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- An able administrator. He built large tanks and canals for irrigation. He developed the naval power understanding the vital role of overseas trade. He maintained friendly relations with the Portuguese and Arab traders. He increased the revenue of his government. He patronized art and architecture.
byjus.com/free-ias-prep/the-vijayanagar-empire/NCERT Notes: The Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1646) [Medieval ...
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Some scholars have criticised Rama Raya for interfering in the affairs of the Sultans too much, but scholars like Dr. P. B. Desai have ably defended his political affairs, indicating that Rama Raya did whatever he could to increase the prestige and importance of the Vijayanagar empire, ensuring no single Sultanate would rise above the others in ...
- Overview
- Military policies
- Loss of central control
- Breakup of the empire
- Administration of the empire
It is likely that the sultans of Golconda and Ahmadnagar, who had lost much at the hands of Rama Raya, were primarily responsible for the formation of an alliance that destroyed Vijayanagar’s power forever. By 1564 at least four of the five sultans (Berar is questionable) had begun their march on Vijayanagar, which resulted early in 1565 in the dis...
Although Rama Raya’s efforts toward centralization were not entirely successful, it was his military policies that ultimately led to disaster. There were rebellions when he replaced many members of the old nobility with relatives and close associates, but they appear to have been no more serious than many other rebellions of previous periods under ...
The Battle of Talikota did not result in the destruction of the kingdom of Vijayanagar, although the capital city never fully recovered from the ravages it suffered. Rama Raya’s brother Tirumala established a new headquarters at Penukonda and attempted to rebuild the army. Much of the south and southeast was lost, however, as the Nayakas of Madura, Thanjavur (Tanjore), and Jinji effectively asserted their independence. Rebellions and banditry arose in many areas. Tirumala appealed to Niẓām Shah of Ahmadnagar for aid against a Bijapuri invasion that reached Penukonda. He then joined with Ahmadnagar and Golconda in a campaign against Bijapur. Tirumala accepted the new states of the Nayakas of the south, retained the allegiance of Mysore and Keladi, and appointed his three sons as governors of the three linguistic regions of his kingdom—Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil. In 1570 he had himself crowned and thus officially inaugurated the Aravidu dynasty, the fourth and last dynasty of Vijayanagar.
When Tirumala retired, his son Shriranga I (reigned 1572–85) tried to continue the process of rebuilding while struggling to maintain his place among the Muslim sultanates without any support from the major Telugu houses. An invasion by Bijapur was repulsed with the aid of Golconda, but subsequent invasions by Golconda resulted in the loss of a substantial amount of territory in the east. The Vijayanagar government relocated from Penukonda, which had sustained two sieges, to Chandragiri. Shriranga’s difficulties stemmed partly from the lack of aid from his brothers, who ruled their separate regions, and partly from the dissensions of his nobles and the semi-independent status of some of them. Many nobles had apparently decided that it was no longer in their best interests to give full support to the larger state and that, in the absence of overwhelming power, the development of smaller subregional states was both possible and potentially more profitable.
Venkata’s nephew and successor, Shriranga II, ruled for only four months. He was murdered, along with all but one of the members of his family, by one of the two contending parties of nobles. A long civil war resulted and finally degenerated into a series of smaller wars among a number of contending parties. The surviving member of the dynasty, Rama Deva Raya, finally ascended the throne in 1617. His reign was marked by factional warfare and the constant struggle to maintain a much-truncated kingdom along the eastern coast. Although some chieftains continued to recognize his nominal suzerainty and that of his successor, Venkata III (1630–42), real political power resided at the level of chieftains and provincial governors, who were carving out their own principalities. The fourth Vijayanagar dynasty had become little more than another competing provincial power.
Bijapur and Golconda took advantage of the decline in Vijayanagar’s strength to make further inroads into the south, while Venkata III’s own nephew Shriranga allied himself with Bijapur. Interestingly, it was Venkata who granted the Madraspatna fort to the English as the site for a factory (trading post). In 1642 an expedition from Golconda drove the king from his capital at Vellore. Hearing that his uncle was dying, Shriranga deserted Bijapur and had himself crowned. Although he was able to play Bijapur and Golconda against each other for a time, he could not gain control over the provincial Nayakas, who were by then virtually independent; and, when Bijapur and Golconda finally struck at the same time, Shriranga and the handful of chieftains who came to his aid were powerless to stop them. A last appeal to his Nayakas to come to the defense of Hinduism resulted instead in his defeat by their combined forces in 1645. Meanwhile, Bijapur and Golconda advanced, with the blessings of the Mughal emperor at Delhi, who had suggested that they should partition Karnataka between themselves. The Nayakas realized the danger too late, and by 1652 the Muslim sultans had completed their conquest of Karnataka. Shriranga retired to Mysore, where he kept an exile court until his death in 1672.
Vijayanagar was the first southern Indian state to have encompassed three major linguistic and cultural regions and to have established a high degree of political unity among them. The administration of the kingdom sporadically achieved a relatively high degree of centralization, although centrifugal tendencies regularly appeared. To the original five rajyas (provinces) held by the Sangama brothers, new ones were added as territories were acquired. Within and among these regions, a complex mosaic of great chiefly houses exercised power to varying degrees, though not with the virtual autonomy that some historians have suggested. The central administration had both a revenue and a military side, but the actual business of raising taxes and troops was mostly the responsibility of the provincial governors and their subordinates. The central government maintained a relatively small body of troops, but it assigned a value to the lands held by the provincial governors and determined the number of troops that were to be supplied from the revenues of each province. This administrative plan led to the development of the nayankara system, in which prominent commanders received land grants and privileged status, becoming Nayakas (local lords or governors). The system, which has been characterized as a kind of military feudalism, worked well enough when the central authority was strong but provided territorial bases for the Nayakas to build semi-independent hereditary holdings in times of imperial weakness. The imperial rulers were aware of the power of the provinces and tried to counter it by appointing members of the royal family as governors of the militarily more important (but not necessarily more lucrative) provinces. On the whole, however, the device was not successful, because succession rivalries, as in the Muslim kingdoms to the north, tended to produce filial disloyalty to the throne and even rebellion.
Although exact figures are unavailable, the evidence suggests that the level of taxation was close to half of the produce in many areas. Much of the revenue collected did not go to the state, however, because various layers of local landholders took their share first. Although most revenue came from agrarian taxes, commercial and artisan taxes and tributary duties from foreign traders were levied as well.
Under Vijayanagar rule, temples, which exhibited such singularly imperial features as huge enclosures and entrance gateways (gopuras), emerged as major political arenas. Monastic organizations (mathas) representing various religious traditions also became focal points of local authority, often closely linked with the Nayaka chieftaincies. A fairly elaborate and specialized administrative infrastructure underlay these diverse local and regional religio-political forms.
Vijayanagar the city was a symbol of vast power and wealth. It was a royal ceremonial and administrative centre and the nexus of trade routes. Foreign travelers and visitors were impressed by the variety and quality of commodities that reached the city, by the architectural grandeur of the palace complex and temples, and by the ceremonial significance of the annual Mahanavami celebrations, at which the Nayakas and other chiefs assembled to pay tribute.
Oct 7, 2013 · Rama Raya was captured and beheaded by the Deccan Sultans in the battle of Talikota in 1565, which marked the decline of the great Vijayanagar empire. Rayas of the Aravidu Dynasty (1569-1646) : Tirumala, brother of Rama Raya (1569-1571), shifted the capital to Penukonda and founded the Aravidu dynasty.
May 14, 2024 · Account of Foreign Visitors: Epigraphical: Copper-plate charters in Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu, Sanskrit. Numismatic Evidence: Gold coins of Krishnadeva Raya, also known as Varaha coins (also called Pon in Tamil and Honnu in Kannada). 2. Origin and Expansion. Four dynasties governed the Vijayanagar kingdom for over three centuries:
In 1565 Rama Raya, the chief minister of Vijayanagar, led the empire into the fatal battle at Talikota, in which its army was routed by the combined forces of the Muslim states of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, and Golconda and the city of Vijayanagar was destroyed. Tirumala, brother of….
Nov 22, 2023 · 1 Comment. Vijayanagar Empire. During the mid-14th century, when the forces of disintegration were active in the northern India, two kingdoms in the South provided a long spell of stable government. These were the Vijayanagar and Bahmani Kingdoms.
Mar 27, 2022 · You guys must have heard about the Kingdom of Vijayanagar and its king Sri Krishnadeva Raya and the wily Tenali Rama: The court poet of Sri Krishnadeva Raya’s council who uses his wit to solve the problems. Do you know that Sri Krishnadeva Raya won all the wars he waged and was never defeated?
