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Vijayanagara 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.

  1. Harihara I (Sangama)1336–1356
  2. Bukka Raya I (Sangama)1356–1377
  3. Harihara II (Sangama)1377–1404
  4. Deva Raya I (Sangama)1406–1422
  5. Deva Raya II (Sangama)1424–1446
  6. Mallikarjuna (Sangama)1446–1465
  7. Virupaksha Raya II (Sangama)1465–1485
  8. +11
Period: 1336–1646 CERegion: All of the peninsula south of the Tungabhadra and Krishna, from the Konkan to the Coromandel coastCapitals: Vijayanagara (Hampi), Penukonda, Chandragiri, Vellore
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

01The Sangama brothers

By 1336 the Sultanate had broken the Yadavas, the Kakatiyas and the Hoysalas. Harihara and Bukka, sons of Sangama, founded a new city across the river from the Pampa tirtha, under Hemakuta hill. The Sringeri tradition gives the guiding role to Vidyaranya, later the Shankaracharya of Sringeri; his brother Sayana wrote the Veda commentaries that are still read. Bukka’s son Kumara Kampana marched south and ended the Madurai Sultanate around 1371; his queen Gangadevi wrote the Madhuravijayam about it.

02A city of a million

Devaraya II brought Turkic horse-archers into his army and fought the Bahmanis along the Raichur doab. Visitors left full accounts. The Italian Niccolò de’ Conti came around 1420, the Persian envoy Abdur Razzaq in 1443, the Portuguese Domingo Paes around 1520. Paes wrote that the city was as large as Rome and the best provided in the world. Seven rings of walls, bazaars of rubies and horses, the Mahanavami festival on its great stone platform: all are in their pages and can still be traced on the ground.

Sthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)
Place · Pallava-era shrine by the sea, moved inland and rebuilt in the 14th century under Vijayanagara ruleSthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)At Mamallapuram Vishnu lies on the ground itself, with no serpent bed, because he lay down where a tired sage left him. Bhoothath Alvar, one of the first three Alvars, was born here.Read →

03Saluva and Tuluva

When the Sangama line weakened, the general Saluva Narasimha took the throne in 1485 to save the kingdom. The Tuluva brothers followed. Krishnadevaraya, crowned in 1509, beat the Bahmani successor states, took Raichur in 1520, and pushed the Gajapatis back to the Godavari. He wrote the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada on Andal, kept eight poets, the Ashtadiggajas, at court, and gave jewels and towers to Tirumala, where bronze images of him and his two queens stand to this day.

04Talikota, 1565

Under the weak Sadashiva, real power lay with Aliya Rama Raya, Krishnadevaraya’s son-in-law. He played the Deccan sultans against each other until four of them, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar, combined. In January 1565, near Talikota, the Vijayanagara army was winning when two Muslim commanders in its service changed sides; Rama Raya was captured and beheaded. The sultans’ armies then sacked the capital for months. The ruined temples and broken images of Hampi are what that sack left.

Vidyaranya
Person · d. 1386 CE · Sringeri pontiff 1380–1386VidyaranyaVidyaranya, an Advaita acharya who later headed the Sringeri Sharada Peetham, is remembered as the guide who stood behind Harihara and Bukka when they founded Vijayanagara in 1336. His Panchadashi is still the first book many students of Advaita read after the Upanishads.Read →

05The Aravidu years

Rama Raya’s brother Tirumala carried the treasury south and founded the Aravidu line at Penukonda. Venkata II ruled from Chandragiri for nearly thirty years and kept the Nayakas of Madurai, Thanjavur and Mysore loyal for a time. In 1639, under Venkata III, a local chief granted the English the strip of coast where they built Fort St George, Madras. Sriranga III lost his last lands to Bijapur and Golconda by 1646 and died in exile. The Nayaka kingdoms that had grown under Vijayanagara carried on its temples and its customs.

The rulers

  1. 1Harihara I (Sangama)Founder1336–1356
  2. 2Bukka Raya I (Sangama)Madurai Sultanate ended in his reign1356–1377
  3. 3Harihara II (Sangama)First to take full imperial titles1377–1404
  4. 4Deva Raya I (Sangama)1406–1422
  5. 5Deva Raya II (Sangama)Abdur Razzaq’s visit, 14431424–1446
  6. 6Mallikarjuna (Sangama)1446–1465
  7. 7Virupaksha Raya II (Sangama)1465–1485
  8. 8Saluva Narasimha (Saluva)General who took the throne1485–1491
  9. 9Immadi Narasimha (Saluva)1491–1505
  10. 10Vira Narasimha (Tuluva)1505–1509
  11. 11Krishnadevaraya (Tuluva)Raichur 1520; Amuktamalyada1509–1529
  12. 12Achyuta Deva Raya (Tuluva)Achyutaraya temple, Hampi1529–1542
  13. 13Sadashiva Raya (Tuluva)Aliya Rama Raya held power1542–1570
  14. 14Tirumala Deva Raya (Aravidu)Moved to Penukonda1570–1572
  15. 15Sriranga I (Aravidu)1572–1586
  16. 16Venkata II (Aravidu)Ruled from Chandragiri1586–1614
  17. 17Venkata III (Aravidu)1632–1642
  18. 18Sriranga III (Aravidu)Last emperor; died in exile1642–1646

What they left

  • The ruins of Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Virupaksha, Vitthala, Hazara Rama and the royal centre
  • Sayana’s commentaries on the four Vedas
  • Krishnadevaraya’s Amuktamalyada and the Telugu poets of his court
  • Raya gopurams on temples across the south, at Tirumala, Kanchi, Srisailam and Chidambaram
  • The Mahanavami festival, ancestor of the Mysore Dasara

People

Harihara IRuler
reigned 1336–1356 CE

Harihara I

Founder of the Vijayanagara empire

Bukka Raya IRuler
reigned 1356–1377 CE

Bukka Raya I

Vijayanagara king who freed Madurai

VidyaranyaAcharya
d. 1386 CE · Sringeri pontiff 1380–1386

Vidyaranya

Sringeri acharya, guide of Vijayanagara’s founders

Aliya Rama RayaRuler
regent c. 1542–1565 CE

Aliya Rama Raya

Regent of Vijayanagara, killed at Talikota

Tallapaka AnnamacharyaPoet
1408–1503 CE

Tallapaka Annamacharya

Telugu singer of Venkateswara at Tirumala

KrishnadevarayaRuler
reigned 1509–1529 CE

Krishnadevaraya

Greatest emperor of Vijayanagara, poet-king

Purandara DasaSaint
1484–1564 CE

Purandara Dasa

Haridasa saint, Pitamaha of Carnatic music

KanakadasaSaint
1509–1609 CE

Kanakadasa

Haridasa poet for whom Udupi Krishna turned

Places

Sthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)Rebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Sthalasayana Perumal Temple, Thirukkadalmallai (Mamallapuram)

At Mamallapuram Vishnu lies on the ground itself, with no serpent bed, because he lay down where a tired sage left him. Bhoothath Alvar, one of the first three Alvars, was born here.

Abhirameswarar Temple, TiruvamathurStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Abhirameswarar Temple, Tiruvamathur

The Lord worshipped by the cows, sung by Sambandar and Appar. The Devi has her own temple across the street.

Tirumagaraleeswarar Temple, TirumagaralStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Tirumagaraleeswarar Temple, Tirumagaral

The Lord who appeared to a Chola king as a golden monitor lizard and vanished into an anthill; the linga is said to have the shape of the lizard’s tail. Sambandar sang his Vinai Theerkum padigam here.

Sri Venkateswara Temple, TirumalaStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala

The hill shrine of Venkateswara on the seventh of the Seshachalam hills, where Bhagwan stands in this Kali Yuga to grant refuge. More pilgrims climb to it than to almost any shrine on earth.

Hampi (Vijayanagara)Ruined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Hampi (Vijayanagara)

Vijayanagara, the City of Victory, capital of the empire that held the south for over two centuries. After the defeat at Talikota in January 1565 it was plundered for months and never lived again.

Anegondi (Kishkindha)Standing
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Anegondi (Kishkindha)

The old fort town across the Tungabhadra from Hampi, honoured as Kishkindha of the Ramayana, where Harihara and Bukka began before they founded Vijayanagara on the south bank in 1336. The descendants of the Vijayanagara royal house still live here.

Sringeri Sharada PeethamStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Sringeri Sharada Peetham

The Dakshinamnaya, the southern of the four mathas of Adi Shankaracharya, on the Tunga, with Sureshvaracharya as its first head. Its acharya Vidyaranya stood behind the founding of Vijayanagara.

Ahobilam (Nava Narasimha Kshetra)Standing
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Ahobilam (Nava Narasimha Kshetra)

The Nallamala forest where, by the tradition of the place, Bhagwan Narasimha burst from the pillar and killed Hiranyakashipu. Nine Narasimha shrines are scattered over the hills.

DharwadStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Dharwad

A fort town on the edge of the Malnad that changed hands between Vijayanagara, Bijapur, the Mughals, the Marathas and Mysore, and in 1824 was the seat of the collector Thackeray, whose attempt to seize Kittur ended in his death at Rani Chennamma’s gates.

Hazara Rama Temple, HampiRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Hazara Rama Temple, Hampi

The private temple of the Vijayanagara kings in the royal centre, its walls carved with the Ramayana in long running bands. Hazara Rama means ‘a thousand Ramas’.

Shri Nagesh Temple, BandivadeStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Shri Nagesh Temple, Bandivade

One of the few great Goan temples that never had to flee: it stood in Ponda, beyond Portuguese rule, and an inscription of 1413 already records gifts to it. Its wooden friezes carry the whole Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Uma Maheswara Temple, YagantiStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Uma Maheswara Temple, Yaganti

A Vijayanagara temple under the cliffs of the Erramala hills, where Shiva and Parvati are worshipped together in one murti, and where the stone Nandi in front is said to have grown so much that a pillar had to be removed.

Virupaksha Temple, HampiStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Virupaksha Temple, Hampi

The family deity of the Vijayanagara kings, who signed their grants ‘Shri Virupaksha’. When the city around it was destroyed in 1565, worship here went on.

Vittala Temple, HampiRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Vittala Temple, Hampi

The finest temple of Vijayanagara, with the stone chariot of Garuda in its court and pillars that ring when struck. It has stood empty of worship since 1565.

Udayagiri Fort (Nellore)Ruined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Udayagiri Fort (Nellore)

A great hill fort in the Eastern Ghats that the Gajapatis of Odisha won under Kapilendra Deva’s armies and Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara took back in 1514 after a long siege. From here he carried the image of Balakrishna to Hampi.

Veerabhadra Temple, LepakshiStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Veerabhadra Temple, Lepakshi

A Vijayanagara temple on a tortoise-shaped rock, with the largest ceiling paintings of the empire, a pillar that does not touch the floor and a giant Nandi outside.

Gingee (Senji) FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Gingee (Senji) Fort

Three granite hills bound by one wall, Rajagiri, Krishnagiri and Chandrayandurg, which Shivaji took in 1677 and from which Chhatrapati Rajaram held off a Mughal siege for nearly eight years.

Jalakandeswarar Temple, Vellore FortRebuilt
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Jalakandeswarar Temple, Vellore Fort

A Vijayanagara temple inside the moated Vellore Fort, famous for the carving of its kalyana mandapa. It stood without worship for long years while the fort passed from hand to hand, and puja was restored in 1981.

Kodandarama Temple, VontimittaStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Kodandarama Temple, Vontimitta

The great Rama temple of the Rayalaseema, where the poet Bammera Potana is held to have composed his Telugu Bhagavatam. Since 2015 it has hosted Andhra Pradesh’s official Sri Rama Navami celebration.

PenukondaRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Penukonda

The hill fortress to which the Vijayanagara court withdrew after the sack of Hampi in 1565, and from which the Aravidu kings kept the empire alive.

Chandragiri FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Chandragiri Fort

The last seat of the Vijayanagara emperors, near Tirupati. From its Raja Mahal the grant was made in 1639 that let the English build Fort St George, the start of Madras.

Battles

Battle of Raichur

The rich land between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra had been fought over for 150 years. Krishnadevaraya besieged Raichur, beat the Bijapur army that came to save it and took the fort.

1520 CE

Battle of Talikota (Rakkasa-Tangadi)

The four sultanates that had fought one another for years united against Vijayanagara. In a single afternoon the army of the greatest Hindu state of the south was broken.

January 1565 CE

Evidence

Madhura Vijayam of GangadeviChronicle
Late 14th century; Kampana’s campaign c. 1371

Madhura Vijayam of Gangadevi

A Sanskrit poem by the Vijayanagara princess Gangadevi on her husband Kumara Kampana’s conquest of the Madurai Sultanate.

Krishnadevaraya’s inscription at the Krishna temple, HampiInscription
1513 CE

Krishnadevaraya’s inscription at the Krishna temple, Hampi

A Kannada and Sanskrit record of the temple Krishnadevaraya built to house the image of Balakrishna he brought home from Udayagiri.

Vijayanagara gold varahaCoin
14th–17th century CE

Vijayanagara gold varaha

The small, thick gold coin of Vijayanagara, called varaha after the boar on the royal seal, hon in Marathi and Kannada, and “pagoda” by the Europeans.

The Mackenzie manuscriptsManuscript
Collected c. 1796–1821

The Mackenzie manuscripts

The largest collection of South Indian manuscripts, local histories and copied inscriptions ever made, much of it recorded from village elders, temple priests and family archives.

On the timeline

  • 18 April 1336

    Vijayanagara founded on the TungabhadraPolity

    Harihara and Bukka, sons of Sangama, found Vijayanagara on the south bank of the Tungabhadra with the blessing of Vidyaranya of Sringeri. 18 April 1336 is the date traditionally given; the empire held the south for over two centuries.