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Mallikarjuna (Vijayanagara)

Mallikarjuna, son of Deva Raya II, ruled Vijayanagara from 1446 to 1465. Soon after he came to the throne, the Bahmani sultan and the Gajapati king of Orissa besieged his capital together and were driven off. In his reign the Gajapati Kapilesvara took Rajahmundry, Kondavidu, the country round Vijayawada and Warangal, and raided far to the south. The Saluva chief Narasimha rose to power as his governor in the east. When Mallikarjuna died, his brother or cousin Virupaksha took the throne from his infant son.

Mallikarjuna was king of Vijayanagara from 1446 to 1465. He was a son of Deva Raya II.12 In his reign the Gajapati kings of Orissa took the Telugu coast from Rajahmundry to the Krishna and beyond.34 The same years saw the rise of the Saluva chief Narasimha, who would later take the throne.5 See Vijayanagara and Deva Raya II.

Coming to the throne

Sewell’s later work says that Mallikarjuna was Deva Raya II’s son by Queen Ponnala Devi.1 Before he became king he was wounded, as his father’s eldest son, in a war with the Bahmanis in 1443.1 Deva Raya II died on 24 May 1446, and Mallikarjuna came to the throne that day.1 Like his father he was called Gaja-vettai-kara, “he who witnessed the elephant hunt”.1 He was also known as Immadi Deva Raya.6

An inscription of 1446 in the South Arcot district tells of trouble at the start of his reign.1 The king’s officials had been forcing people to give them presents at the beginning of each reign.1 So the farmers left their homes, temple worship stopped and disease spread.1 When the people appealed to the king, he stopped these demands.1

The siege of the capital

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that the two northern powers used the change of ruler to attack.5 The Bahmani sultan and the Gajapati king of Orissa laid siege to Vijayanagar together.5 A Sanskrit drama of the time, the Gangadasapratapavilasam, tells of this joint attack.7 In Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s summary of it, the young king “sallied forth from his capital, like a lion from his den”, and routed the besiegers.7 He dated this to about 1450.5

After this, Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote, Mallikarjuna ruled for nearly ten years in peace.5 Nilakanta Sastri saw it differently. In his view Mallikarjuna was weak, and with his reign began a time of quarrels and decline.8

The Telugu coast lost

Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that the danger from Orissa stayed real.910 The Gajapati king Kapilesvara advanced along the Telugu coast towards the south.910 Nilakanta Sastri lists his gains:3

  • Rajahmundry and Kondavidu, before 1454
  • land up to Srisailam, with much of the Kurnool district
  • Warangal, taken by his son Hambar
  • Udayagiri in the Nellore country, and a raid as far as Kanchipuram and Trichinopoly in 14633

Sewell’s list of inscriptions agrees on several points.411 An inscription of 1455 in the Krishna district shows the Gajapati ruling the country round Vijayawada (then Bezwada) and Kondapalli.4 An inscription on a pillar at the fort gate of Warangal says that “the son of Kapilendra Gajapati” took the fort.11 Sewell thought the march to the far south was only a sudden raid, soon followed by a retreat.2

Nilakanta Sastri adds that the Velamas, when the Bahmanis took their capital Rachakonda, made a new home at Velugodu in the Kurnool district.3 About 1458–59, Sewell says, the Bahmani sultan Humayun attacked Telugu forts, among them Devarakonda. There he was defeated, because troops from Orissa helped the defenders.1112 See Kapilendra and the Gajapatis.

Saluva Narasimha

The rising man of the reign was Saluva Narasimha, whose family lands were round Chandragiri.5 Sewell’s list shows him ruling near Tirupati in 1455, and holding all power in a part of Mysore by 1462.413

In 1459, two inscriptions in Mysore show the king and Narasimha together at Penukonda.11 They were there “on the affairs of Narasimha’s territories”.11 Sewell thought the Gajapati’s successes had alarmed them.11 Krishnaswami Aiyangar thought the king had come east either to guard his own lands or to back Narasimha against Orissa.5

Death

On 29 April 1463 a festival was held for the naming of a son born to the king.13 Sewell’s later work says that Mallikarjuna died in 1465, when this son was only one year old.2 The king’s brother Virupaksha was crowned in November 1465.2 Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote in 1919 that Virupaksha took the throne by setting aside his two nephews.10 See Virupaksha.

Where the sources disagree

  • His accession. Sewell’s later work has him succeed on the day his father died, 24 May 1446.1 Nilakanta Sastri puts a short reign of a Vijaya Raya II in between, and has Mallikarjuna crowned before May 1447.8 Sewell (1900) wondered whether a Deva Raya III reigned between 1444 and 1449.14
  • Who drove off the siege. Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s summary of the Gangadasapratapavilasam gives the victory to Mallikarjuna.75 Sewell’s later work says the drama gives it to Saluva Narasimha, and that the claim needs support from other records.6
  • The end of his reign. Sewell’s later work and Nilakanta Sastri say he died in 1465.23 Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1928) wrote that he ruled till 1467 or 1468, and that he either died or was killed by his younger brother Virupaksha.515
  • His sons. Sewell (1900) gave him two sons, Rajasekhara and Virupaksha II.14 Sewell’s later work mentions one son, a year old when he died.2 Nilakanta Sastri names an infant son, Rajasekhara.3

Footnotes

  1. Robert Sewell, ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, 3rd ed. (1966), p. 272 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 222 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, “Hindu States in Southern India”, in Wolseley Haig (ed.), The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 493 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  6. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 221 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 65, extract 25, the Gangadasapratapavilasam (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 3rd ed. (1966), p. 271 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  9. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), introduction, p. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), introduction, p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 223 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  12. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 98 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 224 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  14. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 96 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, in Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (1928), p. 494 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Vijayanagara Empire

c. 1336–1646 CE

Harihara and Bukka founded this South Indian empire about 1336 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. 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 (5)
  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. 96–98. [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. 493–494. Chapter XVIII by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar. [Public domain]
  3. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1919, pp. 5–6, 65. [Public domain]
  4. 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. 220–225. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (third edition) (opens in a new tab), Oxford University Press, Madras, 1966, pp. 271–272. Third edition. Cited, not reproduced; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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