International Journal of
Advanced Multidisciplinary Application

Volume 3, Issue 5

• Author(s)Saraswathi Venkataraman, Gopal Krishna
• AffiliationDepartment of History and Archaeology, Rani Channamma University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India Department of Fine Arts and Musicology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India
• Page No.46-54
• Volume, Issue & YearVolume 3, Issue 5, May 2026
• Published On2026/05/05
• JournalInternational Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Application (IJAMA)
• ISSN No.3048-9350
• DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20078044

Abstract

The Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646 CE), the last great Hindu polity of the Deccan and peninsular South India, exercised a formative and enduring influence on the cultural geography of the Indian subcontinent disproportionate to the brevity of its political ascendancy. Spanning the territorial arc from the Tungabhadra basin in present-day Karnataka to the Kaveri delta of Tamil Nadu and the coastal trading ports of the Malabar and Coromandel seaboards, the empire's political ecology created the conditions — institutional, geographical, economic, and ideological — for the consolidation and systematic codification of the Carnatic classical music tradition that remains among the most sophisticated and intellectually rigorous art-music systems in the world. This article examines, through the convergent lenses of political history, historical geography, and musicology, the mechanisms by which the Vijayanagara court and its subordinate institutional network — temples, mathas, regional Nayaka courts, and the Haridasa movement of devotional saint-composers — shaped the theoretical foundations, pedagogical infrastructure, geographic diffusion, and social ecology of Carnatic music between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Drawing on epigraphic evidence (copper plate grants, stone inscriptions from Hampi, Tirupati, and Sringeri), contemporary literary sources (the Amuktamalyada of Krishnadevaraya, the Manasollasa, traveller accounts of Domingo Paes and Fernão Nunes), and musicological scholarship on surviving compositions of the Haridasa saint-composers — particularly Purandaradasa (1484–1564), Kanakadasa (c.1509–1609), Vyasatirtha (c.1460–1539), and Annamacharya (1408–1503) — this article traces the evolution of the raga-tala-sahitya (melodic mode-rhythm-text) trinity that constitutes the structural basis of Carnatic music. It argues that the Vijayanagara period was not merely a context of patronage but an active agent of musical systematisation: the empire's multilingual literary culture, its temple endowment economy, and the institutional geography of the Haridasa movement collectively produced the pedagogical framework attributed to Purandaradasa and the raga classification structures that would be formalised by Venkatamakhi in his Chaturdandiprakasika (1660) — the canonical text of the 72 Melakarta system. The article concludes with an assessment of the empire's legacy in the post-Talikota (1565) Nayaka successor courts of Thanjavur, Madurai, and Ikkeri, tracing the direct institutional and compositional lineages connecting Vijayanagara court culture to the Trinity composers of the eighteenth century.

Keywords: Vijayanagara Empire, Carnatic classical music, Purandaradasa, Haridasa movement, historical geography, raga system, temple patronage, Deccan history, Krishnadevaraya, musicology, South Indian arts

References

1. [1] Ayyar, P. V. J. (1972). South Indian Music (6 vols.). The Indian Music Publishing House, Madras.
2. [2] Chattopadhyaya, B. (1994). Representing the Other? Sanskrit Sources and the Muslims. Manohar.
3. [3] Filliozat, V. (1973). L'épigraphie de Vijayanagara du début à 1377. Publications de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris.
4. [4] Fritz, J. M., & Michell, G. (Eds.). (2001). New Light on Hampi: Recent Research at Vijayanagara. Marg Publications, Mumbai.
5. [5] Jackson, W. J. (1994). Tyagaraja and the Renewal of Tradition. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi.
6. [6] Krishnaswami Mudaliar, S. (1893). The History of Vijayanagara. Reprinted: Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 1997.
7. [7] Nagarajan, K. V. (1985). The Dasara Festival at Vijayanagara: A Study. Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Mysore.
8. [8] Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. (1966). A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagara. Oxford University Press, Madras.
9. [9] Paes, D. (c. 1520). Narrative of Domingo Paes. In: Sewell, R. (1900). A Forgotten Empire. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London. (Reprinted: Asian Educational Services, 1982.)
10. [10] Raghavan, V. (1966). The Great Integrators: The Saint-Singers of India. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
11. [11] Ramanujan, A. K. (1973). Speaking of Siva. Penguin Books.
12. [12] Rao, V. N., Shulman, D., & Subrahmanyam, S. (1992). Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamilnadu. Oxford University Press, Delhi.
13. [13] Saletore, B. A. (1934). Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (2 vols.). B. G. Paul & Co., Madras.
14. [14] Sambamoorthy, P. (1960). History of Indian Music. The Indian Music Publishing House, Madras.
15. [15] Sewell, R. (1900). A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagara): A Contribution to the History of India. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London.
16. [16] Subbarama Dikshitar. (1904). Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini (Tamil). Ettayapuram.
17. [17] Subrahmanyam, S. (1997). The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge University Press.
18. [18] Venkatamakhi. (c.1660). Chaturdandiprakasika (Sanskrit). Edited and translated by Premalatha Vaidyanathan, Music Academy, Madras, 1982.
19. [19] Yadugiri Yathiraja Swamiji. (2001). Purandaradasa: His Life and Works. Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Institute, Shivamogga.
20. [20] Zvelebil, K. V. (1975). Tamil Literature. E. J. Brill, Leiden.

Explore Our Related Journals

Looking for the right journal for your next manuscript? Explore our international peer-reviewed journals covering engineering, management, computer science, artificial intelligence and multidisciplinary research.