01Between Odisha and Vijayanagara
Udayagiri rises nearly a thousand metres above the plains west of Nellore, with lines of wall, gates and temples on its slopes and summit. In the middle of the 15th century the Gajapati king Kapilendra Deva of Odisha sent his son Hamvira south through Rajahmundry, Kondavidu and Udayagiri while Vijayanagara was troubled, and Odia power held the fort for two generations. It became the southern bastion of the Gajapati realm, facing Vijayanagara across the Penna country.
02Krishnadevaraya’s siege
Krishnadevaraya opened his eastern war against the Gajapati Prataparudra here. The siege lasted many months through 1513 and 1514, his men cutting roads up the rock to bring guns and stores close, and in 1514 the fort fell. Among the spoils was an image of Balakrishna, the child Krishna, worshipped in the fort. The king carried it to Hampi and built the Krishna temple there for it, consecrated in 1515 as its inscription records. From Udayagiri his armies went on to Kondavidu and beyond, until in 1518 Prataparudra made peace and gave his daughter in marriage to him.
The life of this place
- mid-15th centuryGajapati armies under Hamvira took the fort.
- 1514 CEKrishnadevaraya took Udayagiri after a long siege and carried off the Balakrishna image.
- 1515 CEThe Krishna temple at Hampi was consecrated for the image.
