आमुक्तमाल्यदा (विजयनगर सम्राट् श्रीकृष्णदेवराय - गोदा देवी आण्डाल भक्ति एवं साम्राज्य-नीति)

Preamble 7
Vijayanagar itself is said to have been founded in 1336 by
Harihara and Bukka. After a series of usurpations, the Tuluva
dynasty came to the throne, thanks to Narasa Nayaka whose son
Vira Narasimha of "unequalled prowess" (apāra mahima) was
succeeded by a half-brother, Krishnadeva Raya, in 1509 History
tells us of his many victories: the most famous was his recovery of
the fortress of Raichur from Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur. He had
certainly become a legend in his lifetime. Thus Domingos Paes:
"This king is of medium height, and of fair complexion
and good figure, rather fat than thin; he has on his face signs
of small-pox. He is the most feared and perfect king that could
possibly be, cheerful of disposition and very merry; he is one
that seeks to honour foreigners, and receives them kindly,
asking about all their affairs whatever their conditions may
be. He is a great ruler and a man of much justice, but sub-
ject to sudden fits of rage, and this is his title: Crisnarao
Macacao, King of Kings, lord of the greater lords of India,
lord of the three seas and of the land".¹
Though romantic tangles have been occasionally used to tie
up his name in colourful contexts, Krishnadeva Raya has left behind
a fair name in personal life as well. Vincent Smith quotes from the
Archaeological Survey of India for 1908–'9 to underline this aspect:
"...his imposing personal appearance, his genial look and polite
conversation which distinguished a pure and dignified life, his love
for literature and religion, and his solicitude for the welfare of his
people; and above all, the most fabulous wealth that he conferred
as endowments on temples and Brahmans, mark him out indeed
as the greatest of the South Indian monarchs".
Thus the glowing references to the King's reign in the epic
do not sound hollow. Here was a King who incarnated the will to
rejuvenate Hinduism. That was the time when even any passive
acceptance of the Muslim ascendency would have proved fatal.
The courtiers therefore speak of the achievements of the King in
defeating powerful rulers like Adil Shah. But, then, Raya was
equally great as a writer. A sāhiti samaraangana saarvabhouma like

1. Quoted in Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India (1958),
   p. 307.