Page:Madras District Gazetteers - Anantapur.pdf/37
POLITICAL
HISTORY.
17
CHAP. II.
VIJAYANAGAR KINGS, 1335-1565. Foundation their emof pire, 1335.
Some of the many legends which are related about the foundation of this kingdom are given in Mr. Sewell's recent work regarding it,[1] and he considers the most reasonable account to be the following: Two brothers of the Kuruba caste, named Harihara and Bukka, who were employed under the king of Orangal, fled from the second sack of that city by the Musalmans in 1323 and took service under the Rája of the fort of Anegundi standing on the northern bank of the Tungabhadra nearly opposite the present village of Hampi. There they rose to be respectively minister and treasurer.
In 1334 this Rája was attacked by Muhammad Taghlaq of Delhi, whose rebellious nephew he had harboured. Seeing defeat to be certain he caused a huge fire to be lit on which his wives and those of his chief men immolated themselves, and then with his followers he sallied forth against the invader and was slain. Muhammad Taghlaq left a local Governor to rule the new conquest and retired northwards . The countryside, however, rose against the new ruler and eventually Muhammad, finding events too strong for him, restored the principality to the Hindus, and raised to be its Rája and minister, respectively, the two brothers Harihara and Bukka who had previously been its minister and treasurer.
Harihara, runs the story, was one day out hunting when a hare, instead of fleeing from his dogs, flew at them and bit them. Returning homewards, he met the sage Mádhavácháriár, surnamed Vidyáranya or ' forest of learning,' who, hearing of this portent, advised the Rája to build a city on the spot and gave him his assistance in doing so. Thus was founded, in about 1335, Vijayanagar, ' the City of Victory.'
The territory subject to the kingdom extended with extraordinary Its rapid rapidity and Bukka I, Harihara's brother and successor, is said to extension. have ruled over all Southern India. Seeing that the only alternative was a despotism of Muhammadans, the Hindus of the south doubtless acknowledged his sway without much demur.
Bukka died about 1379 and was followed by his son Harihara II . He was the first of the Vijayanagar kings to assume the imperial title of Mahárájádhirája, or ' king of kings,' his predecessors having only described themselves as Mahamandalésvara, or ' great lord.' The extent of his dominions may be gathered from the fact that inscriptions of his time are found in Mysore, Dharwar, Conjeeveram, Chingleput and Trichinopoly.
- ↑ A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), by Mr. R. Sewell, I. C. S. , retired, (Swan Sonnenschein, 1900), pp. 20-23.