The extension of the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...

into the

Tamil country Tamiḻakam (Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nad ...

began with the southern inroads made by

Sangama Mekedatu is a location along Kaveri in the border of Chamarajanagar and Ramanagara Districts. From this point, about 3.5 kilometers downstream, the river Kaveri flows through a deep and narrow gorge. Mekedatu' means 'goat's leap' in Kannada. T ...

kings between 1356 and 1378 after defeating the Padaivedu Kingdom. With the destruction of the Madurai Sultanate in 1377-78, most of the present-day

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

eventually came under the rule of the

. While the rulers of Vijayanagara primarily patronised works of Kannada and Sanskrit, they did not express much interest in Tamil poetry.

Krishnadevaraya Krishnadevaraya (17 January 1471 – 17 October 1529) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Empire, reigning from 1509 to 1529. He was the third monarch of the Tuluva dynasty, and is considered to be one of the g ...

is known to have only patronised the Tamil poet Harihara, who wrote the ''Irusamaya vilakkam'' (An exposition on Shaivism and Vaishnavism). For 300 years Tamils were ruled by the Vijayanagar kings. The Vijayanagara Empire's hold over the Tamil country collapsed in the mid 16th century as the kingdom itself disintegrated into a number of petty chieftainships.

History

The Vijayanagara Empire was founded by two brothers Harihara and Bukka, who were captured by the Emperor of Delhi,

Muhammad bin Tughlaq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

and forcibly converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

but later escaped and launched a crusade against the Muslim invaders. In 1336, they founded the city of Vijayanagara on the banks of the Tungabhadra which they made their capital and undertook repeated campaigns against the northern invaders. The campaigns eventually culminated in the overwhelming defeat of the forces of the Delhi Sultanate and the restoration of Hindu rule in South India.

Literature

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

literature from this period came from Tamil speaking regions ruled by the feudatory Pandya who gave particular attention on the cultivation of Tamil literature, some poets were patronised by the Vijayanagara kings.

Svarupananda Desikar Svarupananda Desikar was a noted Tamil scholar during the late 14th century – early 15th century. Among other writings, he is known for his anthology containing 2824 verses on the Advaita ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वै� ...

wrote an anthology of 2824 verses, ''Sivaprakasap-perundirattu'', on the Advaita philosophy. His pupil the ascetic,

Tattuvarayar Tattuvarayar was an ascetic scholar and disciple of Svarupananda Desikar in the late 14th century - early 15th century time. He composed an anthology of verses on the Advaita philosophy called ''Kurundirattu'' containing about 1400 verses around ...

, wrote a shorter anthology, ''Kurundirattu'', that contained about half the number of verses. Krishnadevaraya patronised the Tamil Vaishnava poet Haridasa whose ''Irusamaya Vilakkam'' was an exposition of the two Hindu systems, Vaishnava and Shaiva, with a preference for the former.Nilakanta Sastri (1955), p347

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Vijayanagara Empire