Harihara I
Harihara I founded the Vijayanagara Empire, which held southern India against Muslim expansion for over two centuries. He and his brother Bukka were officers, probably treasury officials, in the service of the Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal, and were captured when Muhammad bin Tughlaq of the Delhi Sultanate destroyed it in 1323. The traditional account holds that the brothers were taken to Delhi, converted to Islam, and were sent south as governors to hold the Deccan for the sultanate — and that, on arriving, they reverted to Hinduism under the influence of the sage Vidyaranya and declared independence. The conversion story appears in later sources and is disputed; what is certain is that they founded a state. Vijayanagara, the city of victory, was established on the south bank of the Tungabhadra in 1336, on a site of enormous granite outcrops that made it defensible, and Harihara was crowned there. The strategic significance was immediate. Tughlaq's authority in the south had collapsed, and the Bahmani Sultanate emerged in the northern Deccan at the same period. Vijayanagara became the barrier between it and the Hindu south, and the two fought almost continuously for two centuries. He consolidated the Kannada- and Telugu-speaking territories, fortified the frontier, and organised the administration into provinces under family members — his brothers governed the outlying regions, which held the state together through the founding generation. He was succeeded by Bukka in 1356. The city grew to be among the largest in the world before its destruction in 1565. The ruins at Hampi are a World Heritage Site.
- Lived: 1300 CE – 1356 CE
- Nationality: Indian
- Roles: ruler, founder
