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248
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1898.
by the increasing numbers of the Jangams and Jains, and the approach of the Muhammadans, may have contributed their wealth and influence to the aggrandisement of the song of Sangama.
However this may be, beyond question the city of Vijayanagara was founded by Bukka and Harihara, on the southern bank of the Tungabbadra, about the middle of the fourteenth century. Sewell mentions that Fergusson gives the year 1118 A. D. as the date of the foundation of an earlier city by Vijayarayalu, as a dependency of the Mysore Raja. But Fergusson gives this only as a tradition, and adduces no proof in support of it. There are no complete buildings extant of a date earlier than the fourteenth century, although, fragments do exist, which Mr. Alexander Rea believes to belong to the twelfth or thirteenth century. The fragments, which are in some of the existing temples, may have belonged to this supposed earlier city, or, they may have been removed from some of the ancient temples existing in other parts of the district, and placed wbere we now find them. Traditionally Bukka is given as the first prince and Harihara as the second (Kelsall's Bellary Manual, p. 109).
The date most commonly given for the foundation of Vijayanagara is Saka-saniat 1258 or A. D. 1336; but this is, perhaps, a few years too soon, saya Wilson in his Cat. of Mac. Coll. p. 84. The same date, however, is given in a copper-plate grant as the first year of Harihara's reign (Sewell's Lists, Vol. II p. 12, No. 79). If this is accepted and he was preceded by Bukka I., the date must be placed earlier, instead of later, than is usually stated. Harihara is usually placed as the first reigning sovereign, succeeded by Bukka; but then who is the first Bukka, asks Mr. Rea, placed on the lists? It is true that no grants are recognized as having been made by him, and, if he fonnded the city, it is improbable that during his short reign Le would have risen to sufficient power to make any, or at least any important ones; this may account for their absence. That the Vijayanagara Dynasty was in existence before 1336 A. D. is supported by a reference to the following statement of Sewoll (Lists, Vol. II. p. 161): "In 1327, the Mussulman viceroy of the Dekkan rebelled, and the emperor sent an expedition against him. He fled to Kampti, close to Vijianagar, whence the king's troops were compelled to retreat, the Vijayanagar king being too strong for them.” If this account be correct and the date can be depended upon, it would shew that the Vijayanagara State had at that time reached a considerable degree of power; and so far would support the traditional date.
The Madhava, alias Vidyaranya, above mentioned was a man of great parts. Of all those who succeeded to the malha of Sankaracharya, either before or after Madhava, there is not one to compare with him in learning. He was born in a village called Pampa on the banks of the Tungabhadra. He was the family guru of Bukkaraya and a Telugu Brâhmans of the Bharadvaja Gótra. His father was Mâyaga, and his brother, Sayaņa, and some of the works he has written go by their names. He composed excellent and exbaustive commentaries on all the four Vedas, but for which the Vedas wonld have been a sealed book to all Sanskrit scholars.
Here I must observe that I am not unaware of the fact that the Sanskritists of Europe are inclined to ignore the immensity of their obligations to Vidyârapya, and even to go to the length of asserting that his commentaries on the Vedas can only give expression to one-sided views, seeing that he was a Hinda, and that he was nurtured in Oriental prejudices. To me it rather seems that if anybody can come forward as the expositor of the Vedas, he can only be & Brâhmaņa of the type of Vidyaranya, who wus versed in Sanskrit lore, deeply learned in the Védángas, well acquainted with the nature, origin, and significance of the archaic forms in which the Vedas so greatly abound, who attained a mastery over the subtleties of accent known as svaraprakriya, who was amply gifted with a capacity for the perception of the subtle and the indefinite, which is the peculiar property of the Bindus, and who was thoroughly conversant with the Hindu mode of thought and writing. In my humble opinicn no Sanskritiet of Europo can elucidate the Vedas more clearly and rightly than Vidyaranya, for the simple reason that though the former may devote his whole lifetime to the study of the Sanskrit language and literature, he may not acquire that encyclopædic learning which alone will enable bim to comprehend the Vedas in their true light. Sach being the case, any endeavour on the part of
