Inscriptions of the Vijayanagar Rulers

edited by S. H. Ritti (in 5 vols)
B R Gopal

Inscriptions of The Vijayanagara Rulers: Inscriptions of The Rulers of The Sangama Dynasty (1336-1485) is the first of three volumes of Kannada Inscriptions in five parts, prepared under the Inscriptions Programme Planned by the ICHR, Under this Programme, a Committee for the compilation of the Vijayanagara Inscriptions was formed with Dr. Shrinivas Ritti as the Convener and the task of compliing the Kannada Inscriptions was assigned jointly to Dr. Ritti and Dr. B. R. Gopal. They comleted the task with great devotion and submitted their
scholarly work to the ICHR.

The present volume contains as many as 832 inscriptions covering a period from 1339 A.D. to 1494 A. D. Most of the inscriptions are in Kannada language and script, while some of them, particularly, copper plates, are in Sanskrit language and Nagari script. There are a few which are bilingual and bi-scriptal as well. Region-wise, they come from the wholeof the Kannada area
covered by the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire viz., between the Krishna and the Kaveri.

It is well known that Indian historiography, particularly for the early part of it, rests almost entirely on epigraphy, augmented, only to a small extent, by literature. The history of Vijayanagra is no exception.

Many of the inscriptions here, have been utilised by earlier scholars working on different aspects of Vijayanagara history. Nevertheless, their value is not diminished. It is the experience of every epigraphist that with every fresh reading of an inscriptions, new ideas and new interpretations are suggested. These inscriptions provide a variety of rich material and open up new avenues of study. It is hoped that scholats and researchers engaged in Indological studies exploit this material to the fullest extent.

Cover Photo: The Royal Emblem of The Vijayanagara

First published: 2004
Pages : lxxxviii + 304 (Part 1)
Price : Rs. 11000

Click Here to order