KRISHNADEVARAYA (1509-29 A.D.)
Robert Sewell says, "From the accession of Krishnadevaraya
to the throne of Vijayanagar in 1509 A.D. we once more
enter into a period when the history of the country becomes
less confused and we are able to trace the sequence of
events without serious difficulty. This was the period of
Vijayanagar's greatest success when its army everywhere was
victorious and the city was most prosperous." Krishnadevaraya's
reign marks, 'the grand climax in the development of the
empire, and the successful achievement of the objects for
which it was actually founded.'
According to Prof. O. Ramachandraiya, Krishnadevaraye
was born on 16th February 1487 A.D. As already noted, Nuniz
mentions the circumstances under which Krishnadeva was
raised to the throne of Vijayanagara. Paes, the Portuguese
chronicler who was in Vijayanagara about the year 1520 A.D.,
also remarks that Saluva Timma brought up Krishnadevaraya
and made him king. About the personality and character of
the king, he described glowingly—"The king is of medium
height and of fair complexion and good figure, rather fat than
thin; he was on his face signs of small-pox. He is the most
feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of
disposition and very merry; he is one that seeks to honour
foreigners and receives them kindly, asking about all their
affairs whatever their condition may be. He is a great ruler
and a man of much justice, but subject to 'sudden fits of rage;
and this is his title—Krishnarao, the great, king of kings, lord
of the greater lords of India, lord of the three seas and land".
Sewell also narrates, "Krishnadevaraya was not only monarch
de jure but was in very practical fact an absolute monarch of
extensive power and strong personal influence. He was the
real ruler. He was physically strong in his best days and
kept his strength upto the highest pitch by hard bodily exercise.
He rose early and developed all his muscles by the use of
Indian clubs and the use of sword. He was fine rider and
was blessed with the noblest presence of which favourably
impressed all who came in contact with him. He commanded
his immense armies in person, was able, brave and statesmanlike;
and was withal, a man of much gentleness and generosity
of character. He was beloved by all and respected by all."
Krishnadevaraya's coronation was celebrated, in all probability,
on the birthday of Srikrishna of Saka 1432, corresponding
to August 8, 1509 A.D. His first act on coming to
the throne was to send his nephew, son of Vira Narasimha,
and his own two brothers. Achuta and Ranga to the Chandragiri
fort to secure his own position free from all plots and intrigues
of the rival claimants. Before he set on his expeditions, he
remained at the capital for a year and a half teaming the affairs
of his kingdom.
Krishnadeva did not succeed to a peaceful kingdom.
Troubles from within and attacks from without haunted the
Vijayanagara ruler. Some of the Polaigars were stilt at targe
contesting the overlordship of the best part of Mysore region
The Gajapatis of Orissa were stilt in possession of the eastern
districts of the empire and Prataparudra was openly hostile
and aggressive. In the north, though the Bahmani kingdom
virtually ceased to exist, still the Muslim pressure, especially
from Bijapur, continued unabated in its strength. The newiyrisen
power of the Portuguese was rapidly establishing control
over the routes and the maritime trade of the west coast and
seeking profitable contacts with the 'country powers'. But
Krishnadevaraya rose to the occasion and with the help of his
mentor and minister Saluv Timmarasa, handled the situation
with great tact and foresight.
At the outset of his reign, Krishnadeva had to fight with
the Muslim forces which declared a jihad on the infields of
Vijayanagara and invaded his territory. The Bahmani Sultan
was joined by all the chiefs and nobles who nominally acknowledged
his sovereignty. Krishna was equal to the task. His
forces checked the progress of the Muslims on the frontier,
defeated them at Dony and inflicted another crushing defeat
on the retreating army at Kovilkonda. Yusuf Adil Shah of
Bijapur lost his life with the result Bijapur was thrown into
confusion and disorder.
Taking advantage of the anarchic conditions prevailing in
Bijapur, Krishna invaded the doab and captured Raichur. He
then advanced on Gulbarga and captured the fort. He pursued
Barid, the minister and jailor of the Sultan, defeated him and
captured the fort of Bidar. He restored the Sultan Mahmud
Shah to power and to commemorate this act of resuscitation
of the Bahmani monarchy, assumed the title of 'Yavanarajyastapanacharya'.
This restoration he did to weaken his Muslim
neighbours by throwing an apple of discord in their midst since
he knew that so long as the shadow of the Bahmani monarchy
persisted, there would be no peace among the Muslim rulers
of the Deccan.
Krishna then set out on an expedition against the rebels.
He marched against the Kadava chieftains of the Kanchi region.
After reducing them, he advanced against Gangaraja of Ummattur
who had been in revolt since the last years of Vira Nara-
simha's reign. He first attacked Penukonda which had passed
into the hands of the rebel. The capture of this fort was followed
by Ummattur and Sivasamudram. When Gangaraja fled and
was drowned in the Kaveri, Krishna made the conquered territory
into a province with Srirangapatna as its capital and
appointed Saluva Govindaraja as Governor with three local
chieftains to assist him.
The eastern campaign of Krishnadevaraya against the
Gajapati power of Orissa was a seven years' affair (1512-19
A.D.). Krishna's aim was to recover the two provinces of
Vijayanagara, namely, Udayagiri and Kondavidu, which his
predecessors failed to recover from Orissa. It is curious to
note that while the Vijayanagara sources describe the defeats
and losses suffered by Prataparudra Gajapati at the hands of
Krishna, almost all the sources from Orissa are silent about
this. Krishna's Kalinga expedition falls into five definite stages.
a) The expedition began with an attack on the impregnable
fort of Udayagiri in the month of January 1513 A.D. According
to Nuniz, Krishna laid siege to this fort 'for a year and a
half. The fort was under the command of Tirumala Rautaraya,
a paternal uncle of the Gajapati king. Stubburn resistance was
offered to the assaults of the Raya's forces. The Raya's
generals, even after great exertion, failed to achieve anything
Then Krishna took up the lead in person. He widened the
narrow path and erected a wall of circumvallation around it
He defeated Prataparudra who came to defend the fort and
pursued his army as far as Kondavidu. He captured the Udayagiri
fortress finally on 9th June, 1514 A.D. Rautaraya was
taken captive. The event was celebrated on a grand scale
and Krishnadevaraya visited Tirumala and paid homage to
Lord Venkatesvara visited Trrumala and paid homage to Lord
Lord Venkatesvara. After the fall of Udayagiri, he reduced
Kandukuru also and appointed Rayasam Kondamarusayya as his
regent at Udayagiri. At the capital he built a new shrine and
installed the Balakrishna image brought from Udayagiri.
b) With the object of reducing the Kondavidu fortress, the
headquarters of the southern viceroyalty under the Gajapatis.
Krishnadevaraya once again marched against the king of Orissa.
On the way to Kondavidu, he reduced some of the forts including
Addanki, Vinukonda, Bellamkonda, Nagarjunakonda, Tangeda
and Ketavaram sometime between February and June 1515 A,D.
Simultaneously, Kondavidu was laid siege, The Gajapati ruler
was obliged to divide his forces and send them to defend the
different forts and with the remaining forces when he attacked
the Raya in open battle, he was defeated.
Krishna then blockaded the Kondavidu fort which was
defended by a powerful garrison under prince Virabhadra, son
of Prataparudra Gajapati. According to an inscription at Ahobalam,
"he surrounded the fort with his army, having erected
movable wooden platforms (nadachapparams) to enable his
soldiers to stand on a level with the defenders and demolish
the walls; he scaled them on all sides and captured the fort".
Prince Virabhadra was taken prisoner along with many others.
The fort fell on 23rd June, 1515 A.D. Krishna entrusted its
administration to Saluva Timmarasa. He then conquered the
coastal region upto the river Krishna. He offered worship at
Amaravati.
c) The third satge in Krishna's Kalinga campaign began with
the siege of Bezwada. After capturing it, the Raya made it an
advance base for further operations. Then he proceeded to
Kondapalli, a strong and well-defended fort with very nigh
walls, situated a few miles away to the north-east of Bezwada.
He besieged the fort and the army sent to relieve it by Prataparudra
was thoroughly defeated. After a siege of two months,
Kondapalli was taken and the Gajapati commander Praharesvara
Patra and other chieftains were made prisoners and sent to
the imperial capital. According to Nuniz, a wife of the King of
Oriya was also included among the prisoners.
d) "Till he conquered Kondavidu, Krishnaraya was bent upon
driving the Gajapati from the region to the south of the Krishna.
Subsequent to the fall of this fort, there appears a change in
the policy adopted by the Vijayanagara monarch towards the
Gajapati. It was not the greed for territory that was behind
Krishnadevaraya's campaigns in the distant regions of Potnuru
Simhadri and further north but his determination to weaken
the Gajapati so that there might not be any more danger to
Vijayanagara Kingdom from that quarter".
With this objective Krishnadevaraya crossed the Krishna
and after capturing Bezwada and Kondapalli proceeded to conquer
Telangana and Vengi both of which formed part of the
Gajapati kingdom. He took in a 'single assault' Anantagiri,
Undrakonda, Urlagonda, Aruvapalli, Jallipalli, Kandikonda, Kappalavayi,
Nalagonda. Kambhammettu, Kanakagiri, Sankaragin
and other fortresses. He reduced Rajahmundry and finally
arrived at Potnuru Simhadri. With the help of his minister
Timmarasa, who by adopting 'bheda' brought about a split
between the Gajapati king and his subordinate Patras and
made the enemy flee from the field, Krishna won victory. He
set up a pillar of victory and made rich presents in company
of his wives to God Simhadrinatha on 29th March, 1516 A.D.
Then he returned to Vijayanagar leaving his army behind.
While at Vijayanagara, the Raya who had love for martial
exercises including duel-fencings, arranged for the swordfencing.
According to Nuniz prince Virabhadra Gajapati, who
was taken captive at Kondavidu, was invited to fence since he
was famous as a dexterous swordsman. But Virabhadra, with
the misunderstanding that his opponent was not of royal blood
but a man of humble birth, felt offended and put an end to
himself.
e) The Gajapati ruler, burning with rage and sorrow for the
death of his son at the Vijayanagara court, continued hostilities
with Vijayanagara. Since he did not come to terms with
Krishna, the latter resolved on the Cuttack expedition. The
inscriptions and the contemporary Telugu literary works like
'Manucharitra' and 'Amuktamatyada' refer to the invasion of
the Raya and the devastation of the country of the Matsya
chiefs of Oddadi and the burning of the capital town Kataka
(Cuttack) thus sufficiently humiliating the Gajapati to sue for
peace
"Successive disasters in all battles against the Raya, the
death of his son, the captivity of his wife and the burning of
his capital, all these must have compelled Prataparudra to sue
for peace and save the country from further devastation".
Since Krishnadevaraya's object was to secure permanent peace
in the eastern frontier, in the peace treaty that was concluded
in August, 1519 A.D., he gave back all the territories to the
north of Krishna to the Gajapati ruler. The latter gave his
daughter Bhadra (or Tukka) in marriage to the former. Thus
ended one of the most brilliant episodes in the military history
of India, in the 16th century.'
After subduing Orissa, Krishnadevaraya had to fight with
the Sultans of Golkonda and Bijapur. Quli Qutb Shah of
Golkonda was ambitious and wanted to make himself the
master of the Telugu country. Taking advantage of the defeat
and discomfiture of the Gajapati king, he occupied the Telangana
districts and the coastal areas between the mouths of the
Krishna and the Godavari. Then he crossed the Krishna and
beseized Kondavidu. Strong contingents of Vijayanagara under
Timmarasa marched against the enemy and successfully repulsed
the Golkonda forces.
While Krishnadevaraya was busy with his Orissa war,
Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur recaptured Raichur. The Raya,
therefore, made a campaign in 1520 A.D. for the recovery of
Raichur. Nuniz gives an elaborate account of this war With
a large army the Raya marched into the Doab. The decisive
battle was fought on 19th May, 1520 A.D. and Ismail's camp
was seized and he himself barely escaped with his life. The
fort of Raichur was taken. Afterwards the Raya conducted a
raid into Bijapur and his troops occupied the city for sometime.
Then he marched on to Gulbarga and razed its fortress to the
ground. Here he liberated the sons of Mahmud Shah Bahmani
and made the eldest of them the Sultan. But this attempt
of the Raya to revive the Bahmani Sultanate only served to
irritate the five Deccan Sultans
Thus with all these series of victories, Krishnadevaraya
humbled the pride of his foes and extended the limits of his
empire. The Vijayanagara empire under him was in shape a
triangle with its appex at Cape Comorin comprising the whole
territory south of the river Krishna, Travancore and Malabar
besides other regions being subordinate states.
As regards Krishnadevaraya's relations with the Portuguese,
he tried to maintain friendly relations with them. But he never
lent support to their political designs. By the time Krishna
ascended the throne, they already established their supremacy
over the Indian Ocean. With their command of the sea, the
monopoly of the west-coast trade, especially in horses, passed
into their hands from the Arab merchants and Muslim traders
They used the supply of horses as a powerful weapon in their
diplomatic dealings with the native powers. The Raya was
also anxious to secure horses. Albuquerque, the Portuguese
governor, in 1510 A.D. offered help to Krishnadevaraya at the
start of his war with the Muslims and requested, in return,
the Raya's help against his enemy, the Zamorin of Calicut. He
further promised to supply the Arab and Persian horses to
Vijayanagara only, and not send them to Bijapur. The Raya
agreed to the Portuguese request only when it was made at
a second time and only after the Portuguese captured Goa
from Bijapur at the end of 1510 A.D. The Raya also agreed
to the Portuguese request to erect a fort at Bhatkal. In his
capture of Raichur in 1520 A.D. from the Bijapur Sultan, the
Raya received valuable assistance from the Portuguese musketeers.
In the engineering field also, he sought the services
of the Portuguese. It was during the reign of Krishnadevaraya,
there was large inflow of the Portuguese travellers,
merchants and adventurers, flocking to the city of Vijayanagara.
Nuniz says that Krishna made his six-year old son Tirumaiaraya
as the king (Yuvaraja) in 1524 A.D. At the end of the
coronation festivities, the son took ill and died under suspicious
conditions. Saluva Timmarasa and his sons were suspected
of poisoning the prince and were thrown into prison. Three
years later, a son of Timmarasa escaped from the prison and
raised the standard of revolt. He was captured with great
difficulty and the eyes of the rebel, his brother and their father
Timmarasa were put out. The Raya, then, nominated his halfbrother
Achyutaraya to be his successor.
In the meantime, in 1526 A.D. when Nagama Nayaka, a
trusted lieutenent of the Raya, who went to south to put down
the aggression of a vassal, occupied Madurai and became insubordinate
to the Raya, However, he was brought to his
senses by his own son Visvanatha Nayaka. Thereby Visvanatha
was appointed viceroy of the south.
During the last days of Krishnadevaraya, Ismail Adil Shah
of Bijapur again made a futile attempt to recover Raichur. The
Raya wanted to teach him a lesson. But while he was preparing
for an attack on Belgaum, he fell seriously ill and died in
1529 A.D.
'Pre-eminent as a warrior, Krishnadevaraya was equally
great as statesman.' His uniform success against all his
enemies was largely due to his capacity for his organisation
and skilful generalship. 'He showed amazing resourcefulness
in overcoming obstacles besetting his path.' His equanimity
of mind and extra-ordinary courage even in the face gravest
danger is praiseworthy. N. Venkataramanayya writes, "But
even more than his personal bravery, or his skilled management
of troops, what enabled him to overthrow hostile forces
was his devotion and attachment of his soldiers to his person.
Krishnadevaraya was accustomed, after the conclusion of
every battle, to go to the battlefield, looking for the wounded;
he would pick them up and make arrangements for their medical
help and other conveniences needed for their recoveryThose
that specially distinguished themselves in the fight were
placed directly under his supervision so that he might bestow
particular attention on them and help them regain their health
as quickly as possible. The care with which Krishnadevaraya
nourished the wounded soldiers and warriors did not go unrewarded.
It won him the affection of the rank and file of the
army. The soldiers as well as officers were prepared to throw
themselves into the jaws of death in executing his commands."
The Raya, as a practical politician and administrator,
brought in changes in Vijayanagara polity. His ideas are
contained in his own composition 'Amuktamalyada' in Telugu.
The work contains every aspect of royal duties, the mode of
appointing ministers, controlling the frontier tribes, conducting
an assembly, treatment of the vanquished ruler, administration
of justice and foreign policy. The Raya paid greater attention
to the civil administration of his empire. He checked
the mal-administration of the provincial governors and the inefficiency
and negligence of the other officials as well. He
redressed the grievances of ryots and punished the evil-doers.
He used to conduct tours of inspection in various parts of
his empire. He improved the facilities of communication.
Krishnadevaraya 'could set himself to investigate the rates
and taxes which proved oppressive, and abolished some of
them which were regarded as such'. He took keen interest
in constructing irrigation tanks and in digging canals to provide
water for agricultural operations. With the help of a Portuguese
engineer, he constructed in 1522 A.D. the great dam and channel
at Korragal and the Basavanna channel, both of which are still
in use. He dammed up the lake at the capital and used it for
the supply of water to the new township 'Nagalapura'.
With regard to his religious policy, though he was a staunch
Vaishnavite, he was devoted to Siva and patronised the Saivites,
Madhvas and Jains. Among the 'Diggajas' whom he patronised
in his court, three were Saivites and Peddana was an Advaitin.
Virupaksha was still regarded as the god of the city and the
empire. The Vittobha cult of the southern Maratha country
also gained some prominence in Vijayanagara, According to
Peddana, the Raya's favourite deity was Lord Venkatesvara of
Tirupati. He seems to have visited Tirupati as many as seven
times and endowed the shrine richly. His grand religious trip
to the shrines of the south, remittance of taxes, construction
of many Rayagopurams and thousand pillared halls at different
places highly speak of his religious devotion and patronage of
art.
The Raya was a munificent patron of arts and letters. As
a great patron of men of letters, he was known as the 'AndhraBhoja'.
His extension of patronage to the writers in all languages—Sanskrit
as well as the South Indian vernaculars—was
well known. He was himself a scholar both in Sanskrit and
Telugu. 'Jambavati Kalyanam' and 'Ushaparinayam', the two
Sanskrit dramas are the only extant works of the emperor in
Sanskrit. Laksnmidhara, Lakshminarayana and Nadendla Gopa
produced their works in Sanskrit. Vyasaraya, the preceptor
of the king, wrote his works on dvaita philosophy and logic
in Sanskrit. The Kannada poet Timmana completed the Kannada
Mahabharata of Kumara Vyasa. The Tamil poets Haridasa,
Kumara Saraswati and Jnanaprasa also flourished during this
period.
The Raya had his contribution much to the development
of Telugu literature. His own work 'Amuktamalyada' easily
ranks with the greatest of the Telugu Prabandhas. His court
'Bhuvanavijayam' was adorned with the eminent Telugu poets
called 'the Ashtadiggajas' (the elephants supporting the eight
cardinal points of the Telugu literary world). Allasani Peddana
was the poet-laureate. Apart from Peddana, Dhurjati, Mallana.
Surana, Timmana and others produced their outstanding works
in the Vijayanagara court.
Krishnadevara's constructions of new townships (Nagalapura
etc.), shrines (Krishnaswami, Hazararama and Vitthala
temples at Hampi), Rayagopurams and thousand pillared halls,
enormous statues of Ganapathi and Ugra-Narasimha and the
various structures in the Palace-complex stand as a testimony
to his keen interest in art, architecture, music, dance and other
cultural pursuits.
