Most of the modern stories, movies or folklore related to the history of glorious empires such as The Kurus, Mauryas, Guptas, Rashtrakutas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara and Marathas end when their most charismatic leadership fades away or the dynasty splits into various vassal states.

In the case of the Vijayanagara Empire which ruled most of south India for over 300 years (1336-1646), most of the narration or chronicles end with Krishna Devaraya or with the battle of Talikota in 1565. However, the glorious battles fought for over 75 years after Talikota to save Indic faiths in South and Central India after Talikota gets little mention from historians. 

This is a humble attempt to bring to the forefront the fight back story of the Vijayanagara kingdom post the battle at Talikota; a sad yet heroic historical fact that helped the Deccan keep its ingenious culture and enabled it to pass on its inspirational rule to yet another glorious Kingdom “the Marathas” later in the 1600’s and beyond.

Vijayanagara Empire consisted of multiple dynasties (with the most prominent rulers highlighted in yellow) showcased below:

The transition from Tuluva dynasty (From Krishna Deva Raya and Achyuta Deva Raya) to Aliya Rama Raya and Tirumala Raya) of Aravidu dynasty was a tumultuous one laced with a lot of internecine, intra family and feudal wars.

The regime under Aliya Rama Raya (son in law of Sri Krishna Deva Raya) was effective and ineffective depending on which point of history you reference. Because he arrived after a lot of murders of Tuluva dynasty princes, he was fairly unpopular but he did build the Vijayanagara Empire back after the charismatic rule of Sri Krishna Deva Raya. However, his mistake of appointing, the Gilani brothers who were earlier in the service of Sultan Adil Shah as commanders in his army, was a costly mistake in the run up to the devastating Battle of Talikota.

The Battle of Talikota in 1565 was a humiliating defeat for a vastly superior and larger Vijayanagara army. Aliya Rama Raya lost his life in the battle to a fidayeen attack and the morale of the once mighty army sank without return on day one.

The fall of empire to ruthless rulers and vassals led to complete anarchy. After the defeat at Talikota, some historians believe that Tirumala, brother of Ramaraya made a valiant attempt to revive the capital city of Hampi but all attempts failed.

It is also believed that there was a conflict between him and his nephew Pedda Tirumala over the control of the city and hence he decided to abandon it altogether. With the Vijayanagar army in shambles, Ramaraya’s nepotism at the expense of traditional Hindu civil officers left the whole kingdom in a state of chaos. Marauding horsemen roved over the countryside extorting money and goods from the people. There was also a profusion of robberies and plundering by gangs and warlords in the Telugu country. In the Tamil country, Nayakas of Madurai, Tanjavur and Gingee established independent kingdoms, which to a great extant restored local stability in these regions. But after Talikota, it took Tirumala a whole six years to restore civil administration and rebuild an army. He also attacked Portuguese horse traders and seized horses from them to raise a cavalry. He made Penukonda his capital and started heavily fortifying it to prepare for a major defensive war.

Imad Shah of Berar suffered massively and his kingdom soon ended within a few years of Talikota. Barid Shah of Bidar, founded by the Turk Qasim Barid from Azerbaijan, and Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar were also considerably weakened. Adil Shah, who had recovered from the Talikota war, marched southwards again in 1567 to continue the conquest of the Vijayanagara kingdom. Pedda Tirumala entered into negotiations with the Sultan and directed the invader against his uncle Tirumala, whom he feared. But the Sultan brushed him aside and took Vijayanagara and then marched on Penukonda. Tirumala dispatched his commander Savaram Chennappa Nayaka to repulse the Sultan. The Nayaka inflicted a defeat on the Sultans forces through a surprise rally when the Sultan was expecting a defensive reaction from the fort of Penukonda. Tirumala made Chennappa the supreme commander of the Vijayanagar army and resorted to diplomacy to buy some time for himself.

Tirumala assumed that his negotiations would result in Nizam Shah and Qutb Shah forming a common cause against Adil Shah. But instead these three secretly made a pact with each other and launched an attack on Tirumala in 1568.

The tripartite army attacked the Vijayanagara army at Adoni and Penugonda. Hard pressed in Adoni the Hindu armies capitulated but Tirumala and Chennappa put up a strong resistance at Penukonda and repulsed the attacking forces from the Telugu country. Tirumala then initiated negotiations with the Nayakas of Gingee, Tanjavur and Madurai and unified them to his cause of the defense of the South and Hindu Dharma. He appointed his 3 sons, Shriranga, Rama and Venkatapati as viceroys at Penukonda, Srirangapattanam and Chandragiri to respectively administer the Telugu, Kannada and Tamil divisions of the Vijayanagara kingdom. He then strengthened his army to deter any further attacks and finally ascended the throne with the title: “Reviver of the decadent Karnataka Empire”. In 1572, he felt he was too old to rule and retired to a religious life of Vishnubhakti until his passing away in 1578.

To be continued----

Ramana Muppalla

References:

1. https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2004/11/23/the-post-talikota-struggle/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkatapati_Deva_Raya
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayanagara_Empire
4. http://manybooks.net/titles/sewellroetext02fevch10.html
5. Chronicles of Domingos Paes and Fernao