Bukka Raya I
Bukka Raya founded Vijayanagara with his brother and then ruled it for twenty years while it became the dominant power in southern India. He and Harihara were brothers - the tradition makes them officers of a Hindu kingdom taken prisoner by the Delhi Sultanate, converted to Islam, sent south to govern, and reconverted - and that story is late, tidy and impossible to verify. What is certain is that they built a capital on the Tungabhadra in 1336 in country the sultanate had raided and could not hold. He succeeded Harihara in 1356. He took Madurai from its sultanate, extended the kingdom to both coasts, and fought the long series of wars with the Bahmani Sultanate over the Raichur Doab between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra that would occupy both states for two centuries. Those wars are also the first in India in which artillery is recorded on both sides. He sent an embassy to Ming China in 1374. The part that outlasted the conquests is administrative and religious. He took the title of protector of all faiths, adjudicated a long dispute between Jains and Vaishnavas by ruling that the Jains were to have the same protection as the others, and patronised the commentary on the Vedas produced under Sayana and Madhava that is still the standard one. He died in 1377 and was succeeded by his son Harihara II. The city he founded lasted until 1565 and its ruins at Hampi cover twenty-five square kilometres, which is the clearest surviving evidence of what the two brothers actually built.
- Nationality: Indian
- Roles: head_of_state
