Choosing a capital

The choice of Vijayanagara as a capital was not accidental. The site was already rich in sacred and political meaning long before the city was built, and the rulers deliberately connected themselves to these older traditions to legitimise their power.

The rocky northern end of the city, on the banks of the Tungabhadra, was steeped in local legend. According to one tradition, these hills were the home of the monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva from the Ramayana. Another tradition says that Pampadevi, the local mother goddess, performed penance here to marry Virupaksha — a form of Shiva who became the guardian deity of the Vijayanagara kingdom. This marriage is still celebrated every year in the Virupaksha temple. The same hills also contain Jaina temples from the pre-Vijayanagara period. So the area was already associated with multiple sacred traditions.

Temple building in this region had a long history, going back to the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Cholas. Rulers encouraged temple construction because it linked them with the divine — often the deity was identified, explicitly or implicitly, with the king himself. Temples were not just places of worship; they were centres of learning. Rulers and others granted land and resources for their maintenance, so temples grew into major religious, social, cultural and economic centres. For a ruler, building, repairing and maintaining temples was a practical way to win support and to display power, wealth and piety.

It is very likely that the site of Vijayanagara was chosen precisely because the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi already existed there. The Vijayanagara kings claimed to rule on behalf of the god Virupaksha. Every royal order was signed “Shri Virupaksha”, usually in the Kannada script. Rulers also used the title “Hindu Suratrana” — a Sanskritisation of the Arabic word Sultan, meaning king, so it literally meant “Hindu Sultan”. This shows how they drew on older traditions while also innovating. …