The Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646)

Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty established a new city and state on the south bank of the Tungabhadra River, traditionally dated to 1336. Vijayanagara, "City of Victory," grew into one of the largest cities in the pre-modern world, and the dynasty that bore its name became the dominant power of South India.

Location: Hampi, Karnataka, India

Vijayanagara fought a series of wars against the Bahmani Sultanate and its successor states over the Raichur doab, the Krishna-Tungabhadra river region between their territories. In 1365 Vijayanagara forces devastated the Bahmani capital region. The conflicts were dynastic and territorial as much as religious; Vijayanagara armies included Muslim cavalry, and its court exchanged embassies with Persian and Portuguese rulers.

Location: Deccan, India

The empire transitioned from the Sangama dynasty to the Saluva (1485) and then the Tuluva dynasty (1505) through internal usurpations, not conquest. These changes showed the empire's resilience: its institutions survived while its ruling houses changed.

Location: Vijayanagara, India

Krishnadevaraya began a 20-year reign that became the empire's golden age. A capable general and poet, he defeated the Gajapatis of Odisha and the sultans of Bijapur, and wrote the Telugu poem Amuktamalyada. The Portuguese traveler Domingo Paes, visiting around 1520, described the capital as the best-provided city in the world, marveling at its size and markets.

Location: Vijayanagara, India

At its height, Vijayanagara controlled the peninsula's trade in spices, textiles, and diamonds, and profited from supplying war horses imported by Portuguese merchants at Goa. The capital's ruins still include royal enclosures, stone aqueducts, and the Vitthala temple with its iconic stone chariot. The Arab horse trade was so central that Paes reported thousands of horses changing hands annually.

Location: Hampi, India

Krishnadevaraya's army, supported by Portuguese musketeers and artillery, defeated the Bijapur sultanate at Raichur, cementing Vijayanagara's dominance over the contested doab. The victory marked the peak of the empire's military power.

Location: Raichur doab, India

An alliance of the Deccan sultanates — Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, and Bidar — defeated Vijayanagara's army and killed the de facto ruler Rama Raya, a veteran minister who had long played the sultanates against each other. The allied armies then sacked Vijayanagara, and the magnificent city was largely abandoned within decades, its ruins still stretching across Hampi.

Location: Talikota, Deccan, India

The Aravidu dynasty continued the imperial line from Penukonda and later Chandragiri and Vellore, ruling a shrinking territory as the sultanates and rising Mysore, Keladi, and Madurai Nayakas asserted independence. In 1614 the dynast Baladeva was defeated, and the last effective emperor Sriranga III lost his remaining territory by 1646, when the empire dissolved into successor states.

Location: Penukonda and Chandragiri, India

UNESCO inscribed the Group of Monuments at Hampi as a World Heritage Site, protecting the ruins of the abandoned capital. The site is one of the world's most extensive medieval urban ruins, studied for its planned water systems, temple complexes, and the evidence it preserves of a metropolis abandoned after 1565.

Location: Hampi, Karnataka, India