Origin of Vijayanagara Empire - Kannadiga Origin Theory

Kannadiga Origin Theory

Scholars such as Rothermund, B.L Rice, P.B. Desai, Saletore, Henry Heras, Suryanatha Kamath, Karmakar and S.K. Aiyangar claim that the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire were Kannadigas and related to the Hoysala dynasty. Though controversies over the role of Vidyaranya in the founding of the empire exist, it is well accepted that he was an important individual at the powerful Shringeri monastic order, though he became the head of the order around 1380, a few decades after the founding of the empire.

According to these historians, recent modern epigraphal research and interpretation of these inscriptions (not available to earlier historians) support the theory that the founders of the empire were local princes under the service of the last of the Hoysala kings. According to them, inscriptions prove that Harihara I and Bukka Raya I were in the Hoysala service a decade before their arrival at Kampili (in modern Bellary district). Not only did the widow of Hoysala Veera Ballala III participate in the coronation of Harihara I in 1346, her name appears before that of the founding King Harihara I in a 1349 inscription, indicating he gained legitimacy for being a devoted heir of the Hoysala legacy. Further, according to William Coelho and Heras, it is known that the original founding of the capital Vijayanagara was in 1320 by Veera Ballala III, the city then being known as Vijayavirupaksha Hosapattana. According to Eaton, By 1344, the transfer of power from the Hoysala Empire to the emerging Vijayanagara Empire seems to have been gradual and without bloodshed, as ex-Hoysala officers melted away from a crumbling Hoysala power to support the Sangama cause. Historian Kamath argues that in 1346, Harihara I made a grant to Bharati Tirtha, the Shringeri pontiff in the presence of Krishnayitayi, queen of the slain Hoysala king Veera Ballala III (who herself made a grant on the same day). Harihara I was a commander in the Hoysala Kingdom and had been appointed by Veera Ballala III with autonomous powers after the fall of the Seuna (Yadava dynasty) and Kampili kingdoms, to administer the northern territories. Also, the very first fortress Harihara I built was at Barakuru in coastal Karnataka in 1336, when he was a Hoysala commander in charge of its northern territories from his seat in Gutti (modern Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh), at that time a Hoysala territory. He assumed the Kannada titles Purvapaschima Samudradhishvara (lit, "Master of eastern and western and oceans"), Arirayavibhada (lit, "fire to the enemy kings") and Bhashegetappuvarayaraganda (lit, "punisher of the ruler who failed to keep a promise"). According to Kamath, when Veera Ballala III died fighting the Sultan of Madurai, Harihara I seems to have gained sovereign powers over the entire Hoysala territory.

The historian Saletore pointed out that that even famous Telugu scholars such as Vallabharaya and Srinatha called the Sangama brothers Karnata Kshitinatha in their writings, indicating they were a Kannada family. An early inscription of Harihara II called him "Lion to the scent elephant of the Andhra king", demonstrating their anti-Telugu propensity. According to the epigraphist and historian P.B. Desai, the Persian author Ferishta of the Vijayanagara days wrote of the emperors "Roies of Karnataka". According to Kamath, the Kannada writings of that time such as Chikkadevaraya Vamshavali and Keladinripa Vijayam claim that the Sangama brothers were Kannadigas by linguistic affinity, making them people of Karnataka Regarding the earliest modern work written on the history of the Vijayanagara Empire by Robert Sewell (A Forgotten Empire, 1901) Kamath claims that Sewell had not used all sources but had copiously used travellogues and other works by only European travellers.

Kamath points out that almost half of the Vijayanagar Empire inscriptions, out of a total of 7000 available to us, are in Kannada. The Kings used titles such as Bhashegetappuva rayara ganda, Moorurayaraganda and Arirayadatta which are pure Kannada language titles. Their remaining inscriptions are in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil. According to Appadurai, The "Karnataka Empire" or Vijayanagar Empire was originally of the Karnataka region and it drew its inspirations from the Hoysala Empire and the Western Ganga Dynasty of the Karnataka and the Chola and Pandya of the Tamil country. According to Henry Heras, inscriptional evidence shows that Ballappa Dandanayaka, a nephew of Hoysala Veera Ballala III was married to a daughter of Harihara I, the founding king of the empire. This is claimed proof enough of the association Sangama brothers had with the Hoysala family.

According to the historians Saletore, P.B. Desai and Henry Heras, the theory of capture of Harihara I and Bukka Raya I by the Sultan of Delhi and conversion to Islam is false and that the testimony of epigraphs proves that the area around Hampi constituted their homeland. The empire never had a Telugu origin. The patron saint of the early kings was saint Vidyaranya, the 12th Shankaracharya of Sringeri in Karnataka, and this is proof enough of their unquestionable identity with the Kannada country. About the Muslim records that claim a Telugu origin of Harihara I and Bukka Raya, these historians feel, the records are neither unanimous nor reliable in their claims. In those days of religious rigidity, it is too far-fetched to accept a theory of conversion to Islam and re-conversion to Hinduism while still managing to win the trust and loyalty of Hindu subjects in an hour of impending invasions. According to Kamath, the great devotion the founders of the empire had in Lord Chennakeshava of Belur and Lord Virupaksha of Hampi testifies to their origin from Kannada country, though in political and administrative matters, the Vijayanagar kings followed the Hoysala, Kakatiya, Chola framework in the various provincial regions of the empire. The Sangama brothers even signed their Sanskrit records in Kannada (as Srivirupaksha) and used their Kannada titles even in their Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit records. No Telugu titles were used by them. A popular chieftain and patriot of those times, prince Kumara Rama of Kummatadurga or simply Kummata (capital of the tiny Kampili kingdom in Bellary District) may have been related to Sangama, father of Harihar I. This evidence exists in a literary piece by poet Nanjunda (Kumara Rama Charita). According to Kamath, the early Vijayanagar kings raised memorials at Sandur, Chitradurga and Dharwad to sing the glory of Kumara Rama's valor and show their continued efforts to build an empire in his legacy. All this proves the matrimonial relations the Sangama family had with the Kummata family.