Vijaynagar: The Empire, Its Kings, and Why Hampi Is in Ruins
Vijaynagar, or Vijayanagara, was a South Indian empire founded in 1336 with its capital at Hampi on the Tungabhadra river. This guide covers the four ruling dynasties, the reign of Krishnadevaraya, the defeat at Talikota in 1565, how the empire was administered, and what foreign travellers recorded about the city.
Vijaynagar, or Vijayanagara, was a South Indian empire founded in 1336 with its capital at Hampi on the Tungabhadra river. This guide covers the four ruling dynasties, the reign of Krishnadevaraya, the defeat at Talikota in 1565, how the empire was administered, and what foreign travellers recorded about the city.
What Vijaynagar was
Vijaynagar — properly Vijayanagara, "city of victory" — was a South Indian empire that lasted from 1336 to about 1646. Its capital stood on the south bank of the Tungabhadra river in present-day Karnataka, at the site now called Hampi. Two brothers, Harihara I and Bukka I of the Sangama family, founded it in the aftermath of Delhi Sultanate raids that had wrecked the Hoysala kingdom of Dwarasamudra and the Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal.
At its widest, under Krishnadevaraya in the early 1500s, the empire held almost the whole peninsula south of the Krishna river — modern Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and much of Kerala. Its permanent rival to the north was the Bahmani Sultanate, and later the five Deccan sultanates that replaced it. The two sides fought for decades over the Raichur doab, the fertile land between the Krishna and Tungabhadra.
If you were looking for a neighbourhood — Vijay Nagar in Indore, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Bengaluru or Mysuru — those places borrow the name. This page is about the empire.
The four dynasties, in order
Four families ruled Vijaynagar in succession. Each transition came through a strongman taking over from a weak or infant king, and each time the empire survived the change until the last one.
| Dynasty | Period | Key rulers | What defined it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sangama | 1336–1485 | Harihara I, Bukka I, Devaraya II | Foundation of the state and capital; long wars with the Bahmanis; Devaraya II recruited Muslim cavalry and archers into the army |
| Saluva | 1485–1505 | Saluva Narasimha | A commander seized the throne to stop the empire fragmenting; short and unstable |
| Tuluva | 1505–1570 | Vira Narasimha, Krishnadevaraya, Achyuta Deva Raya, Rama Raya (as regent) | The peak, then the disaster at Talikota in 1565 |
| Aravidu | 1570–1646 | Tirumala, Sriranga I, Venkata II | Capital shifted to Penukonda, then Chandragiri and Vellore; the empire shrank until provincial nayakas became independent |
Krishnadevaraya, the high point
Krishnadevaraya ruled from 1509 to 1529 and is the name most exam questions and most tourist guides land on. He beat the Bahmani forces, took Raichur from Adil Shah of Bijapur in 1520, subdued the Gajapati ruler of Odisha and reached as far as Cuttack, and kept the Portuguese at Goa as trading partners rather than enemies.
He also wrote. Amuktamalyada, a Telugu poem on the saint Andal, is credited to him and contains blunt advice on statecraft: keep the land irrigated, treat merchants well, do not let the treasury sit idle. Eight celebrated poets, the ashtadiggajas, including Allasani Peddana, worked at his court. The Vitthala temple complex at Hampi with its stone chariot, and the Hazara Rama temple that served the royal family, both belong to this era of building.
Talikota, 1565: the break
Krishnadevaraya's successors were weaker, and real power passed to Rama Raya, a regent from the Aravidu family. Rama Raya played the Deccan sultanates against each other for years. It worked until they stopped falling for it. Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar allied and met the Vijayanagara army in January 1565 near the villages of Rakkasa and Tangadi, a battle usually called Talikota.
Rama Raya was killed on the field and the army collapsed. What followed was worse than the defeat itself: the victorious armies entered the capital and looted and burned it over several months. The city never recovered. The Aravidu kings ruled on from Penukonda and later Vellore for another eighty years, but the empire had become a name attached to shrinking territory, and its nayakas at Madurai, Thanjavur and Gingee went their own way.
How it was run, and what visitors saw
The empire was held together by the amara-nayaka system. Military commanders received territory to administer, kept a share of the revenue, paid tribute in cash and maintained a fixed number of horses, elephants and soldiers for the king. It raised armies quickly and it also built the local power that outlasted the centre. At village level, the ayagar system gave twelve functionaries — accountant, watchman, blacksmith, priest and others — tax-free land in return for service.
Revenue came mainly from land, plus taxes on trade, ports, professions and irrigation works. Temples were economic institutions as much as religious ones: they held land, lent money and employed hundreds.
Much of what we know about the city comes from outsiders who walked through it and wrote it down.
| Traveller | From | When | Noted for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolo Conti | Venice | c. 1420 | Earliest European account of the capital's size and fortifications |
| Abdur Razzaq | Timurid Persia (Herat) | 1443 | Described seven concentric walls and the bazaars of the city |
| Domingo Paes | Portugal | c. 1520 | Called it as large as Rome; described Krishnadevaraya's court and the Mahanavami festival |
| Fernao Nuniz | Portugal | c. 1535 | Chronicle of the dynasties and court intrigue |
| Duarte Barbosa | Portugal | c. 1516 | Trade, ports and the diamond and horse markets |
What is left at Hampi
The ruins spread over roughly 26 square kilometres of granite boulders and banana fields, and they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Virupaksha temple is still a working shrine with daily worship. The Vitthala complex, the stone chariot, the Lotus Mahal, the elephant stables, the Krishna bazaar street and the huge Ugra Narasimha monolith are within a day's walk or a cheap bicycle ride of each other. Hospet, about 13 km away, is the nearest railhead.
The useful thing about Vijaynagar is what its ending shows. The empire's strength — handing land and troops to regional commanders — was also the crack it split along. When the centre lost one battle, the parts simply carried on without it.
FAQs
Who founded the Vijayanagara Empire and in which year?
Harihara I and his brother Bukka I, of the Sangama family, founded it in 1336. They had earlier served the Kakatiyas or the Hoysalas, and were guided, by tradition, by the sage Vidyaranya, after whom the capital's core area Vidyanagara was named.
Which river flows past Hampi?
The Tungabhadra. The capital was built on its south bank, and the river's water fed a network of canals and tanks that supported the city's farms and gardens.
Why did the Vijayanagara Empire and the Bahmani Sultanate fight so often?
Mainly over the Raichur doab, the fertile strip between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, and over control of the west-coast ports through which Arabian horses were imported. Both needed those horses for their cavalry, so the ports were a strategic prize, not just a commercial one.
Is Vijayanagara the same as Vijayanagar or Vijaynagar?
Yes. Vijayanagara is the standard spelling, and Vijayanagar and Vijaynagar are common shortened forms of the same name. The modern village and archaeological site is called Hampi, and the surrounding district in Karnataka is now named Vijayanagara.
What happened to the empire after 1565?
The Aravidu dynasty kept ruling from Penukonda, then Chandragiri and Vellore, until about 1646. Real power drained away to provincial nayakas at Madurai, Thanjavur, Gingee and Mysore, and later to the Sultanate of Bijapur and Golconda.
What language and literature flourished under Vijayanagara rule?
Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Sanskrit all had royal patronage. Krishnadevaraya's own Amuktamalyada in Telugu and the works of the ashtadiggajas at his court are the best-known examples, alongside Kannada Virashaiva and Vaishnava writing.