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Virupaksha (Vijayanagara)

Virupaksha was the last king of Vijayanagara's first dynasty, the Sangamas. He was crowned in November 1465, setting aside the infant son of Mallikarjuna. His reign was a time of decline. Goa and other western ports were lost, the Bahmanis took Rajahmundry and Kondavidu from Orissa, and the provinces turned to the Saluva chief Narasimha. In 1485, Nuniz says, his own eldest son killed him. Soon after, Narasimha's general Narasa took the capital and Narasimha took the throne. The sources disagree on who his father was.

Virupaksha was the last king of Vijayanagara’s first dynasty, the Sangamas. He reigned from 1465 to 1485.12 In his time the empire lost its western ports, and the Telugu coast stayed in other hands.34 Its provinces turned to the Saluva chief Narasimha, who in the end took the throne.52 See Vijayanagara and Saluva Narasimha.

Coming to the throne

Mallikarjuna died in 1465, leaving a son only one year old.1 Sewell’s later work says that the king’s brother Virupaksha was then crowned, in November 1465.1 S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote that Virupaksha set aside his two nephews to take the throne.6

The Srisailam copper plates record a gift that Virupaksha made on the day of his coronation.7 He gave a village, renamed Virupakshapuram, to a Saiva teacher, Siddha Bhikshavritti, who lived at “Parvata” and worshipped the god Mallikarjuna.87 The plates say he won his ancestors’ throne “by his own valour”, after conquering all his enemies “at the point of the sword”.79 They do not mention Mallikarjuna at all.79 Krishnaswami Aiyangar read this to mean that Virupaksha took the throne by force.9

Another work, the Prapannamritam, adds that he killed everyone close enough to claim the throne, in Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s reading.6 It also says that ghosts troubled him, and that they left after the Ramayana was read for him by Ettur Narasimhacharya.6 In thanks, it says, he signed his records “Sri Rama” in place of his own name.6

A king who lost his lands

Nuniz, who calls him “Verupacarao”, gives a harsh picture.3 He says the king cared only for women, drink and pleasure, and never showed himself to his captains or his people.3 The nobles rebelled, each holding what he had, and the king lost Goa, Chaul, Dabhol and other chief lands.3 Nuniz says he killed many captains, one of them only because he dreamed that the man came to kill him.3

Krishnaswami Aiyangar wrote in 1928 that Virupaksha ruled badly and harshly.5 So the eastern and southern provinces gave their loyalty to Narasimha.5 On the west coast, the Arab horse traders moved their business to ports beyond the frontier.5

Sewell gives the Bahmani side of the story. In 1469 Mahmud Gawan, the Bahmani minister, took Goa from Vijayanagar.10 In 1470, according to the Burhan-i Ma’asir, the Bahmani sultan also took Rajahmundry, Kondavidu and Kondapalli from the king of Orissa.4 A Bahmani governor then ruled Rajahmundry, Kondapalli and the country round them.11 See Rajahmundry and Kondavidu.

Narasimha’s rise

All through the reign, Sewell’s list shows Saluva Narasimha ruling for the king.411 It names him as the king’s minister in the South Arcot district in 1470, and shows him ruling in the Kadapa district in 1477.411 Nilakanta Sastri wrote that Narasimha drove the Orissa armies out of the eastern districts and became master of the land up to the Godavari.12 Only the strong provincial governors, in his view, kept the empire from breaking up.12

Death

Nuniz says that the king had two grown sons.313 Seeing how their father had lost his kingdom, the elder son killed him.313 Then he refused the throne, because he had killed his father.313 So the younger son, “Padearao”, was made king, and he soon killed his elder brother.13 He too gave himself up to pleasure.13 When Narasimha’s captain reached the capital, he found the gates unguarded, and the new king fled.1314

Nilakanta Sastri dates the murder to the middle of 1485, and names the younger son Praudhadeva Raya.12 Sewell’s later work places Narasimha’s seizure of the throne between July 1485 and November 1486.2

Where the sources disagree

  • His father. Sewell’s pedigree of 1900 makes him a son of Mallikarjuna.15 Krishnaswami Aiyangar read the Srisailam plates to make him a son of Deva Raya II, and so Mallikarjuna’s younger brother.75 Sewell’s later family tree, from the same and other plates, makes his father Pratapa Deva Raya, a younger brother of Deva Raya II.16 Nilakanta Sastri agrees with this, and calls him Mallikarjuna’s cousin.17
  • His number. Nilakanta Sastri calls him Virupaksha II, and Sewell’s later work calls him Virupaksha III.171
  • How his reign ended. Nuniz says his eldest son killed him.3 Nilakanta Sastri dates this to 1485.12 Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1928) wrote instead that in 1487 Narasa, commanding Narasimha’s troops, deposed him.5

Footnotes

  1. Robert Sewell, ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 230 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Fernao Nuniz, “Chronicle”, in Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 305 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 226 (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. 494 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), introduction, p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 68, the Srisailam plates of Virupaksha (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 67, extract 26, the Srisailam plates of Virupaksha (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 69, the Srisailam plates of Virupaksha (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 99 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 228 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, 3rd ed. (1966), p. 273 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  13. Nuniz, in Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 306 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  14. Nuniz, in Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (1900), p. 307 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  15. Robert Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar) (1900), p. 24, pedigree after Epigraphia Indica III (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. Sewell, Historical Inscriptions (1932), p. 400, pedigree of the first dynasty (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  17. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 3rd ed. (1966), p. 272 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

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. 24, 96–99, 305–307. [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. 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. 6, 8, 67–69. [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. 225–230, 400. 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. 272–273. Third edition. Cited, not reproduced; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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