16 6 august 2018in Vijayanagara the size of a small hen’s egg.’
this may well be the earliest extant reference to the legendary
Koh-i-noor. Yet the wonders of Vijayanagara were not just matter
of gold, silver and precious stones: the City of Victory was also a
major centre of South Indian culture— retaining and developing
the best of that which had been salvaged from the wreck of the
three greatest empires of southern history: the Pallavas, the Cha-
lukyas and above all the mighty Cholas of tanjore. Perhaps the
most remarkable and celebrated of the city’s intellectuals, and the
principal catalyst for its rich civilisation, was also its greatest ruler.
Krishnadevaraya (r. 1509-30) ascended the throne on July
26, 1509, and ruled Vijayanagara at the height of its fame and
power. he doubled the size of the empire in less than a decade,
taking great swathes of territory from his neighbours, the
Deccani Muslim Sultans of Bijapur and Gulbarga and the tamil
hindus of Srirangapatnam. he also adopted some aspects of
Islamic culture that he admired in his neighbours, especially
aspects of diplomatic dress and customs. he also introduced
firearms and canon, importing horses, improving fortifications
and creating a remarkably effective revenue department to
power the workings of his state.
the epitome of a profoundly cultured courtly South Indian
ruler, like a Renaissance prince he was a great patron of writers
in Sanskrit, tamil, Kannada and telugu—as well as of painters,
architects and sculptors, generating around him a remarkable
age of artistic, intellectual and literary creativity. One of his court
poets, allasani Peddana, hinted at the closeness of the bonds that
developed between Krishnadevaraya and the writers he admired:
While guards stood by,
Fearless men with terrifying swords of blinding brightness,
And tributary kings surrounded him...
His heart was moved by the sweetness
Of poetry and, from his throne,
He spoke to me with great kindness.
But he also found time to write poetry himself, some of
which survives. his epic, the Amuktamalyada, or the Giver of
the Worn Garland, remains one of the brightest mirrors to the
wealth, beauty, sophistication and sheer sensuality of Vijay-
anagara at its peak. In some parts of the poem, he writes of the
economic duties of kings, so encouraging prosperity:
A King should improve the harbours of his country and so encourage
its commerce that horses, elephants, precious gems, sandalwood and
pearls are freely imported. Make the merchants of distant countries who
import elephants and good horses be attached to yourself by providing
them with a daily audience, presents and allowing decent profits.
another work traditionally attributed to Krishnadevaraya,It is a simple and attractive vision, and one that at first sight looks entirely
plausible. Naipaul’s musings are eloquently and brilliantly written, and are a
key to understanding his view of India as a country whose ancient civilisation
was ‘mortally wounded’ by invasion, and which is still stultified by the effect of
centuries of ‘defeat’. The problem is that these ideas rest on a set of
assumptions which recent scholarship has done much to undermine