Capture of Kondapalli

01The eastern war

Since the days of Kapilendra Deva the Gajapatis of Odisha had held the Telugu coast far to the south. Krishnadevaraya set out to win it back. He took Udayagiri in 1513–14 and Kondavidu in 1515. Kondapalli, a hill fort a few miles from the Krishna near today’s Vijayawada, was the next stronghold on the road north. Its fall followed within the same campaigning season. Kondavidu itself had been the seat of the Reddi kings a century before, and the whole country was studded with hill forts.

02To Simhachalam and peace

From Kondapalli the Raya marched up the coast through Rajahmundry and reached Simhachalam near Visakhapatnam, where he worshipped at the temple of Narasimha and set up a pillar of victory at Potnuru. Prataparudra came to terms. By the peace the Krishna became the boundary, the lands south of it went to Vijayanagara, and a Gajapati princess was married to Krishnadevaraya. The Raya’s inscriptions at Simhachalam record his gifts to the temple.

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 →