Sri Krishnadevaraya (శ్రీ క్రిశ్ణదేవరాయ, also transliterated as Srikrishnarayalu and other ways) was a Vijaynagar emperor who presided over the empire at its zenith and ruled from 1509 until his death in 1529, and is today a hero of people of Telugu descent in South India. Much of our information about his reign comes from the accounts of Portuguese travelers Domingos Paes and Nuniz. Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one script into another script. ... The Vijayanagara empire was based in the Deccan, in peninsular and southern India, from 1336 onwards. ... Events February 2 - Battle of Diu took place near Diu, India. ... Events April 22 - Treaty of Saragossa divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal, stipulating that the dividing line should lie 297. ... Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ...

Military Campaigns and Foreign Relations

Within six months of his coronation, he defeated Sultan Mahmud of Bidar and his ally, Yusuf Adil Khan. Bidar is a city in Karnataka state, India. ...

In 1510, he attacked in the north, besieged Raichur and moved to Gulburga and Bidar. Once Krishnadevaraya secured the north, he overthrew the rebels of Ummattur and a new province of Vijayanagar was created with Seringapatnam as its capital. Gulbarga is a town in the Indian state of Karnataka. ... Bidar is a city in Karnataka state, India. ... Serirangapatnam was where Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore and the son of Hyder Ali was defeated by the forces of the East India Company under Warren Hastings. ...

He subdued a local ruler, Prataparudra, and seized lands up to the Krishna river. In 1516-1517, he pushed beyond the Godavari river. The Krishna River is one of the longest rivers of India (about 900 km in length). ... The Godavari River is a major waterway in India, next to the Ganges and Indus rivers. ...

He defeated the Gajapatis of Orissa who had land in northern Andhra in five campaigns. Orissa (2001 provisional pop. ... Andhra Pradesh (ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశం in Telugu) (Āndhra Prādesh), a state in South India, lies between 12°41 and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40E longitude . ...

The complicated alliances of the empire and the five Deccan sultanates meant that he was continually at war; in one of these campaigns, he defeated Golconda and captured its commander Madurul-Mulk, crushed Bijapur and its sultan Ismail Adil Shah and restored Bahmani sultanate to Muhammad Shah. Golconda is a ruined city and fortress 11 km west of the city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh state. ... Bijapur is a district in the Indian state of Karnataka. ... A sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings muslim monarch ruling under the terms of shariah The title carries moral weight and religious authority, as the rulers role was defined in the Quran. ... The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim state of the India. ...

He established friendly relations with the Portuguese, who set up the Portuguese Dominion of India in Goa in 1510. The Emperor obtained guns and Arabian horses from the Portuguese merchants. He also utilized Portuguese expertise in improving water supply to Vijayanagaram City. Goa (गोवा in Devanagari) is Indias smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population after Sikkim, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. ...

The highlight of his conquests occurred on May 19, 1520 where he secured the fortress of Raichur from Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur after a difficult seige during which 16,000 Vijaynagari soldiers were killed. During the campaign against Raichur, we are told that 703,000 foot soldiers, 32,600 cavalry and 551 elephants were used. Finally, in his last battle, he razed to the ground the fortress of Gulburga, the early capital of the Bahmani sultanate. Bijapur is a district in the Indian state of Karnataka. ... The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim state of the India. ...

Internal Affairs

Paes summarises the king's attitude to matters of law and order by the sentence, "The king maintains the law by killing." Offences against property (designed to protect the rich against the poor) and for murder ranged from cutting of a foot and hand for theft and beheading for murder (except for those occurring as a result of duel). Paes could not estimate the size of Vijaynagar as his view was obscured by the hills but estimated the city to be at least as large as Rome. Furthermore, he considered Vijaynagar to be "the best provided city in the world" with a population of not less than a half a million.

The empire was divided into a number of provinces often under members of the royal family and into further subdivisions.

Amuktamalyada

He wrote Amuktamalyada, a prabandhamu. Prabandhamu is a variety of Telugu poetry which is mainly a narrative or a continued discourse, often with pronounced sensual content (sringaramu). In Amuktamalyada, Emperor Krishnaraya beautifully describes the pangs of separation suffered by Godadevi (the human incarnation of mother Earth, the wife of Vishnu) for her lover Lord Vishnu. He describes Godadevi’s physical beauty in thirty verses; using descriptions of the spring and the monsoon as metaphors. As elsewhere in Indian poetry - see Rasleela - the sensual pleasure of union extends beyond the physical level and becomes a path to, and a metaphor for, spirituality and ultimate union with the divine. One of the main characters Vishnuchittudu, the father of Godadevi. Lord Vishnu commands Vishnuchittudu to teach a king of the Pandya dynasty the path of knowledge to moksha. Several other short stories are included in Amuktamalyada in the course of the main story of Godadevi. Krishnarayalu was also well-versed in Sanskrit and Kannada. Jambavati Kalyanamu is his Sanskrit work. For other uses of the name Vishnu, see Vishnu (disambiguation). ... The raasleela is the cosmic dance performed by Krishna and the Gopikas. ... The Pandyan kingdom was an ancient state at the tip of South India, founded around the 6th century BCE. It was part of the Dravidian cultural area, which also comprised other kingdoms such as that of the Pallava, the Chera, the Chola, the Chalukya and the Vijayanagara. ... Moksha (Sanskrit: liberation) or Mukti (Sanskrit: release) refers, in general, to liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. ...

Religion and Culture

Krishna Deva Raya respected all sects of Hinduism, although he personally leaned in favour of Vaishnavism, and lavished on the Tirupati temple numerous objects of priceless value, ranging from diamond studded crowns to golden swords. Additionally, he is known to have commissioned the making of statutes of himself and his two wives at the temple complex. Vaishnavism is the branch of Hinduism in which Vishnu or one of his avatars is worshipped as the supreme God and is a monotheistic faith. ... // General Tirupati (తిరుపతి in Telugu) is a temple town in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

Krishnarayalu’s reign was the golden age of Telugu literature. Eight poets known as Astadiggajalu(eight elephants in the eight cardinal points such as North, South etc.) were part of his court (known as Bhuvanavijayamu). According to the Vaishnavite religion there are eight elephants in eight corners in space and hold the earth in its place. Similarly these eight poets were the eight pillars of his literary assembly. These Astadiggajas were: Allasani Peddana, Nandi Timmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramambhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramarajabhushanudu, and Tenali Ramakrishnudu.

Among these eight poets Allasani Peddana is considered to be the greatest and is given the title of Andhra Kavita Pitamaha (the father of Telugu poetry). Manucharitramu is his popular prabandha work. Nandi Timmana wrote Parijataapaharanamu. Madayyagari Mallana wrote Rajasekhara Charitramu. Dhurjati wrote Kalahasti Mahatyamu and Ayyalraju Ramabhadrudu wrote Ramaabhyudayamu. Pingali Surana wrote the still remarkable Raghavapandaveeyamu, a dual work with double meaning built into the text, describing both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Battumurty alias Ramarajabhushanudu wrote Kavyalankarasangrahamu, Vasucharitramu, and Harischandranalopakhyanamu. Among these works the last one is a dual work which tells simultaneously the story of King Harishchandra and Nala and Damayanti. Tenali Ramakrishnu, or Tenali Ram first wrote Udbhataradhya Charitramu, a Shaivite work. However, he converted to Vaishnavism later and wrote Vaishnava devotional texts Panduranga Mahatmyamu, and Ghatikachala Mahatmyamu. Lord Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman(crouching) The Ramayana (Sanskrit: march (ayana) of Rama) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki. ... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. ... Harishchandra, in Hindu mythology was one of the kings of the Solar Dynasty. ... Damayanti is a character in Hindu mythology. ... Shaivism, also Saivism, is a branch of Hinduism that worships Siva as the Supreme God. ... Vaishnavism is the branch of Hinduism in which Vishnu or one of his avatars (i. ...

Tenali Rama remains one of the most popular folk figures in India today, a quick-witted courtier ready even to outwit the all-powerful emperor.

The period of the Empire is known as “Prabandha Period,” because of the quality of the prabandha literature produced during this time.

Domingos Paes, a Portuguese merchant who lived in Vijayanagaram City (1520-22) described Emperor Krishnarayalu: “… He is the most feared and perfect king that could possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry, he is one that seeks to honor foreigners, receives them kindly…. He is a great ruler and man of much justice….”

Some of this material was cited the Oxford History of India, a public domain resource. Other parts were cited from the Vepachedu Educational Foundation, a GFDL resource. Please wikify and reword.

References and external links

• Smith, Vincent, Oxford History of India, Fourth Edition, pgs. 306-307, and 312-313.
• The Golden Era of Telugu Literature from the Vepachedu Educational Foundation
• (Krishnadevaraya's complex at Tirupati)
• Statutes of Krishnadevaraya and his wives at Tirupati.
• http://www.vijayanagaracoins.com/htm/krishna.htm (gold coins during his reign.)
• Hampi - History and Tourism