A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of IndiaSewell, Robert
History
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
Sewell, Robert
Vijayanagar (Empire) -- History
[22] -- If we add together the number of years of the reigns of
kings of Vijayanagar given by Nuniz prior to that of Krishna Deva
Raya ("Crisnarao"), we find that the total is 180 (Senhor Lopes,
Introduction, p. lxx.). The date of the beginning of the reign of
Krishna Deva Raya is known to be 1509 -- 10 A.D.; whence we obtain
1379 -- 80 A.D. as the foundation of the empire in the person of
"Dehorao" according to the chronicle. This is not quite accurate,
but it helps to prove that "1230" is a century too early.
[23] -- Batuta was a native of Tangiers, his name being Sheik Abu'
Abdullah Muhammad. He arrived at the Indus on the 1 Muharram A.H. 734
(September 12, 1333 A.D.), and he seems to have resided in India
till 1342.
[24] -- The narrative is given in the French translation of Ibn
Batuta's travels, by Defremery and Sanguinetti (vol. iii. pp. 318 --
320). See also Sir Henry Elliot's "History of India" (vol. iii. pp. 615
-- 616).
[25] -- Firishtah's account is somewhat different, and he gives the
date A.H. 739, or July 20, 1338, to July 9, 1339. But I consider the
narrative of Ibn Batuta to be far the most reliable, since he wrote
from personal experience, while Firishtah compiled his story two and
a half centuries later.
[26] -- This was Ghiyas-ud-din Bahadur Bura of Bengal, mentioned above.
[27] -- This tale is told of the rise of almost every kingdom,
principality, or large zamindari in Southern India, the usual variant
being the discovery of a hidden treasure.
[28] -- I think that there can be little doubt that this derivation,
though often given, is erroneous, and that the name was "City of
Victory," not "City of Learning," -- VIJAYA, not VIDYA. VYDIAJUNA
evidently represents VIDYARJUNA.
[29] -- Buchanan ("Mysore," &c., iii. 110), while on a visit to Beidur
in Mysore in 1801, was shown by one Ramappa Varmika a Sanskrit book in
his possession called the VIDYARAYANA SIKKA, which relates that the
founders of Vijayanagar were Hukka and Bukka, guards of the treasury
of Pratapa Rudra of Warangal. These young men came to the Guru,
or spiritual teacher, Vidyaranya, who was head of the monastery of
Sringeri, and the latter founded for them the city of Vijayanagar. This
was in 1336, and Hukka was made first king. But this story entirely
leaves out of account the most important point. How could two
brothers, flying from a captured capital and a conquered kingdom,
suddenly establish in a new country a great city and a sovereignty?
[30] -- DECADA VI. l. v. c. 4.
[31] -- "India in the Fifteenth Century," Hakluyt edit., p. 29.
[32] -- JOURNAL BOMBAY BR. R.A.S., xii. 338, 340.
[33] -- There is an undated inscription, published in Dr. Hultzsch's
"South Indian Inscriptions" (vol. i. p. 167), on a rock not far from
the summit of the lofty hill on which stands the virgin fortress of
Gutti or Gooty in the Anantapur District, according to which that
stronghold belonged to King Bukka. The place is seventy-eight miles
east of Vijayanagar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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