Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:02:53.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Rama Raya (1484–1565): élite mobility in a Persianized world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Richard M. Eaton
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Get access

Summary

Prince Ibrahim [of Golkonda], accompanied by Saiyid Hayy, Hamid Khan [an Ethiopian], … and Kana-ji, a Brahmin, besides a few personal attendants, left the camp of [Sultan] Qasim Barid Shah [of Bidar] and proceeded to Vijayanagara. On his arrival, the Prince was received according to his rank and treated with the utmost respect and attention … At some former period Malik 'Ain al-Mulk Gilani, having offended [Sultan] Ibrahim 'Adil Shah [of Bijapur], left his service and entered that of Rama Raya, with four thousand cavalry. 'Ain al-Mulk had on many occasions so distinguished himself by his bravery that the Raja [Rama Raya] used to call him brother.

Tarikh-i Muhammad Qutb Shah (1617)

THE YEARS 1510–12

In the above extract, the chronicler alludes to a number of men who migrated from the northern to the southern Deccan in the first half of the sixteenth century. By this time the Bahmani Sultanate had fractured into five successor-states, including the above-mentioned Golkonda, Bidar, and Bijapur (see Map 4). The men – a prince, a Saiyid, an Ethiopian, a Brahmin, and a high-ranking Westerner – found refuge and even patronage in the sprawling metropolis of Vijayanagara, or “City of Victory,” the capital of the great kingdom of the same name that had dominated the southern Deccan since 1347.

Notices that casually record internal migrations such as these might seem unremarkable. In fact, though, they challenge us to rethink stereotypes found in much modern history-writing about Vijayanagara, a state often cast as a bastion of Hinduism against an advancing tide of Islam from the north.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761
Eight Indian Lives
, pp. 78 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anonymous, , Tarikh-iMuhammad Qutb Shah, in History of the Rise of the Mahomed an Power in India, trans. Briggs, John (London, 1829; repr. Calcutta, 1966).
Dallapiccola, A. L. and Ave-Lallemant, M. Zingel, eds., Vijayanagara: City and Empire, 2 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1985);
Dallapiccola, Anna L. and Verghese, Anila, Sculpture at Vijayanagara: Iconography and Style (New Delhi, 1998);
Dallapiccola, Anna L., Fritz, John M., Michell, George, and Rajasekhara, S., The Ramachandra Temple at Vijayanagara (New Delhi, 1992).
Dallapiccola, Anna L., ed. Vijayanagara–City and Empire: New Currents of Research. Stuttgart, 1985.
Davis, Richard H., Lives of Indian Images (Princeton, 1997) –3, 76–82.
Davison-Jenkins, Dominic J., The Irrigation and Water Supply Systems of Vijayanagara (New Delhi, 1997);
Desai, P. M., A History of Karnataka (Dharwar, 1970) –70.
Federici, Cesare. “Extracts of Master Caesar Frederike his Eighteene Yeeres Indian Observations.” In Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, by Purchas, Samuel. x 20 vols.. Glasgow, 1905.Google Scholar
Filliozat, Pierre-Sylvian and Filliozat, Vasundhara, Hampi-Vijayanagar: the Temple of Vithala (New Delhi, 1988).
Firishta, Muhammad Qasim. Tarikh-i Firishta (completed 1611). 2 vols. Lucknow, 1864–65.
Fritz, John M. and Michell, George, eds., New Light on Hampi: Recent Research at Vijayanagara (Mumbai, 2001);
Geertz, Clifford, Islam Observed (New Haven, 1968)
Heras, Henry. The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagar. Madras, 1927.
Hodgson, Marshall, “The Role of Islam in World History,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 1, no. 2 (April 1970).Google Scholar
Translated by Briggs, John under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India. London, 1829. 4 vols. Reprint. 3 vols. Calcutta, 1966.
Karashima, Noboru. Towards a New Formation: South Indian Society under Vijayanagar Rule. New Delhi, 1992.
Kavi, Konerunatha, Padya Balabhagavatamu (1543), in Aiyangar, Krishnaswami, ed., Sources of Vijayanagar History.Google Scholar
Kavi, Konerunatha, Padya Balabhagavatamu, in Andugula Vengakavi Ramarajiyamu leka Narapati Vijayamu mariyu Doneru Konerunatha-kavi Padya Balabhagavatamu, Dvipada Balabhagavatamu (Araviti Rajula Prasamsa), ed. Ramachandra Rao, C. V. (Nellore, 1995), 73.
Kulkarni, G. T. and Mate, M. S., ed. and trans. Tarif-i-Husain Shah Badshah Dakhan. Pune, 1987.
Kulke, Hermann. “Maharajas, Mahants and Historians: Reflections on the Historiography of Early Vijayanagara and Sringeri.” In Vijayanagara – City and Empire: New Currents of Research, edited by Dallapiccola, Anna L., I 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1985.Google Scholar
Mack, Alexandra, Spiritual Journey, Imperial City: Pilgrimage to the Temples of Vijayanagara (New Delhi, 2002);
Mahalingam, T. V. Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar. 2nd edn. Madras, 1975.
Malville, J. M., “The Cosmic Geometries of Vijayanagara,” in Ancient Cities, Sacred Skies: Cosmic Geometries and City Planning in Ancient India, ed. Malville, J. M. and Gujral, L. M. (New Delhi, 2000) –18.Google Scholar
Michell, George. Architecture and Art of Southern India: Vijayanagara and the Successor States. New Cambridge History of India, vol. 1:6. Cambridge, 1995.
Morrison, Kathleen D. and Sinopoli, Carla M., “Dimensions of Imperial Control: the Vijayanagara Capital,” American Anthropologist 97 (1995)Google Scholar
Morrison, Kathleen D., “Naturalizing Disaster: from Drought to Famine in Southern India.” In Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response, edited by Bawden, Garth and Reycraft, Richard M.. Albuquerque, 2000.Google Scholar
Morrison, Kathleen D., Fields of Victory: Vijayanagara and the Course of Intensification. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley, No. 53. Berkeley, 1995.
Narasimhamurthy, A. V., Coins and Currency System in Vijayanagara Empire (Varanasi, 1991).
Raghotham, Venkata, “Religious Networks and the Legitimation of Power in 14th c. South India: a Study of Kumara Kampana's Politics of Intervention and Arbitration,” in Studies in Religion and Change, ed. Sen, Madhu (New Delhi, 1983) –55.Google Scholar
Rama Sharma, M. H., The History of the Vijayanagar Empire: Beginnings and Expansion (1308–1569) (Bombay, 1978), I:121, 161 n. 47.
Ramaswamy, Vijaya, Textiles and Weavers in Medieval South India (Delhi, 1985);
Ramaswamy, Vijaya. “Artisans in Vijayanagar Society.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 22, no. 4 (1985).Google Scholar
Sewell, Robert, A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagara): a Contribution to the History of India (1900; repr. Delhi, 1962).
Sherwani, Haroon Khan. The Bahmanis of the Deccan. 2nd edn. 1977. Reprint. New Delhi, 1985.
Sinopoli, Carla M., The Political Economy of Craft Production: Crafting Empire in South India, c. 1350–1650 (Cambridge, 2003);
Stein, Burton. Vijayanagara. New Cambridge History of India, vol. 1:2. Cambridge, 1989.
Subrahmanya Sastry, Sadhu and Vijayaraghavacharya, V., eds., Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Inscriptions 6, part 1: Inscriptions of Venkatapatiraya's Time (Tirupati, 1930; repr. 1998), no. 1.
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, “Reflections on State-Making and History-Making in South India, 1500–1800,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 41, no. 3 (1998)Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India, 1500–1650 (Cambridge, 1990).
Thackston, W. M., trans., A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art (Cambridge MA, 1989) –14.
Venga Kavi, Andugula, Ramarajiyamu [also known as Narapati Vijayam]. Extracts in Aiyangar, S. Krishnaswami, ed., Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919; repr. Delhi, 1986).
Verghese, Anila. “Court Attire of Vijayanagara (From a Study of Monuments).” Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society 82 (1991).Google Scholar
Verghese, Anila. Archaeology, Art and Religion: New Perspectives on Vijayanagara. New Delhi, 2000.
Verghese, Anila. Religious Traditions at Vijayanagara, as Revealed through its Monuments. New Delhi, 1995.
Wagoner, Phillip B., “The Islamicate Contribution to the City Plan of Vijayanagara,” Paper delievered at a symposium on “Hindu andMuslim in Precolonial South Asia,” University of Texas, Austin (November 13, 1998).Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B., “‘Sultan among Hindu Kings’: Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara.” Journal of Asian Studies 55, no. 4 (November 1996).Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B., “Architecture and Royal Authority under the Early Sangamas.” In New Light on Hampi: Recent Research at Vijayanagara, edited by Fritz, John M. and Michell, George. Mumbai, 2001.Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B., “Fortuitous Convergences and Essential Ambiguities: Transcultural Political Élites in the Medieval Deccan.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 3, no. 3 (December 1999).Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B., “From ‘Pampa's Crossing’ to ‘The Place of Lord Virupaksa’: Architecture, Cult, and Patronage at Hampi before the Founding of Vijayanagara.” In Vijayanagara: Progress of Research, 1988–1991, edited by Devaraj, D. and Patil, C. S.. Mysore, 1996.Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B., Tidings of the King: a Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu. Honolulu, 1993.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×