Inscriptions of The Vijayanagara Rulers (Sanskrit Inscriptions Volume- VI)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

De Shrinivas Rini (h-1929) is the Convener of Inscriptions of India Programme instituted by Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. He began his career in the Govt Epigraphist's Office at Ootacamand (1955-64) and then worked in the Karnatak University, Dharwad, as Lecturer and later as Professor and Head of the Dept of Ancient Indian History and Epigraphy (1964-89). He also served as a member of the ICHR. His major works include The Seunas (Yadavas of Devagiri) and Volumes of Inscriptions from Nanded, Solapur and Kolhapur Districts. He has also edited A Descriptive Glossary of Administrative Terms in Ancient Karnataka Dr. Ritti is even now engaged in epigraphical studies and research. For his erudition in the subject he was presented with "Award of Excellence" by the Archaeological Survey of India on the occasion of Sesquicentennial Anniversary Celebrations in the year 2011. He presided over the 18th Annual Congress of the Epigraphical Society of India. He was also honoured with a Copper Plate Charter by the Society in recognition of his services to the field of Indian Epigraphy The Govt of Karnataka awarded him the "Suvama Karnataka Rajyotsava Prasasti" for the year 2007. The latest honour to his credit is the Campbell Memorial Gold Medal awarded by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai (2016).

The Vijayanagara kingdom was founded by two brothers Harihara and Bukka under the guidance and with the blessings of Swamy (Sage) Vidyaranya with the avowed object of protecting Hindu Dharma soon after the fall of mighty Kakatiyas, who resisted Muslim incursions from the north for a long time. Khaljis followed by Tughluqs ransacked almost the entire south and created calamitous situations in all walks of civil and cultural life. From this Mandhan (turmoil), rose the Vijayanagara and stood firmly providing stable and strong government ensuring peace and prosperity. Vijayanagara rulers patronized art, literature and culture for about two and a half centuries (14th-16th). Above all, the Vijayanagara strove to unite the entire south with its formidable force. At its zenith, it enjoyed virtual political control over the entire south. The Bahmanis and its later splinter dynasties were not able to oppose the Vijayanagara severally. Even after the fall of Vijayanagara, if south has not witnessed the devastating onslaughts like those of Tughlugs from the north, one may realize the impact of its rule which survived for centuries later.

The Vijayanagara was ruling over all most all linguistic regions of the south of which Telugu, Kannada and Tamil regions were larger both geographically and demographically. Sanskrit enjoyed a prominent place and also contributed to the development of vernaculars to reach the elite literary status. These vernaculars also received equal royal patronage and honour on par with Sanskrit. This multi-lingual kingdom was also keen in promoting these languages as the official languages in the respective regions. There- fore, we find numerous inscriptions issued by these kings, their chieftains and non-officials like prominent merchants, traders and Srenis, in various languages and scripts using stone, copper plates, palm-leaves etc.

With utmost satisfaction and contentment I venture to submit before the scholars this volume containing the Sanskrit inscriptions of Vijayanagara rulers which happens to be the sixth and the last volume of the Project Inscriptions of the Vijayanagara Rulers. As the scholars know, the Indian Council of Historical Research envisaged an extensive Project called the Inscriptions Programme to provide all available inscriptions of various dynasties already published but not easily accessible for reference to researchers since they are scattered in several old journals and periodicals like Indian Antiquary, South Indian Inscriptions, Epigraphia Indica, etc., some of which are obsolete and some others out of print. Several volumes of inscriptions of different dynasties have been published under this scheme.

Since the inscriptions of the Vijayanagara Rulers are very large in number it was planned to have a separate project for the publication of the volumes of Vijayanagara inscriptions and I was appointed Convener of the Project. I am glad that the Project was well thought of and well executed also. As a result of this, today, thanks to the encouragement from the authorities of the ICHR and the help of well-meaning scholars, all the inscriptions of the rulers of Vijayanagara are available in one place.

The Vijayanagara Empire extended over a vast region covering practically the whole area from the river Krishna to Kaveri and from the eastern sea to the western. The rulers of the empire issued inscriptions written in Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil languages. Under the Project mentioned above, as of now three volumes of Kannada inscriptions (Volumes 1-111, 1893 inscriptions), one of Telugu (Volume IV, 585 inscriptions), part I of Tamil (Volume V, Part 1, 576 inscriptions) and one of Sanskrit (Volume VI, 241 inscriptions) have already been made available to scholars for ready reference. We originally thought of covering the Tamil inscriptions in one volume but in view of their large number the volume is divided into two parts. Part II of the Tamil volume which contains about the same number of inscriptions as Part I is expected to be ready for press shortly. With the publication of that volume the whole Project will have been complete and all the volumes will be easily available for reference.

**Contents and Sample Pages**