Vijayanagar

Vijayanagar (vē`jəyənŭ`gər) [Sanskrit,=city of victory], ruined city, SE India. It was the capital (14th–16th cent.) of the Hindu Vijayanagar empire, which embraced all India S of the Kistna River and shielded S India from the Muslim kingdoms of the north. At its height during the reign (c.1510–c.1530) of Krishnadeva Raya, the empire had dealings with many Asian and European countries. The city of Vijayanagar, then some 60 mi (95 km) in circumference, flourished as a prosperous trade center and was noted for its artists, writers, and temples. After a crushing defeat of the Hindus at Talikota (1565) Muslim forces utterly demolished the city, and, except for a brief revival, the empire was destroyed.

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Vijayanagar

Former Hindu kingdom, southern India, south of the Krishna River. Founded in 1336, it became the greatest empire of southern India and for more than two centuries served as a barrier against Muslim raiders from the north. It was an important centre of Hindu culture and Dravidian art. Its downfall began with the defeat at Talikota (1565) by a confederacy of Deccan Muslim sultans; the empire dissolved c. 1614. The kingdom's capital, Vijayanagar, was destroyed in 1565. Its ruined site is located at modern Hampi, in southeastern Karnataka.

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Vijayanagar 

a feudal state of the 14th to 17th centuries in southern India, south of the Krishna River. It was formed in 1336 as a result of the struggle of southern Indian Hindu feudal nobles against the Sultanate of Delhi. The most powerful ruler of the first (Sangama) dynasty was Devaraya II (reigned 1422-46), who subjugated all of southern India, carried out military campaigns against Ceylon and Burma, and inflicted several defeats on the Bahmani Sultanate. The greatest flowering of Vijayanagar was during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya (reigned 1509-29) of the third (Tuluva) dynasty.

Vijayanagar waged war continuously with the Bahmani state and later with the sultanates that had formed on the territory of the latter. These sultanates inflicted a powerful defeat on Vijayanagar in 1565, after which it began to decline. Toward the middle of the 17th century it disintegrated into a number of principalities. The Vijayanagar period marked the flowering of literature and art of the peoples of southern India.

REFERENCES

Alaev, L. B. Iuzhnaia Indiia: Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskaia istoriia XIV-XVIH vekov. Moscow, 1964.
Sewell, R. A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar). London, 1924.
Mahalingam, T. V. Economic Life in the Vijayanagar Empire. [Madras] 1951.

L. B. ALAEV