Vijayanagara: The Last Emperors of South India, Fall of Civ.

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Plant life would have gradually crept in to reclaim the empty streets.



Soon after its abandonment, the stones of Vijayanagara would have sprouted with grasses. Banana and coconut palms would have begun to spring up in the streets



and yards. The wiry branches of the frangipani tree would burst up through



the temple courtyards, lifting the flagstones with their roots, while perennial weeds like the lion's ear and prickly pears would have



sprouted between the cobblestones. The kings of Vijayanagara who fled the



destruction of the city did continue to rule in a much diminished form for several more decades, and shifted their courts to their remaining territories in southern Andhra. In their grandeur and ceremony, their



processions and festivals, they attempted to recreate the splendor of their past, but in reality, they would never again



wield power in the same way. The glorious days of the great capital were now a distant memory. Like their great rivals the Delhi Sultanate and Bahmani Sultanate before them, they now ruled over a tiny portion



of what they once had. By the dawn of the 17th century, that power, too, evaporated, and the last of Vijayanagara's Nayaka lords went their separate ways. With the economic heart ripped out of the empire, without the booming economy of the temples and the markets of the



great metropolis, the surrounding towns and villages also went into decline. Port towns far away on the western coast like Bhatkal and on the eastern coast like Pulicat also shrunk around this time.



The dance of Shiva went on, and another great empire had passed into ruins. The historian Manu Pillai describes this time. The lessons for the sultans in the northern Deccan from this episode should have been clear; it was the inability of the Deccan's



ancient rulers, the Kakatiyas, Hoysalas, and Yadavas, to join together against their common enemy that led to the fall of their order at the hands of the Khiljis and Tughlaqs.



When the Bahmani Sultanate emerged, its leaders too ultimately failed to reign in dissension, and in only a few generations, the kingdom was on its way to decline and disintegration. The rebel sultans who seceded from the Bahmanis continued this tradition by constantly feuding with one another, but



Ramaraya's ambition reminded them at last that in the game they were playing, they were all destined to suffer as losers.



Together then, they rose against Ramaraya and demolished Vijayanagar for once and forever, achieving in a stroke something that even they perhaps could not have believed was entirely possible.



In the following years, in the north of India, a new power would rise in Delhi, founded by a warrior



chieftain from Uzbekistan. He was Turco-Mongolian in ethnicity, and today we know the dynasty he founded by a name derived from the Persian word for



Mongol.



The age of the Mughals had dawned, and a new, glorious stage of Indian history would now begin. But the center of Indian power would now



forever be in the north. Around the same time, another much more underwhelming event would take place,



far from the resplendent finery of the Mughal court that would have perhaps an even greater impact on the history of this land.



In the year 1626, little more than 60 years after the battle of Talikota, the



British East India Company built its first fortified port near the coastal



town of Pulicat. This town was once the gateway by sea to the Vijayanagara Empire, and through here,



the empire had traded with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and China. But in the decades since, the port town had fallen on hard times.

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The fort the British built was shoddy and indefensible, and the trading company abandoned it after only six years. But two years later, the British tried again a little further to the south, at a



small fishing village called Madraspatnam. It's said that the site was chosen because the head of the company factory, a man named Francis Day, had fallen in



love with a Tamil girl who lived nearby.



At this time, the land was ruled by one of the lords left over from the fragmented and scattered Vijayanagara Empire. He was more than happy to grant a lease to that small bit of humble land to this foreign company



in exchange for a share of their takings. This was the first true foothold of the British East India Company in India, a foothold that would grow into colonial domination of the entire land mass, and it came out of the weakness and dissolution of the empire of



Vijayanagara.



I want to end this episode with an extract from the epic poem Aamuktamaalyada, a masterpiece composed by the last great king of Vijayanagara, Krishna Devaraya, in the early 16th century, in the final decades of his empire.



It tells the story of a wedding between the god Vishnu and one of his wives, the saint Andal. In this extract, a king overhears a Brahmin priest preaching, and is suddenly



struck with a sense of the temporary, fleeting nature of life and the passing glory of great empires. I think in this moment you get a sense



for its author, Krishna Devaraya, struggling with his own impermanence, a



keen awareness of his own mortality, and the fleeting nature of his empire. As you listen,



imagine what it would feel like to wander the streets of the great stone capital of Vijayanagara, now emptied of all life. Imagine watching the vines and creepers push their way between its stones, the monkeys clambering over the staircases



of broken brick reaching up to the sky. Imagine watching the once great reservoirs and bath houses fill up with weeds and water lilies, the great towers



of the temples now home to bats and wild dogs. Imagine watching the sun set over this great empire as the dance of Shiva, the



dance of creation and destruction, goes on and on into eternity.



On his way, he overheard



the visiting Brahman recite another wise saying; he said just as you should gather provisions for the rainy season in the eight months before the monsoon, ou should prepare for night



during the day, for old age when still young, and for the next life right now, in this life. While you still can,



you should try your very best



to lead a righteous life.



These words about life's inevitable future pierced the king's soul. The king listened to the proverb, reflected on it in his heart, understood its meaning, and stopped. He was stunned,



overwhelmed, and petrified. He froze and stood in the middle of the road in utter distress. He thought to himself,



oh, what is this glorious empire? What are these pleasures? Why these emotions? This body is nothing but a bubble about



to burst. Even Manu, the primal man, who was born at the dawn of time, was ultimately destroyed, trampled by the great god of death. The joys of an empire are as fleeting as lightning. Just as travelers ferried to the far shore without even noticing the movements of the boat,



so too does time pass, quickly, without our realizing it, and in this trance, life passes us by. Thank you once again for listening to The Fall of Civilizations Podcast.



I’d like to thank my voice actors for this episode, Peter Walters, Chris Harvey, Michael Hajiantonis, Kim Heron, Nick Denton, and Paul Casselle. Readings in Sanskrit were performed by Pranav Iyengar. Acting as a special consultant on this episode was Manu Pillai, author of the book Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji. Manu's new book, False Allies, about India's Maharajahs, is available to buy now. I'd like to thank my researchers on this episode, Ciaran Falvey and Brian Stolk, and I'd also like to thank my archival researcher, Joe Macdonald, for rooting through the archives in the British Library for Colin Mackenzie's unpublished account of his visit to Hampi. Krishna Devaraya's Āmuktamālyada was translated by Srinivas Reddy. Joining us on this episode was the virtuoso of Carnatic music, Aruna Sairam, who recorded seven incredible tracks of traditional Carnatic classical music, including her own compositions based on the poetry written by King Krishna Devaraya. If you enjoyed these tracks, they will be available to download for all Patreon subscribers. I love to hear your thoughts and responses on Twitter.