VIJIANAGAR; called also Vidyanagara, is the modern Bijanagar, in Bellary district, Madras, lat. 15° 18' N., long. 76° 30' E. ; population (1871), 437. It is in ruins, on the right bank of the Tumbudra. The proper name of this village is Humpi, but Vijianagar was the name of the dynasty and the kingdom which had its capita here. The dynasty claimed descent from the Yadava race, and they seem to have founded it in the 14th century, about s.s. 1258 or A.D. 1336, after the overthrow of the kingdom of Warangal by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1323. It was founded in the reign of Muhammad Taghalaq, according to one account, by two fugitives from Telingana, but according to Prinsep, in 1338 by Bilal Deo of Carnata, who resisted Muhammad Taghalaq, and founded Vijianagar. The family genealogy deduces a descent in the direct line from Pandu of the Lunar dynasty, and imperfectly follows the Puranic lists to Chandrabija, the last of the Magadha rajas. The first in authentic history is Nanda, A.D. 1034, who founded Nandapur and Warangal. On the capture of Warangal, A.D. 1323, and the subversion of the Belala dynasty, two of its officers established ft new government Vijianagar on the banks of the Tumbudra. The city was completed A.D. 1313, Anagundi being a suburb on the opposite bank. of the river. The rulers were designated Rayel or Bayer, and were Saiva Hindus. In 1490, Narsingha, a Vaish nava, founded a new dynasty ; be extended his power into the Dravida country, erected strong forts at Vellore and Chandragiri, and in 1510 or 1515, a successor, Krishna Bayer, reduced the whole of Dravida, including the Chola and Pandiyan kings. In 1564, the Vijianagar army was defeated at Talikottah by the confederate Muhammadan kings of Bijapur, Ahmadnaggur, Golconda, and Beder? and Rani Raja, the 7th prince of the house of Narsingha, was slain. Vijianagar was
sacked and depopulated, and the doab between the Kistna and Tumbudra partitioned amongst the conquerors. The successor of Ram Raja established himself in Pennakonda, 85 miles S.W. of Bellary, from which, in 1570, Timmah Raja removed to Chandragiri, about 11 miles W.S.W. of Tripatty, at which place and at Vellore in 1597 he was ruling with some magnificence over the Naiks of Ginji (Kistnapa), Tanjore, Madura, Chin napatam (Jug Deo-rayer), Sermgapatam (Trimnl raj), and Pennakonda. The Dutch had been established at Pulicat, and persuaded this ruler to refuse the English a settlement. In 1599 two Portuguese missionaries visited Chandragiri, and were received by the ruler. About 1644, the Carnatic was invaded by an army from Bijapur, when Ginji and Chandragiri were reduced, and Sri Ilang,a Rape], after concealing himself in the Northern Circars in 1646, escaped t,o Bednore, where he was sheltered by the raja, formerly one of his own dependents. This is the last that is known of the old Vijianagar dynasty, though a branch of the family long resided at Chingleput, and continued for a time to assume a kind of state.
A bd-ur-Razaq, an ambassador from the grandson of Timur, visited the south of India in A.D. 1442. Ile describes Vijianagar in terms so glowing, that it is scarcely surpassed by that in the story of I'rince Alimad in the Arabian Nights. Nicol° di Conti (A.D. 1420) is so extravagant as to say it is GO iniles in circumference ; Bartema says 7 miles, and a.dds that it is very like Milan.—Elph. p. 428.