka Raya I.
• While the role of Harihara and Bukka in founding the kingdom is generally accepted, the early origins of the family remain unclear, and two competing traditions exist:
  • Traditional account: The brothers belonged to a family of five, and had been feudatories of the Kakatiyas of Warangal before joining the service of the ruler of Kampili (in modern Karnataka), where they rose to the position of ministers. When Muhammad bin Tughlaq overran Kampili for sheltering a Muslim rebel, the brothers were captured, taken to Delhi as prisoners, and converted to Islam. When a rebellion later broke out at Kampili against Turkish rule, they were sent to suppress it — but instead abandoned their new faith and joined the rebels.
  • Alternative view: Many scholars reject this account, citing little evidence of the brothers’ service at Warangal or of their capture and conversion. According to this view, Harihara and Bukka belonged to the group of 75 nayaks of Karnataka who had rebelled against Turkish rule and came from a strong Shaivite family, with no earlier links to Andhra.
• In building their administrative system, the Vijayanagara rulers drew not only on the Tamil traditions of the Cholas, but also on the Telugu and Kannada traditions of the Kakatiyas and Hoysalas — reflecting the fact that they represented the entire south, and were not merely provincial leaders.
• The collapse of Tughlaq authority left south India in a complicated political situation:
  • Some older kingdoms, such as the Hoysalas of Mysore, lingered on, while several new principalities emerged — most notably the Sultans of Madurai, the Velama rulers of Warangal, and the Reddis of Telingana.
  • The Bahmani kingdom later rose to the north of Vijayanagara.
  • These principalities fought each other or formed alliances as the situation demanded.
• Vijayanagara’s early expansion: In the struggle against the Sultan of Madurai, the Hoysala ruler Ballal III was defeated and executed. Harihara and his brothers exploited this opening to expand their territory, and the entire Hoysala kingdom soon passed into their hands. A protracted struggle against the Sultanate of Madurai followed, which was wiped out by 1377, extending Vijayanagara’s rule in the south up to Rameshwaram and into parts of Kerala that had earlier belonged to the Madurai Sultanate.
• Founding of the capital: Harihara had earlier established a new capital, Vijayanagara, on the river Tungabhadra — according to tradition, on the advice of the sage Vidyaranya. Another tradition credits the founding of the city to Bukka, who succeeded his brother around 1356 and ruled until 1377.
• Vijayanagara now had to contend with the rising power of the Bahmani Sultans to the north, who were periodically supported by the Velama rulers of Warangal and the Raya of Telingana — both of whom, wary of Vijayanagara’s growing strength, viewed the Bahmani ruler as a balancing power.
• Origins of the Bahmani kingdom: Founded in 1347 by an Afghan noble, Alauddin Hasan, whose family had risen in the service of Alauddin Khalji. According to a popular legend recorded by Ferishta (writing in the 17th century), Hasan had served a brahman named Gangu and was thus known as Hasan Gangu. After his accession, Alauddin Hasan sought to elevate his family’s status by tracing his descent from the Iranian heroes Isfandiyar and Bahman, adopting the title “Bahman Shah” — from which the kingdom took its name.

The Three Zones of Conflict

The interests of the Vijayanagara rulers and the Bahmani Sultans clashed in three separate and distinct areas:

1. Tungabhadra Doab (Raichur Doab) — the triangular tract of land between the rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra, in the modern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Owing to its wealth and economic resources, it had earlier been contested between the Western Chalukyas and the Cholas, and later between the Yadavas and the Hoysalas.
2. Krishna-Godavari Delta — a fertile basin whose numerous ports controlled the region’s foreign trade; the struggle for its mastery was often linked to the struggle for the Tungabhadra doab, with local rulers switching allegiance between Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdom to protect themselves.
3. Marathwada Country — here the main contest was for control of the Konkan, a narrow coastal strip between the Western Ghats and the sea, and the routes giving access to it. Its principal port, Goa, was of great strategic importance to the southern states.

• Nature of the conflict: Military conflict between Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdom was an almost constant feature throughout the existence of both states. This had two notable effects — it reinforced the military character of both kingdoms, and the conflict was frequently cast in religious terms. Yet Vijayanagara, despite claiming to be the defender of Hindu interests, did not hesitate to employ contingents of Muslim horse-archers, and its early struggles were in fact against the Hindu Hoysala rulers. Later, when the Gajapati rulers of Orissa invaded and occupied parts of Vijayanagara territory, it led to a Vijayanagara–Bahmani alliance against them, just as the rulers of Warangal allied for long periods with the Bahmani kingdom against Vijayanagara.
• The religious dimension, however, cannot be dismissed altogether — it made the conflict more bitter, leading to widespread devastation in contested and neighbouring areas, with heavy loss of life and property. Both sides sacked and burned towns and villages, enslaved men, women and children, and committed other atrocities, often in the name of religion.

The Battle for the Tungabhadra Doab

• The struggle for the doab began as early as 1336, when Bahmani forces captured Raichur, only for it to be recovered by Harihara the following year. Warfare between the two sides continued in recurring cycles.
• In 1367, Bukka launched a campaign, in alliance with the ruler of Warangal, to recover territory lost earlier to the Bahmani ruler. When Bukka I stormed the fortress of Mudkal in the disputed doab, he massacred the entire garrison save one man. On hearing this, the enraged Bahmani sultan crossed the Tungabhadra in person — the first time a Bahmani sultan had entered Vijayanagara territory directly.
  • According to Persian sources, the Vijayanagara ruler was defeated and forced to retreat into the jungles.
  • This war saw the first recorded use of artillery by both sides.
  • Despite this, the Bahmani sultan could not secure a decisive victory, and the war dragged on for months amid the wholesale slaughter of men, women and children.
• The conflict ended in a treaty restoring the earlier arrangement, with the doab shared between the two sides, along with a vague pledge that future wars would spare unarmed inhabitants — a promise that had little effect on subsequent warfare.

Harihara II’s Forward Policy and the Warangal–Bahmani Alliance

• The elimination of the Sultanate of Madurai in the south allowed Harihara II (1377–1404) to pursue a forward policy in the north-east and west, where a cluster of Hindu principalities existed, drawing the interest of both Orissa and the Bahmani Sultans.
• Although the ruler of Warangal had earlier assisted Hasan Gangu against Delhi, his successor invaded Warangal and seized the stronghold of Kaulas and the hill fort of Golconda; Vijayanagara, occupied in the south, could not intervene. The Bahmani sultan fixed Golconda as his kingdom’s boundary and pledged not to encroach further on Warangal. To seal this agreement, the ruler of Warangal presented the Bahmani sultan a jewelled throne originally prepared as a gift for Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
• This Bahmani–Warangal alliance lasted over 50 years, and was a major reason Vijayanagara could neither overrun the Tungabhadra doab nor halt the Bahmani advance in the region.
• Overall, the recurring battles between the two kingdoms left their relative positions largely unchanged, with the fortunes of war swinging from one side to the other.

Sangama Dynasty: Key Rulers

Harihara I (1336–1356 CE) and Bukka (1356–1377 CE)

(Covered in detail above.)

Harihara II (1377–1404 CE)

• Bukka’s successor, Harihara II, continued his predecessor’s campaigns across southern India, taking control of coastal Andhra between Nellore and Kalinga, and conquering the Addanki and Srisailam regions along with most of the territory south of the Krishna River. He also conquered important ports such as Goa, Chaul, and Dabhol.
• He successfully held his ground against the combined pressure of the Bahmani–Warangal alliance, his greatest success being the recovery of Belgaum and Goa from the Bahmani kingdom in the west. He also despatched an expedition to northern Sri Lanka.
• Harihara II ruled from the capital Vijayanagara, now more popularly known as Hampi.

Deva Raya I (1404–1422)

• After a period of confusion and a war of succession, Harihara II was succeeded by Deva Raya I, during whose early reign the struggle for the Tungabhadra doab resumed.
• He was defeated by the Bahmani ruler Firuz Shah and forced to pay an indemnity of ten lakh huns, along with pearls and elephants. He also agreed to marry his daughter to the Sultan, ceding Bankapur in the doab as dowry to remove future disputes — a marriage celebrated with great pomp. This was not the first political marriage of its kind in south India; the ruler of Kherla in Gondwana had earlier married his daughter to Firuz Shah Bahmani for similar reasons. However, such marriages did little to secure lasting peace.
• Renewed conflict over the Krishna-Godavari basin: Following confusion in the Reddi kingdom, Deva Raya allied with Warangal to partition it between them. Warangal’s defection from the Bahmani side shifted the balance of power in the Deccan, enabling Deva Raya to inflict a heavy defeat on Firuz Shah Bahmani and annex territory up to the mouth of the Krishna river.
• Public works: Deva Raya I did not neglect the arts of peace — he built a dam across the Tungabhadra to bring a canal into the city, relieving water shortages, irrigating neighbouring fields, and increasing state revenue. He also constructed a dam on the river Haridra for irrigation.

Deva Raya II (1425–1446)

• After a period of confusion, Deva Raya II — regarded as the greatest ruler of the dynasty — ascended the throne at Vijayanagara. He was an able administrator, an ambitious warrior, and a man of letters.
• According to the Persian chronicler Abdur Razzaq, who visited his court, Deva Raya II’s empire extended from Ceylon to Gulbarga, and from Orissa to Malabar.
• Military reforms: Believing, per Ferishta, that the Bahmani army’s superiority stemmed from sturdier horses and skilled archers, Deva Raya II enlisted 2,000 Muslim archers, granted them jagirs, and directed his Hindu soldiers and officers to learn archery from them. The employment of Muslim troops was not new — Deva Raya I is said to have maintained 10,000 Muslims in his army.
  • Ferishta records that Deva Raya II assembled 60,000 Hindu archers, besides 80,000 cavalry and 2,00,000 infantry. Maintaining such a large cavalry strained state resources, since good mounts had to be imported and the Arab traders who controlled the horse trade charged high prices.
• In 1443, with this reorganised army, Deva Raya II crossed the Tungabhadra to recover Mudkal, Bankapur, and other territories lost earlier to the Bahmani sultans. Three hard-fought battles followed, but the two sides ultimately agreed to retain the existing frontiers.
• Conflicts with Orissa: Deva Raya II fought three major battles against the Gajapatis of Odisha — in c. 1427, against King Bhanudeva at the Battle of Kondavidu; in c. 1436, against King Kapilendra, who attempted to conquer Rajamahendri; and again in c. 1441. An invasion by the Reddis of Kondavidu was also repulsed, and by c. 1432, all petty chiefs of the region had been brought under Vijayanagara control.
• Deva Raya II bore the title Gajabetegara (“Hunter of Elephants”).
• The Portuguese chronicler Nuniz records that the kings of Quilon, Sri Lanka, Pulicat, Pegu, Tenasserim (Burma), and Malaya paid tribute to Deva Raya II — likely rulers seeking to secure Vijayanagara’s goodwill. Sri Lanka itself was invaded several times, an achievement that would not have been possible without a strong navy.
• Patron of letters: His reign marked a high point in Kannada literature, an era of fierce competition and literary disputation between Vaishnava and Veerashaiva writers.
  • Deva Raya II himself authored works in Kannada (Sobagina Sone and Amaruka) and in Sanskrit (Mahanataka Sudhanidhi).
  • He patronised notable Kannada poets such as Chamarasa and Kumara Vyasa, the Sanskrit poet Gunda Dimdima, and the celebrated Telugu poet Srinatha, whom he honoured with the title Kavisarvabhauma (“Emperor among Poets”).
  • The renowned South Indian mathematician Parameshvara, of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, also lived in his empire.

Foreigners’ Accounts of Vijayanagara

Under a series of capable rulers, Vijayanagara emerged as the most powerful and wealthy state in the south during the first half of the 15th century, and several foreign travellers left vivid accounts of the city and country.

• Nicolò de’ Conti: A Venetian merchant and explorer, born in Chioggia, who travelled through India and Southeast Asia — and possibly southern China — in the early 15th century.
  • He crossed the Arabian Sea to Cambay in Gujarat, then travelled to Vijayanagara, the capital of the Deccan, along with “Pacamuria” and “Helly.” It was in India that he coined the phrase “Italian of the East” for the Telugu language, noting that its words ending in vowels resembled Italian.
  • He also visited “Maliapur” (probably modern Mylapore, Chennai), site of the tomb of St. Thomas, traditionally credited with founding a Christian community there. In the 1430s he sailed back through Quilon, Kochi, Calicut, and Cambay before travelling on to Socotra, Aden, Berbera, and Jeddah — presenting himself as a Muslim throughout his travels for safety.
  • Visiting Vijayanagara in 1420, he wrote: the city’s circumference measured sixty miles, its walls ran up to the surrounding mountains enclosing the valley, and it held an estimated ninety thousand men fit to bear arms, with its king “more powerful than all the other kings in India.”
• Ferishta: A Persian historian who recorded that “the princes of the Bahmani maintained their superiority by valour only; for in power, wealth and extent of the country, the Rayas of Bijarnagar (Vijayanagara) greatly exceeded them.”
  • As a child, Ferishta’s father was summoned to Ahmadnagar to teach Persian to Prince Miran Husain Nizam Shah, alongside whom Ferishta himself studied. He later moved to Bijapur in 1589 to serve Ibrahim Adil Shah II, but, coming from a Shia background, found limited advancement in the predominantly Sunni Deccan courts.
  • In 1593, Ibrahim Adil Shah II commissioned him to write a history of India giving equal weight to the Deccan dynasties, a gap in existing historiography. The resulting work, known as the Tarikh-i-Firishta or Gulshan-i-Ibrahim, opens with a summary of pre-Muslim Hindustan and the Arab conquests, followed by regional histories, an account of the Muslims of Malabar, a history of Indian Muslim saints, and a concluding geographical survey — including a graphic account of the persecution of Hindus under Sikandar Butshikan in Kashmir.
  • Ferishta drew on the Tabaqat-i-Akbari (Nizamuddin), Tarikh-i-Rashidi (Mirza Haider), and Barani’s Tarikh. While the most widely cited source for the Adil Shahi dynasty, it is also the sole source for the fabricated claim of an Ottoman origin for its founder, Yusuf Adil Shah. His account of north Indian politics under Jahangir, however, is considered independent and reliable.
• Abdur Razzaq: A Timurid chronicler and Islamic scholar, and ambassador of Shah Rukh of Persia, who travelled widely in and beyond India and served at the court of Deva Raya II.
  • He recorded that Deva Raya II’s dominions held three hundred ports, each comparable to Calicut, and that the kingdom stretched across “a space of three months’ journey,” with an army of eleven lakh troops. He described the country as thickly populated and “for the most part well cultivated, very fertile.”
  • He considered Vijayanagara among the most splendid cities he had seen or heard of, describing seven concentric citadels and walls, with the innermost fortress occupying an area ten times larger than the marketplace of Herat. Four long, broad bazars ran from the palace, with people of each caste or profession residing in their own quarter — Muslims included, who lived in separate designated quarters. Both bazars and palace featured numerous streams and canals of polished, chiselled stone.
  • Another later traveller noted the city was larger than Rome, then among the largest cities of the western world.
  • Abdur Razzaq also recorded the tradition of vast wealth stored in the royal palace, in “several cell-like basins filled with bullion” — wealth that, being hoarded rather than circulated, sometimes invited foreign attack. He had earlier served as ambassador to Calicut in the early 1440s, leaving a valuable account of that city’s society and culture as well.
• Fernão Nunes (Fernao Nuniz): A Portuguese traveller, chronicler, and horse trader who spent three years in Vijayanagara between 1535 and 1537 CE, during the reign of Achyuta Deva Raya.
  • His writings describe massive fortification works, watch towers, and security walls, and reveal that the capital’s limits had expanded under Bukka Raya II and Deva Raya I.

Was Vijayanagara a War State?

• Scholars remain divided on the nature of the Vijayanagara state, with some considering it close to a “war state” — a view traced to a Vijayanagara ruler’s stated policy that state income be divided into four parts, with half reserved for warfare and the remainder for public works and emergencies. This view also draws on the amaram system, under which a grant-holder (nayak) received territory in return for maintaining troops, horses, and elephants for the ruler, and swearing loyalty to him.
• In practice, Vijayanagara was a “war state” only in the sense that all medieval states had to remain militarily prepared. Its rulers’ success against Muslim opponents rested on adopting cavalry warfare and inducting large numbers of mounted Muslim archers, alongside a large standing army paid in cash — a blend of traditional structures with new military features.
• Centralised or feudal? Scholars also disagree on whether Vijayanagara was a loose confederation of semi-autonomous nayaks or a centralised state modelled on the Delhi Sultanate.
  • The amaram system cannot be equated with the Turkish iqta: nayaks were not former slaves or subordinates liable to removal or transfer at the ruler’s will, but hereditary territorial lords in their own right. While they owed service and loyalty to the ruler who legitimised their position, they administered their own territories and remitted only a share of their income to the centre. There were 200 nayaks in the kingdom, whom the rulers sought to control but could not remove.
  • In some outlying southern and western areas, local rulers who had merely accepted Vijayanagara suzerainty continued to govern independently — meaning the territory under direct Vijayanagara administration was likely much smaller than the empire’s nominal extent.
  • Administratively, besides a council of ministers headed by a Pradhani (chief minister), a secretariat staffed by scribes (kayasthas) maintained records. Abdur Razzaq describes the diwan-khana near the palace, “extremely large” and resembling a chihal-sutun (forty-pillared hall), where records were kept and scribes seated. Beyond this, little is known of the precise administrative methods or the exact extent of directly governed territory.

Was Vijayanagara a Citadel of Hindu Orthodoxy and Conservatism?

• The Vijayanagara state has sometimes been described as “a citadel of Hindu orthodoxy and conservatism,” given the rulers’ considerable investment in building and repairing temples and mathas, and their pride in titles such as “protectors of the Vedas and the Vedic path.” They also extended significant favours to brahmans, granting revenue-free lands and even appointing them as commanders of armies and forts — though this military and political role was likely driven less by religious sentiment than by a desire to use brahmans as a counterweight to the powerful Kannada nayaks.
• In practice, however, the rulers showed considerable religious tolerance:
  • Though Shaivite themselves, they did not discriminate against other Hindu sects, and also extended patronage to Jainism.
  • Christian missionaries settled in south India were permitted to preach and make converts among Hindus.
  • Muslim soldiers in the Vijayanagara army were free to offer namaz, and relations between Hindus and Muslims were generally cordial.
• The one notable exception to this tolerance occurred in 1469, when the ruler Mallikarjuna Raya, angered on learning that Muslim traders of Bhatkal had sold horses to the Bahmani ruler, ordered the extermination of all Muslims in the city. Many were massacred, and survivors fled to Goa. This act of intolerance provoked Bahmani retaliation, resulting in the loss of Belgaum and the surrounding region to the Bahmani kingdom.

Climax of the Vijayanagara Empire and Its Disintegration

• The death of Deva Raya II plunged Vijayanagara into confusion, as civil wars broke out among rival claimants to the throne. Several feudatories seized the opportunity to assert independence, and the authority of the Raya shrank to Karnataka and parts of western Andhra.

Saluva Dynasty

• The throne was eventually usurped by the king’s minister, Saluva, bringing the Sangama dynasty to an end and founding a new one. Saluva Narasimha, the dynasty’s first ruler, reigned from 1485–1490, restoring internal law and order.
• His reign was largely occupied with campaigns to bring vassals across the kingdom back under submission, alongside unsuccessful efforts to check the encroachments of the king of Orissa. He also opened new ports on the west coast to revive the horse trade, which had fallen into Bahmani hands.
• This dynasty too was short-lived, giving way to the Tuluva dynasty, under which Krishna Deva Raya (1509–30) — the greatest figure of the line — came to power.

Tuluva Dynasty: Krishna Deva Raya (1509–29)

• Krishna Deva Raya had to re-establish internal order while also confronting Vijayanagara’s traditional rivals — the Bahmani successor states (Bidar, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, and Berar) — as well as Orissa, which had seized several Vijayanagara territories.
• He also had to reckon with the steadily growing power of the Portuguese, who used their naval dominance to pressure Vijayanagara’s smaller coastal vassal states into economic and political concessions, even offering to help recover Goa from Bijapur and grant a monopoly over the horse trade in exchange for the Raya’s neutrality.
• In a series of campaigns spanning seven years, Krishna Deva Raya first compelled Orissa to restore all territory up to the Krishna river. Strengthened by this success, he then renewed the long-standing struggle for the Tungabhadra doab, which drove Bijapur and Orissa into a hostile alliance against him.
  • He opened hostilities by overrunning Raichur and Mudkal. In the ensuing battle, the Bijapur ruler was decisively defeated (1520) and pushed across the Krishna river, narrowly escaping with his life. Vijayanagara forces advanced to Belgaum in the west, occupied and sacked Bijapur for several days, and destroyed Gulbarga, before a truce was concluded.
• Under Krishna Deva Raya, Vijayanagara became the strongest military power in the south. However, absorbed in renewing old rivalries, the southern powers largely overlooked the growing threat posed by the Portuguese to their trade — and unlike the Cholas and earlier Vijayanagara rulers, Krishna Deva Raya himself gave little attention to naval development.

Foreign Accounts of Krishna Deva Raya’s Reign

Several foreign travellers — Barbosa, Paes, and Nuniz — left detailed accounts of his efficient administration and the empire’s prosperity under his rule.

• Domingos Paes: A Portuguese traveller who spent years at Krishna Deva Raya’s court and visited Vijayanagara around 1520, leaving the most detailed of all historical descriptions of the city (Hampi) in his chronicle.
  • He described the king as “a great ruler and a man of much justice, but subject to sudden fits of rage,” noting his genuine care and proverbial concern for his subjects’ welfare.
  • His account, based primarily on direct observation (unlike Nuniz, who relied more on hearsay and legend), covers the nayankara military system, the annual royal Dasara/Durga festival, and the grandeur of the city’s fortifications, markets, temples, and royal quarter. Paes considered Vijayanagara as large as Rome, and “the best-provided city in the world” — his descriptions remain invaluable for interpreting the surviving ruins of Hampi today.
• Duarte Barbosa: A Portuguese factor at Cannanore and Cochin between 1503 and 1517, whose narrative of AD 1504–14 offers a detailed account of trade and political events in south-east India, including Bengal.
  • On the toleration prevailing under Krishna Deva Raya, he wrote that the king allowed “every man to come and go and live according to his own creed, without suffering annoyance” — regardless of whether he was “a Christian, Jew, Moor or heathen” — and praised the justice and equity of his rule.
  • Referring to the “Kingdom of Narsinga” (the Portuguese name for Vijayanagara), Barbosa described it as “very rich, well supplied with provisions, and very full of cities and large townships,” and detailed the flourishing trade at the port of Bhatkal, exporting iron, spices, and drugs, and importing horses and pearls — the latter increasingly routed through Goa owing to Portuguese control.
  • His account of the capital, “Bijanaguer” — well-fortified, populous, bordered by river and mountain — describes grand royal palaces, wide streets and squares thronged with people of many nations, extensive trade in jewels and diamonds from Pegu, Sri Lanka, and the Deccan, an all-female palace staff, and a royal army of more than a hundred thousand horse and foot soldiers, paid from the king’s own treasury, along with nine hundred elephants and over twenty thousand horses.
• Public works and patronage: Krishna Deva Raya was also a notable builder, founding a new town near Vijayanagara and excavating a large tank used for irrigation.
  • A gifted scholar of Telugu and Sanskrit, he authored one surviving Telugu work on polity and a Sanskrit drama. His reign marked a turning point in Telugu literature, shifting it from imitation of Sanskrit models toward independent composition, and is regarded as its golden age. He extended patronage to Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil poets alike — patronising the Tamil poet Haridasa and the Kannada poet Mallanarya, and thereby encouraging the flourishing of Tamil literature as well.
  • Deeply devoted to Hindu religious life, he lavished priceless gifts on the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and contributed to parts of the Srisailam temple complex. He was formally initiated into the Vaishnava Sampradaya by Vyasatirtha.

Sadashiva Raya and Rama Raja

• Following Krishna Deva Raya’s death, a succession struggle broke out among his relations, as his sons were still minors. Sadashiva Raya finally ascended the throne in 1543 and reigned until 1567, though real power lay with a triumvirate, led by Rama Raja.
• Rama Raja skilfully played the various Muslim powers off against one another. He struck a commercial treaty with the Portuguese to cut off the supply of horses to Bijapur, then inflicted a series of defeats on Bijapur and humiliating losses on Golconda and Ahmadnagar. His apparent aim was to preserve a balance of power among these three states favourable to Vijayanagara.
• This strategy eventually drove his rivals into a combined alliance, which inflicted a crushing defeat on Vijayanagara at Bannihatti, near Talikota, in 1565 — known as the Battle of Talikota or the Battle of Rakshasa-Tangadi. Rama Raja was surrounded, captured, and executed on the spot, and the city of Vijayanagara was thoroughly sacked and left in ruins.
• The Battle of Bannihatti is generally regarded as marking the end of the great age of Vijayanagara. Although the kingdom lingered on for nearly a century afterward, its territories steadily shrank, and the Raya ceased to count as a significant force in south Indian politics.

State Administration, Society and Economy in Vijayanagara

• The Vijayanagara rulers held an elevated concept of kingship. In his treatise on polity, Krishna Deva Raya advised that a king should attend “with great care and according to your power … to the work of protecting the good and punishing the wicked, without neglecting anything you can see or hear,” and should “levy taxes from his people moderately.”
• The king was advised by a council of ministers drawn from the great nobles of the realm.
• Administrative divisions: The kingdom was organised into rajyas or mandalams (provinces), further divided into nadu (districts), sthala (sub-districts), and grama (villages). However, the Chola tradition of village self-government weakened considerably under Vijayanagara rule, as the growth of hereditary nayakships curtailed local freedom and initiative.
• Condition of the peasantry: Historians remain divided on peasant conditions under Vijayanagara rule, since most foreign travellers had limited knowledge of village life and wrote of it only in general terms. It may be presumed that the economic life of ordinary people remained largely unchanged — houses were mostly thatched with small doors, and people generally went about barefoot, wearing little above the waist. The upper classes sometimes wore costly footwear and silk turbans, though they too did not cover the upper body; ornaments, however, were popular across all classes, worn “on the ears, the neck, the arms,” and elsewhere.
• Taxation: Precise information on the peasants’ share of produce is scarce, but according to one inscription, tax rates were as follows:
  1. One-third of the produce of kuruvai (a type of rice) grown in winter.
  2. One-fourth of sesame, ragi, horsegram, and similar crops.
  3. One-sixth of millet and other crops grown on dry land.
  • Rates thus varied by crop type, soil quality, and method of irrigation. Beyond the land tax, other levies included property tax, tax on the sale of produce, profession taxes, military contributions during times of distress, and marriage tax.
• The 16th-century traveller Nikitin observed that “the land is overstocked with people, but those in the country are very miserable, while the nobles are extremely affluent and delight in luxury.”
• Trade and agriculture: Both grew steadily under Vijayanagara rule. As village self-governance declined, a class of locally powerful figures emerged who invested in expanding irrigation facilities, recovering the cost through additional charges. Many temples, which held rent-free village grants, similarly used their resources to extend cultivation.
• Urban and temple economy: Urban life expanded considerably, with many towns growing up around temples, which required a steady supply of food and goods — both for distributing prasadam to pilgrims and for temple service. Wealthy and influential, temples themselves took an active part in both internal and overseas trade.
• Thus, despite near-continuous warfare, south India saw sustained growth in trade, urbanisation, and agriculture between the 14th and 16th centuries — a growth that was reflected in the region’s flourishing cultural life during this period.