Battle of Vedalai

01A toll on the pilgrims

In the 1540s the Portuguese ruled the pearl-fishing Parava villages of the Fishery Coast, many of whose people had been baptised under Francis Xavier. From 1544 Vijayanagara’s viceroy Vitthala, a cousin of Rama Raya, pressed down on that coast to restore imperial authority. At Vedalai, where pilgrims crossed the strait to the island of Rameswaram and the Ramanathaswamy temple, the Portuguese put up a mud fort and began to collect a toll on every pilgrim.

02The post overrun

The temple authorities appealed to the Vijayanagara commanders, and in 1549 a force came down on Vedalai. The small Portuguese garrison fled to its boats. Antonio Criminali, an Italian Jesuit working among the Paravas, stayed behind and was killed; the Society of Jesus counts him its first martyr in India. The fort was not rebuilt, and the pilgrims’ road to Rameswaram was free of the toll. The Parava villages of the coast stayed under Portuguese protection.

Dynasty · 1336–1646 CEVijayanagara Empire (Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva, Aravidu)Founded in 1336 on the Tungabhadra by the brothers Harihara and Bukka, Vijayanagara held the south for Sanatan Dharma for more than two centuries. Four dynasties ruled it; its city at Hampi was among the largest in the world before its fall in 1565.Read →