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Bukka I (Vijayanagara)

Second ruler of Vijayanagara, brother and successor of Harihara I, who turned the frontier kingdom into an empire. He fought the Bahmani sultans Muhammad Shah I and Mujahid for the Raichur doab. His son Kumara Kampana destroyed the sultanate of Madura, and his inscriptions boast of driving the Andhras into the hills towards Udayagiri. His minister built the tank of Bukkarayasamudram in the Anantapur country in 1364. Sewell dated his reign 1343–1379 in 1900 and 1355–1377 in 1932.

Bukka I, the third son of Sangama, followed his brother Harihara I as ruler of Vijayanagara. Sewell gave two sets of dates for his reign:123

  • in 1900, from 1343 to 1379, noting that Nuniz allows him thirty-seven years and that his inscriptions ran from about 1354 to 13711
  • in 1932, from 1355 to 1377, citing a record that Bukka died on or about 24 February 137723

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that “Bukka followed him a year later”, after the death of Muhammad Shah Bahmani in 1377.4 See Vijayanagara and Harihara I.

Names

Nuniz calls him “Bucarao”.56 Ferishta, writing two centuries later, calls the king who fought Muhammad Shah “Kishen Roy”, and Sewell corrected this to Bukka.56 The Burhan-i Ma’asir has “Kapazah”, which Sewell suggested was a miswriting of Bukka.56

Krishnaswami Aiyangar identified him with “Kapras”, one of three Hindu chiefs who faced the first Bahmani sultan along the frontier.7 The Telugu Kridabhiramamu calls him Pedda Bukka, “the elder Bukka”.8

Family

According to the Nellore plates of 1356, as Sewell reported them, Bukka was the third of the five sons of Sangama.9 Ganga Devi, the wife of his son Kampana, names Depayi as Bukka’s favourite queen in her Sanskrit poem.10 She says that Depayi bore him three sons: Kampana, Sangama and a younger Kampana.10

Bukka I was succeeded by Harihara II, his son by his queen Gauri.11 Sewell’s later pedigree gives Bukka two queens, Jomma and Gauri.2

How he came to rule

Sewell thought that the succession to Harihara was disputed.9 The Nellore plates of 1356 say that Kampa succeeded Harihara, and that Kampa’s son Sangama II followed him.9 But an inscription of 1354 already shows Bukka as king.9 “The only possible inference”, Sewell wrote, “is that the succession to Harihara was disputed, and that somehow Bukka got the upper hand.”9

Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that when the first Bahmani sultan died in 1358, “Bukka was the sole representative of the Hoysala wardens of the marches” (guardians of the frontier).4 A record of 1352, which he cited, already called him “Vira Bukka Rayalu ruling at Dhorasamudra and Penugonda”.7 It also called him an “elevator of the Hoysala empire”.7

The Telugu country

Bukka’s rule reached into the western and southern Telugu country. An undated inscription on the hill of Gooty in the Anantapur district says that the fortress belonged to “King Bukka”.1

The annals of Hande Anantapuram say that in 1364 his minister Chikkappa Odeyar built a dam across the river Pandu.12 The dam formed the tank of Bukkarayasamudram, named after the king, and Anantasagaram, named after his queen.12

The Kridabhiramamu was written by Vallabharaya, governor of Vinukonda under Deva Raya II.8 The poem says that his great-grandfather had been a minister of “Pedda Bukka”.8

Heras collected ten of Bukka’s inscriptions that boast of a war against the Telugus.1314 One of them says that “the Andhras ran into caves in the direction of Udayagiri … the Kalingas were defeated”.1314 Heras read them as recording a rebellion of the Telugu country.1314

Venkataramanayya noted that the only poet in a spoken language whom Bukka is known to have supported was a Telugu poet, Nachana Soma.15 See Udayagiri.

Wars with the Bahmanis and Warangal

Ferishta says that when Muhammad Shah Bahmani came to the throne, the king of Vijayanagar demanded the restoration of lands.1617 The king was “supported by his friend at Warangal”.1617 Ferishta adds that the two kings later sent a joint embassy to Firuz Shah Tughluq of Delhi, asking him to act against the Bahmanis.1617

The Raya’s troops sacked Mudkal in the Raichur doab.17181920 After this, in 1366, Muhammad Shah crossed the Krishna, defeated the Hindu army near Adoni and followed the Raya to his capital.17181920 Ferishta puts the Hindu dead at half a million.17181920

Muhammad’s son Mujahid demanded the land east of the Tungabhadra.621 In Sewell’s summary of Ferishta, Bukka answered that Raichur and Mudkal “had always belonged to the Anegundi family”.621 He “declared the Krishna river to be the true boundary”, and a new war followed in 1375–78.621 See the Bahmanis, Muhammad Shah I, Raichur and the Musunuri Nayakas.

The empire and the Vedas

Under Bukka the kingdom became an empire. Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that his son Kumara Kampana governed from Mulbagal.22 Kampana marched into the Tamil country with the Brahman general Gopana and Saluva Mangu, ancestor of the later Saluva kings.22 He drove out the Muslim garrisons, killed the sultan of Madura and restored the temple of Srirangam.22

According to the same scholar, Bukka asked the brothers Madhavacharya and Sayana to set down commentaries on the Vedas.23 This request showed “the exalted position” that Madhavacharya held at his court.23 See Srirangam.

Footnotes

  1. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 27 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Robert Sewell, ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 400 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 403, notes to the pedigrees (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, “Hindu States in Southern India”, in Wolseley Haig (ed.), The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 490 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 35 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 40 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  7. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, South India and her Muhammadan Invaders (1921), p. 181 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 56, extract 17, the Kridabhiramamu (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 28 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 23, extract 1, the Kamparayacharitam of Ganga Devi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 48 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 45, extract 7, the annals of Hande Anantapuram (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. H. Heras, Beginnings of Vijayanagara History (1929), p. 119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Heras, Beginnings of Vijayanagara History (1929), pp. 120–121 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. N. Venkataramanayya, Kampili and Vijayanagara (1929), p. 26, note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), pp. 30–31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), pp. 32–33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  18. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), pp. 33–35, quoting Ferishta (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  19. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), pp. 36–38, quoting Ferishta (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  20. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 39 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  21. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 25, chapter summary (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), introduction, p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), introduction, p. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Dynasties

Vijayanagara Empire

c. 1336–1646 CE

The South Indian empire founded about 1336 by the brothers Harihara and Bukka on the Tungabhadra. The Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva and Aravidu dynasties ruled it in turn. It held Rayalaseema and the Nellore country from the fourteenth century. It fought the Reddis, the Velamas, the Bahmanis and the Gajapatis of Orissa for the Telugu coast, and under Krishnadeva Raya it took Udayagiri, Kondavidu and Kondapalli and marched to Simhachalam. Its court made Telugu a language of high poetry. After the defeat of 1565 its kings ruled from Penukonda and Chandragiri, until Golconda took the last of the Telugu districts in the 1640s.

References

Sources (7)
  1. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India (opens in a new tab), Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1900, pp. 24–25, 27–41, 48. [Public domain]
  2. Wolseley Haig (ed.), The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans (opens in a new tab), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1928, pp. 489–490. Chapter XVIII by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar. [Public domain]
  3. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, South India and her Muhammadan Invaders (opens in a new tab), Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford), London, 1921, pp. 181. [Public domain]
  4. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1919, pp. 2–3, 23, 45, 56. [Public domain]
  5. Henry Heras, Beginnings of Vijayanagara History (opens in a new tab), Indian Historical Research Institute, Bombay, 1929, pp. 119–121. [Public domain]
  6. N. Venkataramanayya, Kampili and Vijayanagara (opens in a new tab), Christian Literature Society's Press, Madras, 1929, pp. 26. [Public domain]
  7. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 400, 403. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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