Kumara Kampana’s conquest of Madurai

01A queen’s poem

The war is told in the Madhura Vijayam, a Sanskrit poem by Kampana’s own queen Gangadevi. In it the goddess of Madurai appears to the prince, tells him of the closed temples and the suffering of her land, and hands him a sword to set it free. Gangadevi then describes the march, the fall of the Sambuvaraya fort at Rajagambhira and the duel in which Kampana killed the sultan.

02The temples reopened

After the victory the great temples of the south were brought back into worship. An inscription at Srirangam records that the image of Shri Ranganatha, carried away for safety during the raids of the 1320s, was brought home in 1371 under Gopana, a Vijayanagara officer. Daily puja at Madurai’s Meenakshi–Sundareswarar temple was restored under the new rule. Temples that had stood closed for decades were cleaned, their lamps lit again and their festivals renewed.

Person · reigned 1356–1377 CEBukka Raya IHarihara’s brother and successor, Bukka Raya I ended the Madurai Sultanate through his son Kumara Kampana, saw the Ranganatha murti brought back to Srirangam, and held the line against the Bahmanis.Read →