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
The check was caused by a combination of small Hindu states -- two
of them already defeated, Warangal and Dvarasamudra -- defeated,
and therefore in all probability not over-confident; the third, the
tiny principality of Anegundi. The solid wall consisted of Anegundi
grown into the great empire of the Vijayanagar. To the kings of this
house all the nations of the south submitted.
If a straight line be drawn on the map of India from Bombay to Madras,
about half-way across will be found the River Tungabhadra, which,
itself a combination of two streams running northwards from Maisur,
flows in a wide circuit north and east to join the Krishna not far from
Kurnool. In the middle of its course the Tungabhadra cuts through a
wild rocky country lying about forty miles north-west of Bellary, and
north of the railway line which runs from that place to Dharwar. At
this point, on the north bank of the river, there existed about the
year 1330 a fortified town called Anegundi, the "Nagundym" of our
chronicles, which was the residence of a family of chiefs owning a
small state in the neighbourhood. They had, in former years, taken
advantage of the lofty hills of granite which cover that tract to
construct a strong citadel having its base on the stream. Fordable at
no point within many miles the river was full of running water at all
seasons of the year, and in flood times formed in its confined bed a
turbulent rushing torrent with dangerous falls in several places. Of
the Anegundi chiefs we know little, but they were probably feudatories
of the Hoysala Ballalas. Firishtah declares that they had existed as
a ruling family for seven hundred years prior to the year 1350 A.D.[7]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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