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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA ambassadors whom Kṛishṇarâya sent to Goa immediately after having received the news of the recapture of that place by the Portuguese in November 1510. In this letter Fr. Luiz informed Albuquerque “that the king of Narsinga was getting himself ready with five thousand men on foot and two thousand on horse, for an expedition against one of his vassals who had risen up in rebellion and seized the city of Pergunda, (the rebel) declaring that to himself belonged the kingdom itself by right ; and that directly he had taken the rebel the king would proceed with all this force of men to his places situated on the edge of the sea.” There can be little doubt, I think, that the rebel spoken of in the letter is the Râja of Ummatûr. Pergunda had already been correctly identified by Mr. Sewell[1] with Penakoṇḍa, in the Anantapur district, situated about half-way between Vijayanagara and Śivanasamudra, and the war would thus appear to have arise from a dispute about this hill-fort. This view is further strengthened by an inscription at Hôṇakanahaḷḷi in the Guṇḍlupêṭe tâluka,[2] where Chikkarâja-Oḍeyar, the lord of Ummatûr, is given the biruda Penugoṇḍa-chakréśvara. As this inscription is dated in Śaka-Saṁvat 1426, the Krôdhana saṁvatsara, during the reign of Narasa, it would seem that the Râjas of Ummatûr had taken possession of Penakoṇḍa already under Kṛishṇarâya’s predecessor, and that it was not until Kṛishṇarâya’s accession to the throne that their claims were seriously disputed.
The taking of the forts of Udayâdri, Vinikoṇḍa, Bellakoṇḍa and Koṇḍavîḍu formed part of Kṛishṇarâya’s campaign on the eastern coast against the Gajapati of Orissa. Fernão Nunes[3] tells us that Kṛishṇarâya had a special desire of acquiring Udayagiri, because king Narsymga (Narasiṁha) in his testament had enjoined on his successors the necessity of taking the fortresses of Rracholl (Raichûr), Medegulla (Mudkal), and Odigair (Udayagiri).[4] He therefore collected 34,000 foot-soldiers and 800 elephants and arrived with this army at Digary (Udayagiri), which, although its garrison numbered only 10,000 foot-soldiers and 400 horse, was nevertheless a very strong place on account of its natural position. The king laid siege to it for a year and a half, cutting roads through the surrounding hills in order to gain access to the towers of the fortress, and finally took it by force of arms. On this occasion an aunt of the king of Orissa fell into his hands. The capture of Vinikoṇḍa, the modern Vinukoṇḍa, and of Bellakoṇḍa, generally called Bellaṁkoṇḍa, is not mentioned by Nunes, probably because these places were only of secondary importance. He proceeds at once to the account of the siege of Koṇḍavîḍu, which I have discussed above, Vol. VI. p. 109 ff. According to inscriptions at Maṅgalagiri, Kâzâ and Koṇḍavîḍu the fortress surrendered on Saturday, the Harivâsara of the bright half of the month Âshâḍha in Śaka-Saṁvat 1437, which, for Śaka-Saṁvat 1437 expired, corresponds to Saturday, the 23rd June A.D. 1515.
There remains the statement that the king took alive on the battle-field Vîrabhadra, the son of
the Gajapati. This fact is mentioned by Nunes as well as by Domingos Paes. The latter has
only the short notice that, in the war against the king of Orissa, Kṛishṇarâya took captive his
enemy’s son and kept him for a long time in the city of Bisnaga (Vijayanagara), where he died.[5] Nunes’ account is more detailed.[6] He tells us that, after the capture of Koṇḍavîḍu, Kṛishṇarâya
continued his march northward until he arrived at Comdepallyr (Koṇḍapalle). After a siege of
three months he took it ; among the prisoners he made was a wife of the king of Orissa, and one
of his sons who was a prince, and seven principal captains of the kingdom, all of whom he sent
to Bisnaga (Vijayanagara). When Kṛishṇarâya himself had returned to Bisnaga, he summoned
[1] A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), p. 126, Mr. Sewell was also the first to draw attention to the importance
of this letter for the history of the first years of Kṛishṇarâya’s reign. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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