Tamil Nadu under the Vijayanagar Empire

The extension of the Vijayanagar Empire into the Tamil country began with the southern inroads made by Sangama kings between 1356 and 1378. With the destruction of the Madurai Sultanate in 1377-78, most of the present-day Tamil Nadu, eventually, came under the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire. The rule of the Vijayanagar kings was characterized by the restoration of religious freedom to the Hindu majority which was denied by the Madurai sultans and a revival of music, arts and crafts. The rule of the Vijayanagar kings also witnessed the steady decline of Tamil language as the new rulers patronized Kannada and Telugu over Tamil. The Vijayanagar 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 Vijayanagar kingdom was founded by two brothers Harhara and Bukka who were captured by the Emperor of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq and forcibly converted to Islam but later escaped and renounced their new faith and launched a crusade against the Muslim invaders. In 1336, they founded the city of Vijayanagar 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 restoration of Hindu rule in South India.

Literature

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