hello guys and welcome to another edition of the defenders of India series
last week I put out a poll and you guys answered the poll pretty emphatically a
lot of you wanted me to talk about Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara
Empire so that's who we are going to talk about today krishna deva raya was
an emperor of the vijayanagar empire who reigned from 1509 to 1529. he is the
third ruler of the Tuluva dynasty krishna deva raya was the son of Tuluva Narasa Nayaka an army commander under Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya who
later took control of the Empire to prevent its disintegration. Krishnadevaraya
was friendly with the Portuguese and thus many Portuguese travelers visited
Vijayanagara they indicated that the king was not
only an able administrator but also an excellent general leading from the front
in battle and even attending to the wounded Krishnadevaraya was
instrumental in establishing the strength of the Vijayanagara empire and and
in establishing the same he defeated all the various Deccan Sultanate's as well
this is why the famous South Indian poet Muku Timmana praised him as "the
destroyer of the Turks" he became the dominant ruler of the
peninsula of India by defeating the Sultan's of BIjapur, Golconda the
Bahmani Sultanate and the Gajapatis of Odisha. towns and villages on
the border between the vijayanagara empire and the Deccan sultanates always
lived in fear because of the various annual raids that the Deccan Sultan's
would carry out in these bordering towns does the annual affair of the raid and
plunder or Vijayanagara towns and villages by the Deccan Sultans came to an end
during the rise rule. in 1509 Krishnadevaraya's armies clashed with the
Sultan of Bijapur at divani and the Sultan Mahmud was severely
injured and defeated. Yusuf Adil Khan was killed and the Raichur Doab was
annexed taking advantage of the victory and the disunity of the bahaminy
Sultan's the raya invaded Bidar, gulbarga and bijapur and earned the
title establisher of the Yavana kingdom the Sultana of golconda Sultan Quli Qutub Shah was also defeated by Timmarusu so who was the prime minister of
Krishnadevaraya. He then launched a campaign towards the Andhra
and Odisha he defeated the Musunuri kammas of Khamma and Velamas of
Bhuvangiri who were the Feudatories of Gajapathi kings
of Odisha and seized lands up to the krishna river ganga raj the Ummatoor
chief fought Krishnadevaraya on the banks of the Kaveri and was defeated the
chief later drowned in the Kaveri in 1512. Thus, after his victories in 1516
and 1517 he pushed towards the Godavari River after defeating Ganga Raja, he
launched a campaign into coastal Andhra region which was in control of the
Gajapathi prathap rudhra dev the Vijayanagara army laid siege to the Udaygiri fort in
1512 and after a long and bloody struggle the Udaygiri Fort fell
into the hands of the Vijayanagara empire krishna deva raya then planned for an
invasion of the mainland Kalinga-Utkal, but the Gajapati emperor's
prataprudhra already had ideas of Krishnadevaraya's plans to attack Kalinga
directly so he was preparing an ambush for Krishnadevaraya. however, Krishnadevaraya's
wily prime minister Timmarusu he actually found a Kalinga deserter and
thus found out the plans to ambush Krishnadevaraya, thus allowing the Raya
to get a massive advantage in the battle and Thus, The Gajapati emperor Pratap Rudra
had to retreat as far back as Cuttack. after that Pratap brother David
surrendered to the Vijayanagar Empire and the two kingdoms signed a treaty and
as per the treaty the Krishna River became the boundary of the Vijayanagara
and the Odisha kingdoms. One of the main points of Krishnadevaraya'sreign occurred
in May 1520 when he secured the fortress of Raichur from Ismail Adil
Shah of Bijapurt. Ismaill Adil Shah of Bijapur had established himself as the
most powerful of the Deccan Sultanate he had defeated the Sultanate of Berar,
Ahmednagar, Golconda and bidar. so the details of the battle to take the
fortress of Raichur was provided by a portuguese traveler named Fernao Nunez
he reported that after a difficult siege in which an estimated 16,000 Vijaynagara
soldiers were killed the fortress of Raichu was finally in the hands of the
Vijayanagara Empire the exploits of the chief military commander of Vijayanagar
army Pemmasani Ramalinga Nayudu, during the battle of Raichur, were also
recognized and rewarded by the grateful Emperor Krishnadevaraya. then
finally in what was his last battle he destroyed to the ground the fortress
of Gulbarga which was the early capital of the Bahamani Sultanate. his Empire thus,
extended over the whole of South India. what's also again important to remember
is that this is not a king that sat on the sidelines while his armies fought he
was often the one leading the charge in front of the armies into battle in 1524
he made his son, Tirumala Raya, The crown prince
however the crown prince did not survive for long he was poisoned and died
suspecting the involvement of Timmarusu, his advisor Krishnadevaraya had
his trusted commander and advisor blinded at the same time, Krishnadevaraya
was preparing for an attack on belgaum that was in Adil Shah's possession
Krishnadevaraya took seriously ill during this time and he died soon after
in 1529 Krishnadevaraya rule is widely regarded as one of the golden periods of
the Vijayanagara empire he abolished unnecessary taxes he maintained a strict
check on his ministers and he developed massive integration programs and
agricultural programs as well foreign travelers such as Paes, Nunez and Barbosa
who visitedVijayanagara, spoke highly of the efficiency of administration and the
prosperity of the people during his reign Barbosa a portuguese traveler
considered vision eager to be the best provided city in the world with a
population of not less than half a million people the administrative
languages of the Empire were Kannada and Telugu the latter was also the court
language and even though Krishnadevaraya was a staunch Hindu and a very proud
Hindu but he was also very tolerant and accepting of other ways of life and that
is something that was noted by the traveler Barbosa who visited Vijayanagara as
well he said the "King allows such freedom that every man may come and go
live according to his own Creed without suffering and annoyance". Krishnadevaraya was also a big patron of the Arts the eight Giants of Telugu poetry
collectively known as the Ashtadiggajalu were also part of his code including
the legendary tenaliraman whose stories are famous all across India
Raya himself authored several works in Sanskrit, Madalasa Charita, Satyavadu Parinaya,
and jambavati kalyana and this is one of the reasons why all Indians must
be so thankful to the Vijayanagar Kingdom and various southern kingdoms in
general as well it is because these kingdoms of the south played such an
important role in maintaining and preserving Hindu literature Hindu
culture and Hindu languages and the Hindu Way of life while the vast
majority of northern Indians were suffering under
the Islamic rule it was these kingdoms in the south that took up the mantle of
preserving Hinduism and Hindus way of life under the Vijayanagara Empire and
under the various southern kingdoms our culture thrived our languages flourished
and our literature blossomed and for that we owe them a huge debt of
gratitude and this is why the whole south north divide and the dislike that
some people in the north have towards the south and vice versa it makes no
sense because we're all on the same team here we're all fighting to preserve our
heritage and our culture's and we're all very very proud of our culture which is
evident in our long history and that is why when you truly get to read history
when you truly immerse yourself in India's history all this Dravidian
politics and ideology and pseudo history it doesn't really make sense because
these are people, kingdoms of the south of most famous kingdoms of the South
that are proudly Hindu and that proudly defend and bravely fight for Hinduism
again guys thank you very much for watching today's episode if you liked
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