History · Ch 7 — An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara
Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans
Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans
The Founding and Character of the Empire
According to tradition and epigraphic evidence, the Vijayanagara Empire was founded in 1336 by two brothers, Harihara and Bukka. Contemporaries described this empire as the Karnataka samrajyamu, though historians use the term Vijayanagara Empire. The empire's frontiers were fluctuating, and within them lived peoples who spoke different languages and followed different religious traditions.
On its northern frontier, Vijayanagara kings competed with contemporary rulers — the Sultans of the Deccan and the Gajapati rulers of Orissa — for control of fertile river valleys and the resources generated by lucrative overseas trade. Yet interaction between these states also led to sharing of ideas, especially in architecture. The rulers of Vijayanagara borrowed concepts and building techniques, which they then developed further.
Some areas incorporated into the empire had already witnessed powerful states such as the Cholas in Tamil Nadu and the Hoysalas in Karnataka. Ruling elites in these areas had patronised elaborate temples like the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur and the Chennakeshava temple at Belur. The rulers of Vijayanagara, who called themselves rayas, built on these traditions and carried them to new heights.
Kings and Traders
Warfare during this period depended upon effective cavalry, so the import of horses from Arabia and Central Asia was crucial for rival kingdoms. This trade was initially controlled by Arab traders. Local communities of merchants known as kudirai chettis (horse merchants) also participated in these exchanges.
From 1498, the Portuguese arrived on the west coast and attempted to establish trading and military stations. Their superior military technology, especially the use of muskets, enabled them to become important players in the tangled politics of the period.
Vijayanagara was noted for its markets dealing in spices, textiles and precious stones. Trade was regarded as a status symbol for such cities, which boasted a wealthy population that demanded high-value exotic goods, especially precious stones and jewellery. The revenue derived from trade contributed significantly to the prosperity of the state.
In popular traditions of Vijayanagara, the Deccan Sultans were termed ashvapati (lord of horses), the Gajapati rulers of Orissa were gajapati (lord of elephants), and the rayas were called narapati (lord of men).
Krishnadeva Raya (ruled 1509–29), the most famous ruler of Vijayanagara, composed a work on statecraft in Telugu known as the Amuktamalyada. About traders he wrote:
A king should improve the harbours of his country and so encourage its commerce that horses, elephants, precious gems, sandalwood, pearls and other articles are freely imported … He should arrange that the foreign sailors who land in his country on account of storms, illness and exhaustion are looked after in a suitable manner … Make the merchants of distant foreign countries who import elephants and good horses be attached to yourself by providing them with daily audience, presents and allowing decent profits. Then those articles will never go to your enemies.
The Apogee and Decline of the Empire
Within the polity, claimants to power included members of the ruling lineage as well as military commanders. The dynastic sequence was:
| Dynasty | Period of Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sangama | till 1485 | First dynasty |
| Saluvas | 1485–1503 | Military commanders who supplanted the Sangamas |
| Tuluvas | 1503 onwards | Replaced the Saluvas; Krishnadeva Raya belonged to this dynasty |
| Aravidu | 1542 to end of 17th century | Shift of control to this lineage after 1542 |
Krishnadeva Raya's rule was characterised by expansion and consolidation:
- The land between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers (the Raichur doab) was acquired in 1512.
- The rulers of Orissa were subdued in 1514.
- Severe defeats were inflicted on the Sultan of Bijapur in 1520.
Although the kingdom remained in a constant state of military preparedness, it flourished under conditions of unparalleled peace and prosperity. Krishnadeva Raya is credited with building some fine temples and adding impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples. He also founded a suburban township near Vijayanagara called Nagalapuram, after his mother. Some of the most detailed descriptions of Vijayanagara come from his time or just after.
Strain began to show within the imperial structure following Krishnadeva Raya's death in 1529. His successors were troubled by rebellious nayakas (military chiefs). By 1542, control at the centre had shifted to the Aravidu lineage, which remained in power till the end of the seventeenth century.
During this period, the military ambitions of both Vijayanagara rulers and the Deccan Sultanates resulted in shifting alignments. Eventually this led to an alliance of the Sultanates against Vijayanagara. In 1565, Rama Raya, the chief minister of Vijayanagara, led the army into battle at Rakshasi-Tangadi (also known as Talikota), where his forces were routed by the combined armies of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda. The victorious armies sacked the city of Vijayanagara. The city was totally abandoned within a few years. The focus of the empire then shifted to the east, where the Aravidu dynasty ruled from Penukonda and later from Chandragiri (near Tirupati).
Relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile, despite religious differences. Krishnadeva Raya supported some claimants to power in the Sultanates and took pride in the title "establisher of the Yavana kingdom". Similarly, the Sultan of Bijapur intervened to resolve succession disputes in Vijayanagara after Krishnadeva Raya's death. The Vijayanagara kings were keen to ensure the stability of the Sultanates and vice versa. It was the adventurous policy of Rama Raya, who tried to play off one Sultan against another, that led the Sultans to combine together and decisively defeat him.
Yavana is a Sanskrit word used for the Greeks and other peoples who entered the subcontinent from the north-west.
The Rayas and the Nayakas
Among those who exercised power in the empire were military chiefs who usually controlled forts and had armed supporters. These chiefs often moved from one area to another, and in many cases were accompanied by peasants looking for fertile land on which to settle. These chiefs were known as nayakas and they usually spoke Telugu or Kannada. Many nayakas submitted to the authority of the kings of Vijayanagara, but they often rebelled and had to be subdued by military action.
The amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is likely that many features of this system were derived from the iqta system of the Delhi Sultanate. …
The painting shows Colin Mackenzie, the first Surveyor General of India, seated at the centre. He is dressed in the formal coat and cravat of a British officer, holding a book or paper in one hand, his posture calm and authoritative. To his left stands his peon Kistnaji, a servant who holds a telescope — a symbol of the surveying and measuring work Mackenzie directed. To his right are two Brahmana assistants. The one closest to Mackenzie is a Jain pandit, identifiable by his shaven head and white robes. Behind him stands the Telugu Brahmana Cauvellery Ventak Letchmiah, who wears a traditional dhoti and upper cloth.
The composition is deliberate. Mackenzie is the largest figure, seated and elevated, while his Indian assistants stand slightly lower or behind him. This arrangement visually reinforces a hierarchy: the European scholar as the master, and the indigenous informants as subordinates who serve him. Yet the painting also acknowledges their essential role — without Kistnaji’s telescope and the Brahmanas’ linguistic and textual knowledge, Mackenzie’s surveys of Vijayanagara and other sites would have been impossible.
The original oil painting was done by Thomas Hickey around 1800–1810. The copy shown in the textbook dates to c.1825 and is by an unknown artist. It is now in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society of Britain and Ireland.
What does this figure teach us? It illustrates a key theme of the chapter: how European knowledge of India’s past was produced through collaboration with local scholars. The Brahmana assistants were not mere scribes — they were the custodians of Sanskrit, Telugu, and Kannada manuscripts, and the living repositories of oral traditions about Vijayanagara’s history, geography, and architecture. Mackenzie’s surveys, which later formed the basis of much early Indology, depended entirely on their expertise.
At the same time, the painting reveals the power dynamics of colonial knowledge-making. The European is the visible authority; the Indian informants are unnamed in the caption (only Kistnaji and Letchmiah are identified, and the Jain pandit remains anonymous). The telescope in Kistnaji’s hand is a telling detail — it suggests that even the act of seeing and measuring was mediated by Indian assistants, yet the credit for discovery went to the British officer. …
Figure 7.3 is a photograph of the towering gopuram (ornate gateway) of the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur. This temple was built by the Chola dynasty centuries before the Vijayanagara Empire rose to power. The image shows the massive, pyramidal superstructure covered in sculpted figures, rising in receding tiers above the main entrance. It is a classic example of the mature Chola architectural style — a tradition that the Vijayanagara rayas (kings) consciously drew upon and then pushed to even greater heights.
The textbook places this figure in a section explaining that the Vijayanagara rulers did not invent temple architecture from scratch. Instead, they inherited and adapted the styles of earlier powerful states like the Cholas (Tamil Nadu) and the Hoysalas (Karnataka). The Brihadishvara gopuram is shown as a benchmark of that earlier tradition. When the text later notes that Krishnadeva Raya "added impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples," the reader is meant to understand that he was extending a well-established Chola practice — but Vijayanagara gopurams would become even taller and more elaborately decorated. …