Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 21

9
JANUARY, 1923 ]
THE ORIGIN, ETC., OF THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE
THE ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DECLINE OF THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE. BY C. R. KRISHNAMACHARLU, B.A. (Continued from Vol. LI, p. 235.)
The reigns of Mallikarjuna and his brother Virûpâksha were rather short and filled only with differences in the royal family and the infirmities of the rulers. In the reign of the former there was a combined attack on the Vijayanagara capital by the Gajapati kings of Orissa and the Muhammadan kings of Bahmanî. This was repulsed by the Sâļuva chief Narasimha, who was then ruling over the eastern country. About the same time Kânchi was invaded by the Pânḍyas from the south. These were all indications of the weakness which marked the hold of the central power over distant provinces and the capital, too, at times. The prestige of the state was maintained by the Sâluva in the north. What really happened in the south is not clearly known. It is certain at any rate that the king was growing weak and powerless and that a powerful commander and local governor, who was also the far-seeing minister, could wield the destinies of the empire. Sâļuva Narasimha, who had attained to a hero's fame by his repulsion of the two enemies from the north, took into his hands the whole government. The Sâluvas were already relations of the royal family. During the time of Dêvaraya II, Sâluva Tipparâja, the father of Gôparaja and a brotherin-law of the king, was the viceroy over the Tekkal country. And Sâluva Narasimha's assumption of the de facto regal position was but the precursor of a political phenomenon like the rule of Aliya Râmarâja in Sadasiva's time about the middle of the sixteenth century.
The expression Usurpation' may jar on the ears of the advocates of strict succession. Still usurpers are not always to be denounced. If the last members of a ruling family happen to be successively unfit to wield the reins of the government and if the imperial interests are certain thereby to be jeopardised, a usurper is to be welcomed. And the fact that the usurper continues to rule on under exactly the previous conditions is but the testimony to the legitimacy of his assumption. An honest, just and judicious usurper has as much title to the historian's respect as a later ruling family has. If the Vijayanagara dynasty has risen to prominence and illumined the pages of South-Indian history, it is because the earlier houses, namely the Chôla, the Pandya and the Hoysala, had degenerated. The continuity of the state is maintained by such judicious replacements and assumptions. Political philosophy has a good word even for the 'tyrants' of Greece.
Saluva Narasimha assumed royal titles about A.D. 1484. There were many circumstances favourable to his ascendency for some time. From A.D. 1375 the south had been independently held by the Så uva chief Gopa-Tippa. Narasimha himself had been minister under three successive sovereigns, viz., Praudha Dêvaraya, Virâpâksha and Mallikarjuna. To a long ministerial experience and the resultant influence in the state he added the glories of a conqueror and a defender of the capital, which naturally made him the fittest and so the most popular leader of the state in the decadent stage of the hereditary line of kings. During his ministry and his rule the kingdom itself was known to foreigners as 'the kingdom of Narasimha,' because of his domination over it for a peaceful and prosperous period of 44 years.
The Saluva dynasty, too, had a brief period of rule and yielded place to the Tuluva dynasty to which Krishnaraya belonged. The ascendency of the latter was also the result of the weakness of the departed dynasty. Minister ousted minister, usurper ousted usurper, but only with the intention of maintaining the state in its ancient integrity, strength and glory. Such successions as these were but the medieval manifestations of the operations of the law of the 'rule of the hero' as against the 'rule of the heir.'