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VIJAYANAGAR, or BIJANAGAR (" the city...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VIJAYANAGAR, or BIJANAGAR (" the city of victory ")  , an ancient
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Hindu
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kingdom and ruined city of
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southern India . The kingdom lasted from about 1336 to 1565, forming during all that period a bulwark against
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Mahommedan invasion from the north . Its foundation, and even
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great
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part of its
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history, is obscure; but its power and
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wealth are attested by more than one
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European traveller, and also by the character of the existing ruins . At the beginning of the 14th century Mahommedan raiders had effectually destroyed every Hindu principality throughout southern India, but did not attempt to occupy the country permanently . In this state of desolation Hindu
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nationality rose again under two brothers, named Harihara and Bukka, of whom little more can be said than that they were
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Kanarese by
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race . Hence their kingdom was afterwards known as the Carnatic . At its widest extent, it stretched across the peninsula from sea to sea, from Masulipatam to
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Goa; and every Hindu prince in the south acknowledged its supremacy . The site of the capital was chosen, with strategic skill, on the right
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bank of the
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river
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Tungabhadra, which here runs through a rocky
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gorge . Within
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thirty years the Hindu Rayas of Vijayanagar were able to hold their own against the Bahmani sultans, who had now established their independence of
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Delhi in the Deccan proper . Warfare with the Mahommedans across the border in the
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Raichur
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doab was carried on almost unceasingly, and with varying result . Two, or possibly three, different dynasties are believed to have occupied the
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throne of Vijayanagar as time went on; and its final downfall may be ascribed to the domestic dissensions thus produced . This occurred in 1565, when the confederate sultans of
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Bijapur, Ahmednagar and
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Golconda, who had divided amongst themselves the Bahmani dominions, overwhelmed the Vijayanagar army in the plain of Talikota, and sacked the defenceless city .

The Raya fled south to Penukonda, and later to Chandragiri, where one of his descendants granted to the

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English the site of Fort St George or
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Madras . The city has ever since remained a
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wilderness of immense ruins; which are now conserved by the
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British government . See R . Sewell, A Forgotten
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Empire (1900) ; and B . S . Row, History of Vijayanagar (Madras, 1906) ..

End of Article: VIJAYANAGAR, or BIJANAGAR (" the city of victory ")
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