The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate (35 page)

The last two kings of the Sangama dynasty were depraved, wicked scamps. According to Fernao Nuniz, a Portuguese trader who spent some three years in Vijayanagar in the mid-sixteenth century, Virupaksha, the penultimate king of the dynasty, ‘cared for nothing but women and to fuddle himself with drink.’ And his life ended bizarrely, murdered by one of his sons. This prince then, disdaining to ascend the throne himself, raised one of his brothers, Praudha Devaraya, to the throne. But this raja proved to be even more wicked and dissolute than his father, and he immediately freed himself from the debt of gratitude he owed to his parricide brother by assassinating him, and then plunged into a life of wanton debauchery. But before he could do much harm, he was deposed by Saluva Narasimha, one of the leading provincial chieftains of the kingdom, who then ascended the throne. Devaraya offered no resistance to the usurper, but cravenly fled from the capital on the approach of Narasimha. Thus ended, around 1486, the rule of the Sangama dynasty.

Narasimha, who had his fief at Chandragiri in southern Andhra Pradesh, had functioned as a virtually independent ruler for quite some years, and had over the years considerably expanded the territory under his control. Because of the misrule of the last couple of kings of the Sangama dynasty, several
provincial chiefs of Vijayanagar, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces of the kingdom, transferred their allegiance to Narasimha. So his position on his accession to the throne was quite strong, though he, like most other rulers of the kingdom, inevitably had to face several internal challenges.

Narasimha ruled for about five years, during which he was engaged in a number of battles, against his adversaries in the kingdom, and to protect the Vijayanagar territory from rival kingdoms. He was mostly successful in these campaigns. But the Saluva dynasty he founded barely survived him. Though Narasimha had two sons, they were too young to rule at the time of his death, so he on his deathbed he entrusted them—and the kingdom—to the care of his trusted minister, Narasa Nayaka, requesting him to rule as the regent till the boys came of age.

On Narasimha’s death, his eldest son, Timma, was crowned king, but the boy was soon killed in a palace intrigue, so Narasa Nayaka placed the raja’s second son, Immadi Narasimha, on the throne, but kept him under his tutelage and himself ruled as the de facto king. But Narasa Nayaka himself died in a few years, upon which his son, Vira Narasimha, took over as the regent. But Vira Narasimha had none of his father’s scruples. Presently he got rid of his ward by assassination, then himself ascended the throne, and founded the Tuluva dynasty, the third dynasty of the kingdom.

This usurpation led to widespread unrest in the kingdom, and several rebellions erupted in its provinces. At this time there was also an invasion of the kingdom by Adil Shah of Bijapur. In the midst of all these troubles Vira Narasimha himself died, in 1509. The major concern of the raja at the time of his death was to secure the throne for his children, so he (according to Nuniz) instructed Saluva Timma, his trusted Brahmin minister, to blind his brothers and raise one of his sons to the throne. But Timma sensibly disregarded the royal mandate and offered the throne to Krishnadeva, the raja’s youngest brother—half-brother, actually—who then ascended the throne, in August 1509.

KRISHNADEVA WAS IN his early twenties at the time of his accession, and had hardly any administrative or military experience. But he turned out to be the most celebrated ruler of Vijayanagar, who was exceptionally successful in administration as well as in military campaigns. In the initial years of his reign, he had the great advantage of having the sagacious counsel of Saluva Timma, whom the raja affectionately called
appaji
, revered father.

The kingdom that Krishnadeva inherited was, at the time of his accession, beset with several rebellions and invasions, but the raja prevailed over all his adversaries, and in time raised Vijayanagar to the stature of the most powerful kingdom in the peninsula. The first invasion he faced, soon after his accession, was by Mahmud Shah, the Bahmani sultan, who, though he was little more than
a figurehead at this time, was prodded by his nobles to lead an army against Vijayanagar. But the raja was equal to the challenge; he not only routed the enemy army massed at his frontier, but pursued it into the Bahmani territory, trounced it again in a second battle, and then went on to capture Gulbarga, the old capital of the Sultanate, as well as Bidar, its new capital. The raja then restored Mahmud Shah to the throne—perhaps because he was innocuous, or perhaps because the sultan was expected to add another unsettling element in the turbulent politics of the disintegrating Sultanate. The raja then returned to Vijayanagar.

After the Bahmani campaign, Krishnadeva was for a couple of years engaged in suppressing a rebellion in southern Karnataka. This was followed by a major campaign by him to recover the eastern provinces of the kingdom lost to Gajapati, the king of Orissa, during previous regimes. This was a prolonged, five year long campaign, but it ended in total victory for Krishnadeva—he not only recovered the lost provinces but even stormed into Cuttack, Gajapati’s capital. There was however no vindictiveness in Krishnadeva’s treatment of Gajapati; rather, he concluded a generous peace treaty with him, by which he agreed to treat river Krishna as the boundary between their kingdoms, and returned to Gajapati all the lands that he (Krishnadeva) had conquered north of the river. And Gajapati in turn gave one of his daughters in marriage to Krishnadeva, to seal their alliance with a family bond.

The other major wars of Krishnadeva were against Golconda and Bijapur, independent kingdoms that had emerged out of the fragmented Bahmani Sultanate. In the war against Bijapur, the raja occupied Gulbarga, destroyed its fortifications, and placed a Bahmani prince, a son of Mahmud Shah, on the throne there as his ward, presumably in the hope of resuscitating the Bahmani dynasty under Vijayanagar patronage. He also took two of the sultan’s brothers with him to Vijayanagar, where they were provided with all princely amenities, but were treated as the raja’s dependants, symbols of his dominance over the Sultanate.

On his return to his capital from the Bijapur campaign, Krishnadeva abdicated the throne in favour of his infant son born to him in his old age, and himself carried on the administration as chief minister, presumably to ensure the eventual smooth succession of the prince. But the prince died after a few months, poisoned in a palace intrigue. Krishnadeva’s only other son was a baby at this time, just eighteen months old, so it was impossible for the raja to arrange his succession. He therefore set his half-brother Achyuta free from confinement and designated him as his successor.

KRISHNADEVA WAS A peerless warrior king and a great military strategist, who was never, even once, defeated in battle. He invariably led his army in
person, and often fought in the frontline of his army, thus inspiring valour in his soldiers. He also paid scrupulous attention to the welfare of his soldiers, and after every battle he usually went around the battlefield to take care of the wounded and to offer them solace. Not surprisingly, his soldiers were fiercely loyal to him, which in part explains why he was invincible.

As in military matters, Krishnadeva was thorough in administrative matters also, and was meticulously attentive to every detail. He toured around his kingdom regularly, to ensure that its provinces remained firmly under his control and functioned efficiently. Every aspect of life in his kingdom received similar attention from him. And he took particular care to stimulate the economy of the state. Agricultural prosperity was crucial for the welfare of his kingdom, so he made a major effort to improve the irrigation system in the state by repairing the existing tanks and canals and constructing some new ones, and for this he even recruited the services of a Portuguese engineer. Krishnadeva also lightened the tax burden on the people by abolishing vexatious minor taxes, like the marriage tax, reflecting his general concern for the welfare of the people.

Krishnadeva was equally renowned for his patronage of scholars, writers and artists, and his court was adorned by a group of eight Telugu literary luminaries, known as the Ashtadiggajas. The raja himself was a distinguished poet, and had to his credit the composition of
Amukta-malyada
, an epic poem in Telugu on Andal—a saint poet of the Tamil Bhakti movement—and of her intense longing for union with god Vishnu. Krishnadeva was a deeply religious person, and he regularly visited temples, often accompanied by his queens, to offer worship. And it was Krishnadeva who ordered the sculpting of the gigantic statue of Narasimha—carved out of a single granite boulder—which still stands in the ruins of Vijayanagar. According to Domingo Paes, an early sixteenth century Portuguese traveller in India, the raja also built near Vijayanagar a new palace complex in honour of his favourite wife, Nagala Devi, named it Nagalapur after her, and made it his favourite residence.

There is a good amount of information, in Indian as well as foreign sources, about the reign of Krishnadeva, much more than about any other Vijayanagar king. These sources also provide vivid descriptions of the appearance and manners of the raja. ‘This king,’ writes Paes, ‘is of medium height, and of fair complexion and good figure, rather fat than thin; he has on his face smallpox marks. He is the most feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry; he is one that seeks to honour foreigners, and receives them kindly, asking about all their affairs … He is a great ruler and a man of much justice … is gallant and perfect … in all things … The king was clothed in certain white cloths embroidered with many roses in gold, and with a
pateca
of diamonds of very great value on his neck, and on his head
he had a cap of brocade in fashion like Galician helmet, covered with a piece of fine stuff all of fine silk, and he was barefooted.’

The only fault that Paes could find in Krishnadeva was that he was ‘subject to sudden fits of rage,’ and he sometimes, though rarely, treated fallen enemies with unbecoming contempt. Thus, after his 1520 campaign, in which he captured Raichur from Adil Shah, the sultan of Bijapur, he treated the sultan’s envoy with utter disdain, and to his plea that the conquered territories might be restored to the sultan, he haughtily replied that if the sultan came and kissed his feet, he will return the lands.

Such insulting behaviour was however unusual in Krishnadeva, for he was normally mature, sober and thoughtful in all his conduct, in his private as well as public life. And there is a fair amount of data about the private life of the raja, unlike about most other kings of the age. ‘This king has twelve lawful wives, of whom there are three principal ones, the sons of each of these three being heirs of the kingdom, but not those of the others,’ reports Paes. These principal wives are in all respects provided everything equally by the raja ‘so that there may never be any discord or ill feeling between them; all of them are great friends, and each one lives by herself.’

Paes also reports on the king’s daily routine: ‘This king is accustomed every day to drink a three-quarter pint of oil of gingili (sesame) before daylight, and he anoints himself all over with the said oil; he covers his loins with a small cloth and takes in his arms great weights made of earthenware [and exercises with them], and then, taking a sword, he exercises himself with it till he has sweated out all the oil, and then he wrestles with one his wrestlers. After this labour he mounts a horse and gallops about the plain in one direction and another till dawn … Then he goes to bathe, and a Brahmin bathes him …’ After this morning exercise routine, the raja goes to a pavilion to attend to public business.

K
RISHNADEVA DIED IN
1529 and was succeeded by Achyuta, his designated heir, but his succession set off family tensions, with Krishnadeva’s son-in-law, Ramaraya, proclaiming Krishnadeva’s infant son as king, and seeking to rule the kingdom in the infant’s name. This could have led to a civil war, but Achyuta reconciled Ramaraya by sharing power with him. This arrangement however did not last long, and presently, when Achyuta was away from the capital on a campaign, Ramaraya took full control of the government, and he seized and imprisoned Achyuta when he returned to the capital. This was followed by a confusing period of usurpation, counter-usurpation and provincial rebellions, which was, strange though it might seem, brought to an end by Adil Shah, the sultan of Bijapur, who arrived in Vijayanagar as an invader to take advantage of the disarray in the kingdom, but stayed on
to affect reconciliation between Achyuta and Ramaraya. By this agreement Ramaraya recognised Achyuta as the king of Vijayanagar, and Achyuta in turn granted Ramaraya full autonomy in his fief. The terms of this agreement were faithfully observed by both princes, and Achyuta ruled in peace till his death in 1542. Adil Shah got a large sum of money, twelve elephants and some horses as his reward for arranging the reconciliation.

Achyuta on his death was succeeded by his minor son Venkata, with his maternal uncle Tirumala ruling the kingdom on his behalf, as his regent. This was followed, as usual in similar situations in Vijayanagar history, by a prolonged and confusing tussle between various contenders for power, in which Adil Shah also got repeatedly involved, as previously. In the course of this turmoil Tirumala strangled Venkata, his ward, slaughtered many members of the royal family, and ascended the throne himself. But his reign was short-lived, for presently Ramaraya advanced against him with an army. Faced with immanent deposition, Tirumala, according to Ferishta, ‘shut himself up in the palace, and, becoming mad from despair, blinded all the royal elephants and horses, also cut off their tails, so that they might be of no use to the enemy. All the diamonds, rubies, emeralds, other precious stones, and pearls, which had been collected [by the Vijayanagar rajas] in the course of many ages, he crushed to powder between heavy millstones, and scattered them on the ground. He then fixed a sword blade on a pillar in his apartment, and ran his breast upon it with such a force that it pierced through and came out at the back, thus putting an end to his existence.’