An Imperial Capital

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT History Class XII (Themes in Indian History Part II), Chapter 7.

How did a dead city survive as the name of a goddess?

In 1565 an army of three Sultanates sacked the great city of Vijayanagara, and within a few years it was deserted. In the following centuries it fell into ruin. Yet the people of the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab never forgot it. They remembered it as Hampi, a name that comes from Pampadevi, the local mother goddess. Oral memory, archaeological finds, monuments and inscriptions together let scholars bring the empire back to life.

"Vijayanagara" means "city of victory", and the name belongs to both a city and an empire. The empire was founded in the fourteenth century and at its height stretched from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the peninsula. This chapter (c. fourteenth to sixteenth century) asks: who ruled it, how, and what do its buildings tell us about the rulers?

Rediscovering Hampi

The ruins came to notice in 1800 through Colonel Colin Mackenzie, an engineer and antiquarian employed by the English East India Company. He made the first survey map of the site. Much of his early information came from the memories of the priests of the Virupaksha temple and the shrine of Pampadevi. From 1836 epigraphists began collecting dozens of inscriptions from temples at Hampi, and from 1856 photographers recorded the monuments. Historians then combined these with the accounts of foreign travellers and with literature in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Sanskrit.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: Mackenzie made the first survey map of Hampi in 1800, relying on the memory of temple priests. In reality: Mackenzie (born 1754, first Surveyor General of India from 1815 until his death in 1821) collected local histories and surveyed old sites to understand India's past and make governing the colony easier. He believed studying Vijayanagara could give the Company useful information on institutions, laws and customs. So the first record of Hampi was shaped by colonial interests, and historians weigh it accordingly.

Who ruled: rayas, nayakas and Sultans

According to tradition and inscriptions, two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, founded the empire in 1336. It included peoples who spoke different languages and followed different religions. Contemporaries called it the karnataka samrajyamu. To the north, its kings competed with the Sultans of the Deccan and the Gajapati rulers of Orissa for fertile river valleys and the wealth of overseas trade. These rival states also shared ideas, especially in architecture, and Vijayanagara's rulers borrowed building concepts and developed them.

The empire built on the temple traditions of earlier powers in the area, such as the Cholas in Tamil Nadu and the Hoysalas in Karnataka, who patronised temples like the Brihadishvara at Thanjavur and the Chennakeshava at Belur.

Trade and horses

Warfare depended on cavalry, so importing horses from Arabia and Central Asia was vital to rival kingdoms. At first Arab traders controlled this trade, and local merchants called kudirai chettis (horse merchants) took part. From 1498 the Portuguese appeared on the west coast and tried to set up trading and military stations. Their muskets and superior military technology made them important players. Vijayanagara was also known for markets in spices, textiles and precious stones. Trade was a status symbol, and its revenue added to the state's wealth.

The dynasties and their rulers

Krishnadeva Raya (ruled 1509 to 29) is the most famous ruler. His reign was one of expansion and consolidation, but also of peace and prosperity.

He is credited with fine temples and with adding impressive gopurams to many south Indian temples. He founded a suburban township near Vijayanagara called Nagalapuram after his mother. He wrote the Amuktamalyada in Telugu, a work on statecraft that advises kings to improve harbours, encourage imports of horses, elephants, gems and other goods, and win over foreign merchants with audiences, presents and fair profits so their goods never reach enemies. Some of the most detailed descriptions of Vijayanagara come from his time or soon after.

The decline. After his death in 1529 his successors faced rebellious nayakas. By 1542 control at the centre had shifted to the Aravidu lineage. The shifting alliances of the Deccan Sultanates and Vijayanagara eventually led to an alliance of the Sultanates against Vijayanagara. In 1565, Rama Raya, the chief minister, led the army to battle at Rakshasi-Tangadi (also called Talikota), where his forces were routed by the combined armies of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda. The victors sacked the city, which was abandoned within a few years. The focus of the empire then moved east, where the Aravidu dynasty ruled from Penukonda and later Chandragiri.

Two views. For the exam: the Sultanates destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565. Another reading: relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile despite religious differences. Krishnadeva Raya backed some claimants to power in the Sultanates and took pride in the title "establisher of the Yavana kingdom", and the Sultan of Bijapur helped resolve succession disputes in Vijayanagara after his death. Each side wanted the other stable. It was Rama Raya's adventurous attempt to play one Sultan against another that made them combine and defeat him.

Pause and predict: which move by Rama Raya turned the Sultanates, who often fought each other, into a single enemy?

Check your answer: his policy of playing one Sultan against another. Instead of weakening them, it pushed Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda to unite, and their combined armies routed him at Talikota in 1565.

The amara-nayaka system

The nayakas often moved from place to place, sometimes with peasants seeking fertile land. Many accepted the authority of the Vijayanagara kings but often rebelled and had to be subdued by force. The amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the empire. It is likely that many of its features came from the iqta system of the Delhi Sultanate.

The contingents gave the Vijayanagara kings an effective fighting force with which they brought the entire southern peninsula under their control. The word amara may come from the Sanskrit samara, battle, and resembles the Persian amir, a high noble.

Cause and effect in one line: need for cavalry and control of a large territory → amara-nayaka grants → strong army and temple/irrigation funds → nayakas build their own power → independent nayaka kingdoms → weaker centre.

The city and its water

The most striking feature of the site is the natural basin formed by the Tungabhadra, which flows north-east, ringed by granite hills. Streams run down from the rocky heights to the river. Since this is one of the most arid zones of the peninsula, elaborate arrangements were needed to store rainwater and bring it to the city. Embankments built along almost every stream created reservoirs of different sizes.

Walls, fields and roads

Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia to Calicut in the fifteenth century, was struck by the fortifications and mentioned seven lines of forts. These encircled the city and also its agricultural hinterland and forests. The outermost wall linked the hills around the city. It was massive masonry, slightly tapered, with no mortar or cementing agent anywhere, held together by wedge-shaped stone blocks, with the inner part of earth packed with rubble. Square or rectangular bastions projected outwards.

The significant point is that the fortification enclosed agricultural tracts. Abdur Razzaq noted cultivated fields, gardens and houses between the first, second and third walls, and Paes saw rice fields and gardens watered from two lakes. Present-day archaeologists have confirmed this and found an agricultural tract between the sacred centre and the urban core, served by a canal system from the Tungabhadra.

Pause and predict: most cities stored grain in granaries inside their walls. Why did Vijayanagara's rulers go to the greater expense of enclosing farmland?

Check your answer: medieval sieges aimed to starve defenders into surrender and could last months or years. With fields inside the walls, the city could keep growing food during a siege, which was a more expensive but stronger form of protection than granaries.

A second line of fortification went round the inner core of the urban complex, and a third round the royal centre, where each set of major buildings had its own high walls. Gates were well guarded and linked the city to the main roads. The arch over the gateway and the dome above it are typical of the architecture introduced by the Turkish Sultans, which art historians call Indo-Islamic because it grew through interaction with local building practices. Roads wound through valleys avoiding rocky terrain, and the most important ones ran from temple gateways and were lined with bazaars.

The three zones of the city

The urban core. There is little archaeological evidence of ordinary people's houses. Fine Chinese porcelain was found in the north-eastern corner of the urban core, which may have been the home of rich traders and was also the Muslim residential quarter. Tombs and mosques there have distinct functions, yet their architecture resembles the mandapas of Hampi's temples. Barbosa, a Portuguese traveller, described the people's houses as thatched but well built, arranged by occupations in long streets with many open places. Surveys also found numerous small shrines and temples, pointing to a variety of cults perhaps supported by different communities, and wells, rainwater tanks and temple tanks served ordinary residents.

The royal centre. Although it was called "royal", it had over 60 temples, which shows rulers sought to legitimise their authority by association with the gods. About thirty building complexes are identified as palaces, large structures with no ritual functions. Unlike temples, built wholly of masonry, their superstructures were made of perishable materials.

Mahanavami. The platform's rituals probably went with Mahanavami (the great ninth day) of the ten-day autumn festival, called Dusehra in north India, Durga Puja in Bengal and Navaratri or Mahanavami in peninsular India. Rulers displayed their prestige, power and suzerainty. Ceremonies included worship of the image, worship of the state horse, and sacrifice of buffaloes and other animals. There were dances, wrestling, and processions of horses, elephants, chariots and soldiers, and the chief nayakas and subordinate kings made ritual presentations. On the last day the king inspected his army and the nayakas' armies in an open field, where the nayakas brought gifts and the stipulated tribute.

Two views. For the exam: the mahanavami dibba is linked with the Mahanavami ceremonies. Another reading: scholars point out that the space around the platform does not seem big enough for processions of armed men, women and large numbers of animals, so it remains an enigma. Similarly the "audience hall", the "king's palace" and the "Lotus Mahal" carry names given by later observers, and what the buildings were used for is still debated.

The arches of the Lotus Mahal were probably inspired by Indo-Islamic techniques, and the nayakas continued the palace-building tradition after the sack. Many of their buildings survive, such as the audience hall at Madurai.

The sacred centre and the role of temples

According to local tradition, the rocky hills sheltered the monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva of the Ramayana. Another tradition says Pampadevi did penance there to marry Virupaksha, the kingdom's guardian deity, recognised as a form of Shiva. This marriage is still celebrated yearly in the Virupaksha temple. Pre-Vijayanagara Jaina temples are also there, so the area carried many sacred traditions.

Temple building had a long history in the region, from the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Cholas. Rulers encouraged it to link themselves with the divine, and the deity was often identified, explicitly or implicitly, with the king. Temples were also centres of learning, and rulers and others granted them land and resources, so temples became religious, social, cultural and economic centres. For rulers, building, repairing and maintaining temples won support and recognition of their power, wealth and piety.

It is likely that the site of the capital was chosen because of the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi. The kings claimed to rule on behalf of Virupaksha, and all royal orders were signed "Shri Virupaksha", usually in Kannada script. They used the title "Hindu Suratrana", a Sanskritisation of the Arabic sultan, literally "Hindu Sultan". The rulers also developed earlier traditions: royal portrait sculpture was displayed in temples, and the king's visits to temples were important state occasions, with the chief nayakas accompanying him.

Pause and predict: why would a Hindu king take a title that translates as "Hindu Sultan"?

Check your answer: Sultan was the familiar word for a ruler in the Deccan and north India, so Vijayanagara's kings expressed their kingship in terms their neighbours and subjects understood, while the word "Hindu" tied that power to their close links with the gods.

Raya gopurams and mandapas. New features of temple architecture included structures of immense scale. The raya gopurams, or royal gateways, often dwarfed the towers on the central shrines and could be seen from a great distance, as reminders of the power of kings who could command the resources, techniques and skills to build them. Other features were mandapas (pavilions) and long pillared corridors around the shrines.

Halls in the temples served different purposes: some for special images of gods to watch music, dance and drama, others to celebrate divine marriages (a kalyana mandapa), and others for the deities to swing in. A characteristic feature of the temple complexes was the chariot street, a straight street from the gopuram paved with stone slabs and lined with pillared pavilions where merchants set up shops. The nayakas elaborated on these traditions, and some of the most spectacular gopurams, such as one at Madurai, were built by local nayakas.

Travellers and the picture of everyday life

A number of travellers described the city. In the fifteenth century they included Nicolo de Conti, an Italian trader, Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador from Persia, and Afanasii Nikitin, a merchant from Russia. In the sixteenth century they included Duarte Barbosa, Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz from Portugal. Paes thought the city looked as large as Rome, and described groves, many conduits of water, lakes and a palm grove near the king's palace. He called the city "the best-provided city in the world", with markets full of rice, wheat, grains and pulses. Nuniz described markets overflowing with fruit, and meat sold in abundance. Paes's description of the main street lists rubies, diamonds, emeralds, pearls and cloth, and an evening fair for horses and produce. Paes described Krishnadeva Raya as of medium height, fair complexion and good figure, with signs of smallpox on his face.

Mapping the site: how we know

After Mackenzie's initial surveys, information came from travellers' accounts and inscriptions. In the twentieth century the Archaeological Survey of India and the Karnataka Department of Archaeology and Museums preserved the site. In 1976 Hampi was recognised as a site of national importance, and in the early 1980s a project began to document the remains in detail through intensive surveys. Over nearly twenty years dozens of scholars from around the world took part. The area was divided into 25 squares, each given a letter of the alphabet, then subdivided into smaller squares and again into smaller units. They recovered traces of thousands of structures, from tiny shrines and houses to elaborate temples, and also roads, paths and bazaars (known from pillar bases and platforms). The scholars noted that we have to imagine a whole series of vanished wooden elements, perhaps brightly painted. Wooden structures are lost and only stone survives, so travellers' descriptions fill the gaps.

What buildings cannot tell us. Structures show how space was organised, what materials and techniques were used, and what builders or patrons wished to project. But they do not tell us what ordinary people thought of these buildings, whether they could enter the royal or sacred centres, who drew the plans, where the masons and sculptors came from, or what they were paid. These questions need other sources.

Timeline: Vijayanagara and its world

Key terms

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Bhakti-Sufi Traditions explains the Nayanar and Alvar devotion that Chola, Hoysala and Vijayanagara rulers honoured with temples, and Through the Eyes of Travellers mentions Abdur Razzaq's fifteenth century visit.
• Next: Peasants, Zamindars and the State turns to the Mughal countryside, a contemporary of Vijayanagara's last century.
• Earlier link: Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings introduced the early temple, with its garbhagriha and shikhara, from which these great complexes grew.