The First Kings (A.D.1336to 1379)
Rapid acquisition of territory --Reign of Harihara I.--Check to Muhammadan aggression --Reign of Bukka I.--Kampa and Sangama?--The Bahmani kingdom established,1347--Death of Nagadeva of Warangal --Vijayanagar's first great war --Massacres by Muhammad Bahmani --Battle at Adoni,1366--Flight of Bukka --Mujahid's war,1375--He visits the Malabar coast --Siege of Vijayanagar --Extension of territory --Death of Mujahid,1378.
The city of Vijayanagar,thus founded about the year 1335,speedily grew in importance and became the refuge of the outcasts,refugees,and fighting men of the Hindus,beaten and driven out of their old strongholds by the advancing Muhammadans.
The first rulers of Vijayanagar,however,did not dare to call themselves kings,nor did even the Brahmans do so who composed the text of their early inions.It is for this reason that I have spoken of Harihara I.and Bukka I.as "Chiefs."The inion referred to of Harihara in 1340calls him "Hariyappa VODEYA,"the former name being less honourable than "Harihara,"and the latter definitely entitling him to rank only as a chieftain.Moreover,the Sanskrit title given him is MAHAMANDALESVARA,which may be translated "great lord"--not king.And the same is the case with his successor,Bukka,in two inions,[32]one of which is dated in 1353.Already in 1340Harihara is said to have been possessed of very large territories,and he was the acknowledged overlord of villages as far north as the Kaladgi district,north of the Malprabha,a country that had been overrun by Muhammad Taghlaq.That this was not a mere empty boast is shown by the fact that a fort was built in that year at Badami by permission of Harihara.
And thus we see the first chief of Vijayanagar quietly,and perhaps peacefully,acquiring great influence and extensive possessions.These so rapidly increased that Bukka's successor,Harihara II.,styles himself RAJADHIRAJA,"king of kings,"or emperor.
But to revert to the first king Harihara,or,as Nuniz calls him,"Dehorao,"for DEVA RAYA.He reigned,according to our chronicle,seven years,"and did nothing therein but pacify the kingdom,which he left in complete tranquillity."His death,if this be so,would have taken place about the year 1343.Nuniz relates that he founded a temple in honour of the Brahman hermit,his protector.This was the great temple at Hampe close to the river,which is still in full preservation and is the only one among the massive shrines erected at the capital in which worship is still carried on;the others were remorselessly wrecked and destroyed by the Muhammadans in 1565.As already stated,the traveller Ibn Batuta refers to this king under the name of "Haraib"or "Harib"in or about the year 1342.If the traditions collated by Nuniz,according to which Harihara I.lived at peace during the seven years of his reign,be true,his death must have occurred before 1344,because in that year,as we learn from other sources,Krishna,son of Pratapa Rudra of Warangal,took refuge at Vijayanagar,and,in concert with its king and with the surviving Ballala princes of Dvarasamudra,drove back the Muhammadans,rescued for a time part of the Southern Dakhan country,and prepared the way for the overthrow of the sovereignty of Delhi south of the Vindhyas.Itake it,therefore,that Harihara died in or about the year A.D.1343.
As to his having reigned quietly,I know of only one statement to the contrary.An inion of Samgama II.recording a grant in 1356,and referred to below,states that Harihara I."defeated the Sultan;"but perhaps this only alludes to the fact that Muhammad Taghlaq had to abandon his hold on the country.
The next king was Harihara's brother,Bukka I.("Bucarao"),and according to Nuniz he reigned thirty-seven years,conquering in that time all the kingdoms of the south,even including Orissa (Orya).Without laying too much stress on conquests by force of arms,it seems certain that most if not all Southern India submitted to his rule,probably only too anxious to secure a continuance of Hindu domination in preference to the despotism of the hated followers of Islam.[33]According to the chronicle,therefore,the death of Bukka I.,as we must call him,took place about the year A.D.1380.As to inions of his reign,Dr.Hultzsch[34]mentions that they cover the period from about 1354to 1371,while the first inion of his successor,Harihara II.,is dated in 1379.[35]If,then,we assume that Bukka I.reigned till 1379,we find the chronicle so far accurate that Bukka I.did in fact reign thirty-six years,though not thirty-seven --A.D.1343to 1379.
