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- The Vijayanagara Empire ( referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese, was a South Indian empire based in the Deccan Plateau. Established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I, it lasted until 1646 although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates.
- Harihara I, (1336-1356 CE) also called Hakka and Vira Harihara I, was the founder of the Vijayanagara empire. He was Bhavana Sangama’s eldest son, belonged to the kuruba clan and was founder of the Sangama dynasty, the first among the four dynasties that ruled Vijayanagara. Immediately after coming to power, he built a fort at Barkuru, on the west coast of present day Karnataka.
- The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara, whose impressive ruins surround modern Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in modern Karnataka, India.
- The Sangama Dynasty was the first dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire.
- Vijayanagara Empire
Sangama Dynasty Harihara Raya I 1336-1356 Bukka Raya I 1356-1377 Harihara Raya II 1377-1404 Virupaksha Raya 1404-1405 Bukka Raya II 1405-1406 Deva Raya I 1406-1422 Ramachandra Raya 1422 Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya 1422-1424 Deva Raya II 1424-1446 Mallikarjuna Raya 1446-1465 Virupaksha Raya II 1465-1485 Praudha Raya 1485 Saluva Dynasty Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya 1485-1491 Thimma Bhupala 1491 Narasimha Raya II 1491-1505 Tuluva Dynasty Tuluva Narasa Nayaka 1491-1503 Viranarasimha Raya 1503-1509 Krishna Deva Raya 1509-1529 Achyuta Deva Raya 1529-1542 Sadasiva Raya 1542-1570 Aravidu Dynasty Aliya Rama Raya 1542-1565 Tirumala Deva Raya 1565-1572 Sriranga I 1572-1586 Venkata II 1586-1614 Sriranga II 1614-1614 Ramadeva 1617-1632 Venkata III 1632-1642 Sriranga III
During the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire, poets, scholars and philosophers wrote in Sanskrit and the regional languages, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil and covered such subjects as religion, biography, Prabhanda (fiction), music, grammar, poetry and medicine. The Telugu language became a popular literary medium, reaching its peak under the patronage of Krishnadevaraya.
Most Sanskrit works were commentaries either on the Vedas or on the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, written by well known figures such as Sayana and Vidyaranya that extolled the superiority of the Advaita philosophy over other rival Hindu philosophies. Other writers were famous Dvaita saints of the Udupi order such as Jayatirtha (earning the title Tikacharya for his polemicial writings), Vyasatirtha who wrote rebuttals to the Advaita philosophy and of the conclusions of earlier logicians, and Vadirajatirtha and Sripadaraya both of whom criticised the beliefs of Adi Sankara.Apart from these saints, noted Sanskrit scholars adorned the courts of the Vijayanagara kings and their feudatory chiefdoms. Many kings of the dynasty were themselves litterateurs and authored classics such as King Krishnadevaraya's Jambavati Kalyana, a poetic and dramatically skillful work.
