🌍CBSE Class 12th History Chapter-7 An Imperial Capital Vijayanagara Notes 📚

LEANING OBJECTIVE

• Introduction
• The Discovery of Hampi
• Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans
• Vijayanagara The Capital and its Environs
• The Royal Centre
• The Sacred Centre
• Plotting Palaces, Temples and Bazaars

Introduction

Vijayanagara or “city of victory” was the name of both a city and Empire. The Empire was founded in the 14th century by Harihara and Bukka in 1336.The Empire stretched from the river Krishna in the north to the extreme south of the peninsula.

The Discovery of Hampi

• The ruins at Hampi were brought to light in 1800 by an engineer and antiquarian named Colonel Colin Mackenzie.

• An employee of the English East India Company, he prepared the first survey map of the site.

• Much of the initial information he received was based on the memories of priests of the Virupaksha temple and the shrine of Pampadevi.

Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans

• According to tradition and epigraphic evidence, two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336. ·

• Guru Vidyaranya inspired them to establish the empire. The empire included different people who spoke different languages and followed different religious traditions.

Kings and traders

• Warfare heavily relied on effective cavalry during this period.Import of horses from Arabia and Central Asia crucial for rival kingdoms. Initially, Arab traders controlled the horse trade.

• Local communities of merchants, known as kudirai chettis or horse merchants, also participated in horse trade.Portuguese arrived on the west coast, establishing trading and military stations.

• Portuguese had superior military technology, including muskets, making them significant players in regional politics.Vijayanagara known for markets in spices, textiles, and precious stones.

• Trade considered a status symbol for cities like Vijayanagara, indicating wealth and demand for high-value exotic goods.Cities boasted a wealthy population with a demand for precious stones and jewelry.

The apogee and decline of the empire

• The first dynasty, known as the Sangama dynasty, exercised control till 1485. They were supplanted by the Saluvas, who were replaced by the Tuluvas in 1503.

• Krishnadeva Raya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty. His rule was characterised by expansion and consolidation.

• Krishnadeva Raya is credited with building some fine temples and adding impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples.

• Strain began to show within the imperial structure following Krishnadeva Raya’s death in 1529. His successors were troubled by rebellious nayakas or military chiefs.
• During this period, as indeed earlier, the military ambitions of the Deccan Sultanates resulted in shifting alignments. Eventually this led to an alliance of the Sultanates against Vijayanagara.

• Although the armies of the Sultans were responsible for the destruction of the city of Vijayanagara, relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile.

• In fact the Vijayanagara kings were keen to ensure the stability of the Sultanates and vice versa.

The rayas and the nayakas

• Nayakas were military chiefs who usually controlled forts and had armed supporters. They moved from one area to another, and in many cases were accompanied by peasants looking for fertile land on which to settle.

• They usually spoke Telugu or Kannada. They were military commanders who were given territories to govern by the raya. They collected taxes and other dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders in the area.

Vijayanagara The Capital and its Environs

Water Resources: 

• Vijayanagara had the natural basin formed by the river Tungabhadra which flows in a north-easterly direction. A number of streams flow down to the river from the granite hills. 

• Embankments were built along these streams to create reservoirs of varying sizes. For the most arid zones of the peninsula, elaborate arrangements had to be made to store rainwater. 

• The most important such tank was built in the early years of the fifteenth century and is now called Kamalapuram tank. One of the most prominent waterworks to be seen among the ruins is the Hiriya canal.

Fortifications and roads: 

• Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia to Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in the fifteenth century, was greatly impressed by the fortifications, and mentioned seven lines of forts which encircled not only the city but also its agricultural hinterland and forests.

• The archaeologists have also found evidence of an agricultural tract between the sacred centre and the urban core. This tract was serviced by an elaborate canal system drawing water from the Tungabhadra.

• A second line of fortification went round the inner core of the urban complex, and a third line surrounded the royal centre, within which each set of major buildings was surrounded by its own high walls. 

• Roads generally wound around through the valleys, avoiding rocky terrain. Some of the most important roads extended from temple gateways, and were lined by bazaars.

The urban core: 

• Archaeologists have found evidence of the houses of ordinary people along the road. Fine Chinese porcelain were also found from Muslim residential quarter. 

• Tombs and mosques were located there but had their architecture like that of the mandapas found in the temples of Hampi. Field surveys indicate that the entire area was dotted with numerous shrines and small temples which proves a variety of cults existed and were supported by different communities.

The Royal Centre

The royal centre was located in the south-western part of the settlement. About thirty building complexes have been identified as palaces. One difference between these structures and temples is that the latter were constructed entirely of masonry, while the superstructure of the secular buildings was made of perishable materials.

The mahanavami dibba: 

• The “king’s palace” has two of the most impressive platforms, usually called the “audience hall” and the “mahanavami dibba”. The entire complex is surrounded by high double walls with a street running between them. 

• The audience hall is a high platform with slots for wooden pillars at close and regular intervals. Located on one of the highest points in the city, the “mahanavami dibba” is a massive platform rising from a base of about 11,000 sq. ft to a height of 40 ft.

• There is evidence that it supported a wooden structure. The base of the platform is covered with relief carvings. Rituals associated with the structure probably coincided with Mahanavami (literally, the great ninth day) of the Hindu festival during the autumn months of September and October. The Vijayanagara kings displayed their prestige, power and suzerainty on this occasion.

Other buildings in the royal centre: 

One of the most beautiful buildings in the royal centre is the Lotus Mahal, so named by British travellers in the nineteenth century. While most temples were located in the sacred centre, there were several in the royal centre as well. One of the most spectacular of these is one known as the Hazara Rama temple.

The Sacred Centre

Choosing a capital

• Vijayanagara’s capital was chosen at the rocky northern end of the city on the banks of the Tungabhadra River.The area was associated with sacred traditions, including the monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva from the Ramayana, and the penance of Pampadevi to marry Virupaksha.

• Annual celebration of the marriage of Pampadevi and Virupaksha in the Virupaksha temple.The region also housed Jaina temples from the pre-Vijayanagara period.The region had a history of temple building by dynasties like Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, and Cholas.

• Rulers encouraged temple building to associate themselves with the divine, often identifying the deity with the king.Temples served as centers of learning and were significant in religious, social, cultural, and economic aspects.

• The title “Hindu Suratrana” reflected their close links with the gods, a Sanskritisation of the Arabic term Sultan, meaning Hindu Sultan.Rulers innovated by displaying royal portrait sculptures in temples and treating king’s temple visits as important state occasions accompanied by empire’s nayakas.

Gopurams and mandapas

• Raya gopurams or royal gateways often dwarfed the towers of the central shrines and signaled the presence of temple from great distance.

• They were also probably meant as reminders of the power of the kings, able to command the resources, techniques and skills needed  to construct these towering gateways.

• The Virupaksha temple was built over centuries while inscriptions suggest that the earliest shrine dated to the nine-tenth centuries.It was substantially enlarged with the establishment of the Vijayanagara empire.

Plotting Palaces, Temples and Bazaars

•  In 1976 , Hampi was  recognized as a site on national importance.

•  Then in the early 1980s an important project was lunched to document the material remains of Vijayanagara in detail through extensive and intensive surveys, using a variety of recording techniques.

• John M Frinz, George Michell and M S Nagaraja Rao, who worked for years at the site.

• They wrote” in our study of these monuments of Vijayanagara  we have to imagine a whole series of vanished wooden elements- columns ,brackets, beams ceilings, and towers decorated with plaster and painted perhaps brightly.”

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