Vijayanagara succession war

01A throne in dispute

Achyuta Deva Raya left a young son, Venkata I. His mother’s brother, Salakaraju Tirumala, took the regency and soon the real power. Rama Raya of the Aravidu family, married to a daughter of Krishnadevaraya, backed another prince, Sadashiva, a nephew of Achyuta. The kingdom split. Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur was drawn in for a time. The boy Venkata and other princes were killed during the struggle, and the chronicles lay these deaths at Tirumala’s door.

02Rama Raya’s regency

Rama Raya and his brothers gathered the great nayakas of the south and the Andhra country and beat Salakaraju Tirumala’s forces in a series of fights; the later chronicles name several sites in the Kurnool and Guntur country. Tirumala was killed. Sadashiva Raya was crowned in 1543, but he never ruled. For twenty-two years Rama Raya governed the empire, played the Deccan sultans against each other, and led Vijayanagara until he fell at Talikota in 1565.

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 →