6.1An empire on the Tungabhadra
Founded in 1336 by Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the Vijayanagara Empire grew into the dominant power of peninsular India, reaching its height under Krishnadevaraya (r. 1509–1529). Its capital at Hampi, described admiringly by Persian and Portuguese visitors such as Abdur Razzaq and Domingo Paes, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1]
Historians including Burton Stein have analysed Vijayanagara as a segmentary and increasingly militarised state, in which the amara-nayaka system assigned revenue-bearing territory to warrior chiefs in return for troops — the mechanism by which local lineages such as the Wadiyars of Mysore acquired legitimate authority.[2]
6.2Mysore as a Vijayanagara dependency
The Mysore chiefdom traditionally dates its founding to 1399, and its early rulers governed a small territory around Mysore town as feudatories of Vijayanagara.[3] Srirangapatna, ruled by a Vijayanagara viceroy (the Srirangaraya line), was the principal regional administrative seat.
The empire's authority in the south was broken by the defeat at Talikota (Rakkasagi–Tangadagi) in 1565 against a coalition of Deccan sultanates, after which Hampi was sacked. Rump Vijayanagara rule continued from Penukonda and Chandragiri until 1646.[1]
6.3The transfer of 1610
In 1610 Raja Wadiyar I took Srirangapatna from the Vijayanagara viceroy Tirumalaraja and moved the Mysore capital there — the decisive step from feudatory chiefdom to independent kingdom.[3] Raja Wadiyar also formalised the celebration of the Navaratri Dasara court festival at Srirangapatna, consciously continuing the Mahanavami observance of the Vijayanagara emperors.[4]