THEME-7 AN IMPERIAL CAPITAL VIJAYANAGARA (LESSON NOTES)

 AN IMPERIAL CAPITALVIJAYANAGARA(C.FOURTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY)(LESSON NOTES)

v INTRODUCTION

Ø Vijayanagara or “city of victory” was the name for both, a city and an Empire.

Ø The Empire was founded in the 14th century by Harihara and Bukka in 1336.

Ø The Empire spread from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the peninsula.

Ø In 1556 the city was sacked by the Talikota war. Althogh the city fell into ruin in 17-18^th century but it lived in the memories of people living in the Krishana-Tungabhadra doab.

Ø In this lesson we discussed about rulers, the architecture features , administration system and about the local traditions of this empirewhich find out by the archaeologists.

HAMPI, A HERITAGE SITE

v HAMPI

Ø Hampi is another name for Vijayanagara Empire. The name Hampi is derived from the local mother goddess, Pampadevi.

Ø The local people remember Vijayanagara Empire as Hampi.

Ø The remains of Vijayanagara Empire have been found at the modern Hampi in Karnataka.

Ø Historian used the term Vijayanagara Empire but the contemporaries described it as Karnataka Samrajyamu.

v Sources

Ø Oral traditions

Ø Inscriptions,

Ø Monuments

Ø Other records

v ROLE OF COLIN MACKENZIE IN THE DISCOVERY OF HAMPI

Ø The ruins at Hampi were brought to light in 1800 by an engineer and antiquarian named Colonel Colin Mackenzie.

Ø He was born in 1754 and became an engineer, surveyor and cartographer.

Ø In 1815, he was appointed as the first Surveyor General of India and remained in the post till his death in 1821.

Ø In order to understand India’s past to make governance of the colony easier he surveyed many historic sites.

Ø He thought that regional customs and traditions will benefit the English East India Company in its administration.

Ø As an employee of the English East India Company, he prepared the first survey map of the site.

Ø He conducted his studies first based on the memories of priests of the Virupaksha temple and the shrine of Pampadevi.

Ø Subsequently, from 1856, photographs began to record the monuments which enabled scholars to study them.

Ø As early as 1836,epigraphists began collecting several dozen inscriptions found at this and other temples at Hampi.The information thus collected was corroborated with the accounts of foreign travellers and other literary works

v RULERS OF VIJAYNAGARA EMPIRE

Ø According to tradition and epigraphic evidence, two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336.

Ø Guru Vidyaranya inspired them to establish the empire.

Ø The empire included different people who spoke different languages and followed different religious traditions.

Ø The first dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire was the Sangama dynasty founded by Harihara and Bukka.They ruled the empire till 1485.

Ø They were replaced by the Saluvas, the military commanders who remained in power till 1503.

Ø The saluva dynasty was replaced by the Tuluva dynasty.Krishnadeva Raya who was very powerful ruler of this empire belonged to the Tuluva dynasty.

Ø After 1565 Aravidu dynasty replaced the Tuluva dynasty.

v CONTEMPRORY RULRES

Ø On the northern frontier, the Vijayanagara kings (Narapati) competed with contemporary rulers such as the Sultans of the Deccan (Asvapati) and the Gajapati rulers of Orissa for control of the fertile river valleys and the resources that were brought by overseas trade.

Ø Many parts of this empire also see the development of powerful kingdoms in south  as Cholas of Tamilnadu and Hoysalas of Karanataka.

Ø The rules of Vijayanagar interect with their contemperory rulers and borrowed the concept and building technique and develop further.

Ø They build many temples and buildings according to the traditions of Brihadishvara temples of Thanjavur and Chennakeshava temple of Belur under Chola rulres.

v KINGS AND TRADERS

Ø The kings of Vijayanagara called themselves as Raya.

Ø Cavalry was very important part of warfare during this period.

Ø They import the horses from Arabia and central Asia. This trade was initially controlled by Arab merchants.

Ø Local merchants who were involved in the horse trade were known as kudirai chettis or horse merchants.

Ø From 1498 other actors such as Portuguese arrived on the scene. They attempted to establish trading and military stations to west coast.

v MARKETS IN THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

Ø Markets in the Vijayanagara Empire were known for its spices, textiles and other precious stones.

Ø Trade was a status symbol for cities in the empire and boasted of a wealthy population that was in need of high value exotic goods such as precious stones and jewellery.

Ø The revenue that came from the trade was used for the prosperity of the state.

v VIJAYANAGARA UNDER THE RULE OF KRISHNADEVA RAYA

Ø Krishnadeva Raya’s rule was characterized by full expansion and consolidation of Vijayanagara Empire. He become the ruler in 1509 belongs to Tuluva dynasty.

Ø He brought the land between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers called the Raichur doab under his control in the year 1512.

Ø He defeated Pratap Rudra of Gajapati dynasty, the ruler of Orissa in 1514 and the sultan of Bijapur in 1520.

Ø His rule is credited with building of fine temples and attractive gopurams to many important south Indian temples.

Ø For example, the gopuram of the Brihaddishwara temple at Tanjavur.

Ø He also founded the suburban township near Vijayanagara called Nagalapuram named after his mother.

Ø He was also wrote a book Amuktamalyada in Telugu.

v CONDITION OF VIJAYANAGARA AFTER KRISHNADEVA RAYA

Ø After the death of Krishnadeva Raya in 1529, his successors faced problems created by rebellious nayakas or military chiefs.

Ø By 1542 the control of the empire came under another ruling lineage, the Aravidu, which continued till the end of the 17th century.

v THE BATTLE AT RAKSHAI-TANGADI OR TALIKOTA

Ø The military ambitions of the rulers of Vijayanagara and the Deccan sultans resulted in shifting alignments.

Ø Eventually it resulted in an alliance of the sultanates against Vijayanagara.

Ø In 1565, the battle of Talikota started and the army was led by Rama Raya, the chief minister of Vijayanagara.

Ø The army of Vijayanagara defeated by the combined armies of Bijapur, Ahamad nagar and Golkonda.

Ø The victorious armies sacked the city of Vijayanagara. The city was abandoned within a few years.

Ø After the defeat the Aravidu dynasty shifted its focus to the east and ruled from Penukona later from Chandragiri near Tirupati.

v REASON OF DECLINE OF VIJAYNAGARA EMPIRE

Ø The armies of the Sultans were responsible for the destruction of the city of Vijayanagara Vijayanagar in the battle of Talikota in 1565.

Ø However, the relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile, in spite of religious differences.

Ø Krishnadeva Raya, for example, supported some claimants to power in the Sultanates and took pride in the title “establisher of the Yavana kingdom”.

Ø Similarly, the Sultan of Bijapur intervened to resolve succession disputes in Vijayanagara following the death of Krishnadeva Raya.

Ø In fact the Vijayanagara kings were keen to ensure the stability of the Sultanates and vice versa.

Ø It was the adventurous policy of Rama Raya who tried to play off one Sultan

against another that led the Sultans to combine together and decisively defeat him.

v THE NAYAKAS IN THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

Ø In the Vijayanagara Empire, the nayakas were military chiefs who exercised power and controlled forts and had armed supporters.

Ø These chiefs often moved from one place to another and many a times were accompanied by peasants looking for fertile land in order to settle.

Ø The nayakas spoke Telugu or Kannada. Many nayakas were under the control of the kings of Vijayanagara but often rebelled and faced military action by the kings.

v THE AMARA-NAYAKA SYSTEM

Ø The amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Ø This system was derived from the Iqta system of Delhi Sultanate.

Ø The amara-nayakas were military commanders. They were given territories to govern by the raya.

Ø Their duty was to collect taxes and other dues from peasants, craftsmen and traders in the area.

Ø They kept part of the revenue for personal use and for maintaining a stipulated contingent of horses and elephants.

Ø Some of the revenue was also used for the maintenance of temples and irrigation works.

Ø They sent tribute to the king annually and personally appeared in the royal court with gifts to express their loyalty.

Ø Kings asserted their control over them by transferring them from one place to another.

Ø In course of time, they established independent kingdoms. This was one of the causes of weakening and declining of the Vijayanagara Empire.

v PHYSICAL LAYOUT OF VIJAYANAGAR EMPIRE

v WATER RESOURCES

Ø Vijayanagara was located in the natural basin formed by the river Tungabhadra which flows in the north-easterly direction.

Ø Large granite hills formed a girdle around the city.  A number of streams flowed from these rocky outcrops to the river.

Ø Since Vijayanagara was one of the most arid zones of the peninsula, elaborate arrangements were made to store rainwater to be used in the city.

§  Embankments were built along these streams to create reservoirs of different sizes.

§  Kamalapuram tank is the most important tank built in the early years of the 15th century. Water from this tank was used not only to irrigate the fields but also to channel water into the royal centre.

§  The Hiriya canal was one of the most prominent waterworks. This canal drew water form a dam built across the Tungabhadra and irrigated the cultivated fields that separated the “sacred centre” from the “urban core”. This canal was built by kings of the sangama dynasty.

v FEATURES OF FORTIFICATION

Ø The accounts of Abdul Razzaq provide details about the walls of the Vijayanagara Empire. Abdul Razzak was an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia to Calicut in the 15th century.

Ø He was greatly impressed by the fortifications and mentioned seven lines of the forts.

Ø He says that the forts were encircled not only the city but also its agricultural hinterland and forests.

Ø The outermost wall linked the hills surrounding the city. The masonry construction was slightly tapered.

Ø No mortar or cementing agent was employed anywhere in the construction. The stone blocks were wedge shaped, which held them in place.

Ø The inner portion of the walls was of earth packed with rubble. Square or rectangular bastions projected outer wards.

Ø The most important feature of the Vijayanagara fortification was its incorporation of the agricultural tracts, because the rulers were well prepared to face the sieges and its consequences.

Ø Abdur Razzaq noted that “between the first, second and the third walls there are cultivated fields, gardens and houses”

v WHY THE AGRICULTURAL LANDS WERE INCORPORATED WITHIN THE FORTIFIED AREA?

Ø During the medieval period, the major objective of the sieges was to starve the defenders into submission.

Ø These sieges could continue for months and sometimes even years. Rulers were ready to face it with proper arrangements by buildings large granaries within fortified areas.

Ø The rulers of Vijayanagara adopted a more expensive and elaborate method of protecting the agricultural belt itself by incorporating agricultural tracts in the fort.

Ø A second line of fortification went around the inner core of the urban complex.

Ø A third line surrounded the royal centre, within which each set of major buildings was surrounded by its own high walls.

Ø The fort was entered through well-guarded gates leading to the major roads.

Ø Gateways were with defined architectural features. The arch on the gateway leading into the fortified settlement as well as the dome over the gate is regarded as typical features of the architecture introduced by the Turkish Sultans.

v THE URBAN AREA-

Ø Archaeologists have studied that along the roads there were very less houses of ordinary people founded.

Ø Archaeologists have found fine Chinese porcelain in some areas of the urban core. They suggested that these areas may have been occupied by rich traders.

Ø Tombs and mosques located here have distinctive functions. Their architecture were like of Hampi Mandapa.

Ø 16th century Portuguese traveler Barbosa described that ordinary people of the Vijayanagara Empire lived in ordinary houses.They lived in thatched house.

Ø Field surveys indicate that wells, rainwater tanks and temple tanks of the various small shrines scattered throughout the urban core, might have served as sources of water for the ordinary dwellers.

v THE ROYAL CENTRE OF THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

Ø The royal centre was located in the south-western part of the settlement. It included 60 temples.

Ø The patronage of temples was important for rulers, because they were trying to establish their authority through association with the divinities housed in the shrines.

Ø About thirty buildings have been identified as palaces.

Ø The difference between temples and secular buildings was that temples were constructed entirely of masonry way whereas materials used in the secular buildings were perishable.

v THE “KING’S PALACE

Ø In the royal center the name of buildings were assigned by their functions or their structure. The “king’s palace” is the largest building in the royal center but it was not used as royal residence. It has two platforms:

v THE “AUDIENCE HALL

Ø The audience hall is a high platform with slots for wooden pillars at close and regular intervals.

Ø It had a staircase going up to the second floor, which rested on these pillars.

Ø The pillars being closely spaced and thus it is not clear what the hall was used for.

v THE MAHANAMI DIBBA-

Ø It is located on the highest points in the city.

Ø The “mahanavami dibba” is a massive platform rising from a base of about 11,000 sq. ft to a height of 40 ft.

Ø There is evidence that it supported a wooden structure. The base of the platform is covered with relief carvings

Ø Rituals associated with the structure probably coincided with Mahanavami (literally, the great ninthday) of the ten-day Hindu festival during the autumn

months of September and October.

Ø It is  known by various names like  Dusehra (northern India), Durga Puja (in Bengal) and Navaratri or Mahanavami (in peninsular India).

Ø Rituals During Mahanami Festivals

§  The Vijayanagara kings displayed their prestige, power and suzerainty on this occasion.

§  The ceremonies performed on the occasion included worship of the image, worship of the state horse, and the sacrifice of buffaloes and other animals. Dances, wrestling matches, and processions of caparisoned horses, elephants and chariots and soldiers, as well as ritual presentations before the king and his guests by the chief nayakas and subordinate kings marked the occasion. These ceremonies were imbued with deep symbolic meanings.

§  On the last day of the festival the king inspected his army and the armiesof the nayakas in a grand ceremony in an open field.

§  On this occasion the nayakas brought rich gifts for the king as well as the stipulated tribute.

Ø Though scholars have pointed out that the space surrounding the structure does not seem to have been adequate for elaborate processions of armed men, women, and large numbers of animals. Like some of the other structures in the royal centre, it remains an enigma.

v OTHER BUILDINGS IN THE ROYAL CENTRE

Ø In the royal center there were many other buildings as-

Ø LOTUS MAHAL

§  This name was given by British travelers in 19 th century.

§  Historian did not agree on the uses of this building.

§  According to Mackenzie it may have been used as a council chamber, a place where the king met his advisers. 

LOTUS MAHAL

Ø HZARA RAMA TEMPLE

§  Though most of the temple are found in the sacred center but some were found in the royal center.

§  On of the most spectacular of these is one known as Hazara Rama Temple.

§  This was probably meant to be used only by the king and his family.

§  The images in the central shrine did not found by the archeologists.

§  In the inner wall of the temple there were many scene taken from the Ramayana found in the shrine.

v THE SACRED CENTRE

Ø The hilly northern end of the city on the bank of Tungabhdra river was known as sacred center.It has many temple, madapas and gopuram. There were many local traditions associated with this area.

Ø Local tradition

§  According to local tradition, these hills sheltered the monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva mentioned in the Ramayana.

·        Other traditions suggest that Pampadevi, the local mother goddess, did penance in these hills in order to marry Virupaksha, the guardian deity of the kingdom, also recognised as a form of Shiva.  To this day this marriage is celebrated annually in the Virupaksha temple.

·        In these hills there are many Jaina temples of the pre-Vijayanagara period as well also found.

Ø SIGNIFICANCE OF TEMPLES-

·        ]Temple building in the region had a long history, going back to dynasties such as the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Cholas.

·        Rulers very often encouraged temple building as a means of associating themselves with the divine – often, the deity was explicitly or implicitly identified with the king.

·        Temples also functioned as centres of learning. Besides, rulers and others often granted land and other resources for the maintenance of temples.

·        Consequently, temples developed as significant religious, social, cultural and economic centres.

·        From the point of view of the rulers, constructing, repairing and maintaining temples were important means of winning support and recognition for their power, wealth and piety.

·        It is likely that the very choice of the site of Vijayanagara was inspired by the existence of the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi.

Ø CLAIM OF VIJAYNAGRA RULERS

·        In fact the Vijayanagara kings claimed to rule on behalf of the god Virupaksha.

·        All royal orders were signed “Shri Virupaksha”, usually in the Kannada script.

·        Rulers also indicated their close links with the gods by using the title “Hindu Suratrana”.

·        This was a Sanskritisation of the Arabic term Sultan, meaning king, so it literally meant Hindu Sultan.

·         Even as they drew on earlier traditions, the ruler of Vijayanagara innovated and developed these.

·        Royal portrait sculpture was now displayed in temples, and the king’s visits to temples were treated as important state occasions on which he was accompanied by the important nayakas of the empire.

v FEATURES  OF TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

Ø During this period, certain new features were evident in the temple architecture.

Ø These included structures of enormous size that must have been built to mark the imperial authority.

Ø  One of the best examples is rayas gopurams or royal gateways that often dwarfed the towers on the central shrines.

Ø These gopurams signaled the presence of the temple from a great distance. These towering gateways also reminded about the power of the king who could command the resources techniques and skills that was required to construct them.

Ø Another distinctive feature of the temple architecture was mandapas or pavilion and long, pillared corridors that often ran around the shrines within the temple complex.

Ø Famous temples- Virupaksha temple  

·        Virupaksha temple  is one of the most important of vijayanagara. The Virupaksha temple was built over centuries.

·        Inscriptions suggest that this shrine date to the ninth-tenth centuries.

·         On the occasion of his coronation, Krishnadeva Raya built the elaborate hall in front of the main shrine.

·         The hall was adorned with delicately carved pillars. Eastern gopuram was also built by him. 

Ø Famous temples- Vitthala temple  

·        In Vitthala temple the principal diety was Vitthala, a form of Vishnu, generally worship in Maharrashtra.

·        This shows that that Vijayanagara rulers focus on different traditions to create an  imperial culture.

VITHALA TEMPLE

·        This temple also have several halls and unique shrinedesigned as a chariot.

·        It has a chariot streets that extended from the temple gopuram in a straight line.

·        These streets were paved with stone slabs and lined with pillared pavilions in which merchants set up their shops.

v IMPORTANCE OF HALLS IN THE TEMPLE

Ø The halls in the temples were used for a variety of purposes.

Ø In some spaces, images of gods were placed to witness special programmes of music, dance, drama, etc.

Ø Others were used to celebrate the marriages of the deities, and yet, others were meant for the deities to swing in.

Ø On such occasions, small images other than those kept in the central shrine were used.

v METHODS TO STUDY THE RUINS OF HAMPI

Ø We have been examining a wealth of information on Vijayanagara – photographs, plans, elevations of structures and sculpture. This was done by different steps .

Ø Colonel Colin Mackenzien  was appointmted as first survey general of India in 1815. He prepared the first survey of this site.

Ø In 1836,epigraphists began collecting several dozen inscriptions found at this and other temples at Hampi.The information thus collected was corroborated with the accounts of foreign travellers and other literary works

Ø After the initial surveys by Mackenzie, information was pieced together from travellers’ accounts and inscriptions.

Ø Alexander Greenlaw take the first detailed photograps of archaeological remains at Hampi.

Ø J. F Fleet begin documenting the inscriptions on the temple walls o f site.

Ø In 1902 the conservation begins under John Marshall.

Ø Through the twentieth century, the site was preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India and the Karnataka Department of Archaeology and Museums.

Ø In 1976, Hampi was recognized as a site of national importance. Then,

Ø in the early 1980s, an important project was launched to document the material remains at Vijayanagara in detail, through extensive and intensive surveys, using a variety of recording techniques.

Ø Over nearly twenty years, dozens of scholars from all over the world worked to compile and preserve this information.

Ø In 1986 Hampi declared a world Heritage site by UNESCO.

v MAPPING OF THE SITE AT HAMPI

Ø Let us look at just one part of this enormous exercise – mapping – in  more detail.

Ø The first step was to divide the entire area into a set of 25 squares,

Ø Each squares was designated by a letter of the alphabet.

Ø After that , each of the small squares was subdivided into a set of even smaller squares.

Ø But this was not all: each of these smaller squares was further subdivided into yet smaller units.

Ø  These detailed surveys have been extremely painstaking, and have recovered an documented traces of thousands of structures – from tiny shrines and residences to elaborate temples. They have also led to the recovery of traces of roads, paths, bazaars, etc.

v TRAVELLERS WHO VISITED VIJAYANAGRA

SR NO	NAME OF TRAVELLER	COUNTERY	YEAR	REMARK
1	Nicolo de Conti	Italy	15th century	Trader
2	Abdur Razzaq	Persia		An Ambassador
3	Afanasii Nikitin	Russia		Merchant
4.	Durate Barbosa	Portugal	16 th century
5	Domingo Paes	Portugal
6	Fernao Nuniz	Portugal

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