Krishnadevaraya

Krishnadevaraya was a Vijaynagar emperor who presided over the empire at its zenith and ruled from 1509 till his death in 1529. He was a contemporary of Henry VIII. The accounts of his reign have been told by Portuguese travelers, Domingo Paes and Nuniz.

After six months of his coronation, he defeated Sultan Mahmud of Bidar and Yusuf Adil Khan.

In 1510, he attacked in the north, besieged Raichur and moved to Gulburga and Bidar. Once Krishnadevaraya secured the north, he overthrew rebels of Ummattur and a new province of Vijayanagar was created with Srirangpattanam as its capital.

He subdued a local ruler, Prataparudra and seized lands up to the Krishna river. In 1516-1517, he pushed beyond the Godaveri river.

The highlight of his conquests occurred on May 19, 1520 where he secured the fortress of Raichur from Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur where 16,000 of the Vijaynagar soldiers were killed. At such a campaign against Raichur, 703,000 foot soldiers, 32,600 cavalry and 551 elephants were used. However, the king was known to have used victory with humanity and moderation. Finally, in his last battle, he razed to the ground the fortress of Gulburga, the early capital of the Bahmani sultanate.

Paes describes the king's attitudes in terms of law and order by summing up in this sentence, "The king maintains the law by killing." Offences against property (designed to protect the rich against the poor) and for murder ranged from cutting of a foot and hand for theft and beheading for murder except for those occuring as a result of duel. Paes could not estimate the size of Vijaynagar as his view was obscurred by the hills but estimated the city to be at least as large as Rome. Furthermore, he considered Vijaynagar to be "the best provided city in the world" with a population of not less than a half a million.

The empire was divided into a number of provinces often under members of the royal family and into further subdivisions.

As to the character of Krishnadevaraya, an Indian historian, Krishna Sastri, reporting in An Rep. A.S. India for 1908-1909, pg. 186, has said that besides being a might warrior, "Krishnadevaraya showed kindness to fallen enemy and displayed acts of mercy and charity towards the residents of the captured cities. Additionally, Krishnadevaraya's great military proweess endeared him alike to his feudatory chiefs and to his subjects, the royal reception, and kindness that he invariably bestowed upon foreign embasssies, his imposing personal appearance, his genial look and polite conversation which distinguished a pure and dignified life, his lover for literature and for religion and his solictitude for the welfare of his people; and above all, the almost fabulous wealth that he conferred as endowents on temples and Brahmins, mark him out indeed as the greatest of the South Indian monarchs."

Krishna Deva Raya respected all sects of Hinduism, although he personally leaned in favour of Vaishnavism, and lavished on the Tirupati temple numerous objects of priceless value, ranging from diamond studded crowns to golden swords. Additionally, he is known to commissioned the making of statutes of himself and his two wives at the temple complex. The coronation ceremonies of the emperors were also held at Tirupati.

Cited from Smith, Vincent, Oxford History of India, Fourth Edition, pgs. 306-307, and 312-313.

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Krishnadevaraya

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