A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
Overview
Published in 1900 by Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, Robert Sewell’s A Forgotten Empire represents the first comprehensive English-language reconstruction of the Vijayanagar Empire (1336-1565), a polity that controlled much of South India for over two centuries. The work synthesizes previously untranslated Portuguese chronicles with epigraphic evidence and archaeological documentation from the ruins at Hampi, establishing a methodological framework that combined European eyewitness accounts with indigenous inscriptional records. Sewell’s publication centered on translations of the Chronica dos reis de Bisnaga by two Portuguese visitors—Domingo Paes (ca. 1520-22) and Fernão Nuniz (ca. 1535-37)—whose detailed observations of the empire during the reign of Krishnadevaraya (1509-1529) provided unprecedented descriptions of urban administration, military organization, and court ceremonial.
The work emerged from Sewell’s position as Keeper of the Madras Record Office, where his responsibilities included systematic documentation of antiquarian remains throughout the Madras Presidency. His earlier publications of the Lists of Antiquarian Remains (1881-1883) had established protocols for recording inscriptions and architectural monuments, experience that informed his approach to Vijayanagar historiography. By cross-referencing the Portuguese narratives with contemporary inscriptions—particularly those documenting dynastic successions, military campaigns, and temple endowments—Sewell constructed a chronological framework for the empire’s four dynasties: Sangama (1336-1485), Saluva (1485-1505), Tuluva (1505-1570), and Aravidu (1570-1646).
Sewell’s analysis extended beyond political chronology to examine the material infrastructure that sustained Vijayanagar’s power. He documented the hydraulic engineering systems at Hampi, including Bukka’s aqueduct and extensive canal networks that enabled agricultural surplus production. His descriptions of temple architecture—particularly the Virupaksha and Vittala temples with their characteristic musical pillars and stone chariots—established baseline documentation for subsequent archaeological surveys. The work also addressed the empire’s catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Talikota (1565), when the combined forces of the Deccan sultanates (Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda, and Bidar) decisively defeated the Vijayanagar army under Rama Raya, leading to the systematic destruction of Hampi.
About the Author — Robert Sewell
Robert Sewell (1845-1925) served in the Indian Civil Service in the Madras Presidency from 1867 until his retirement, dedicating much of his career to archaeological and historical research in South India. As Keeper of the Madras Record Office, he initiated systematic surveys of antiquarian remains, producing the foundational Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Madras Presidency (1881-1883), which catalogued inscriptions, temples, and monuments across the region. His earlier work A Report on the Amaravati Stupa (1880) demonstrated his engagement with Buddhist archaeology, while his chronological studies, including publications on lunar eclipses in Indian history, reflected his interdisciplinary approach to historical verification. Sewell authored additional works including The Analytical History of India: From the Earliest Times to the Abolition of the Honourable East India Company in 1858 and numerous papers on South Indian epigraphy and chronology. His 43-year post-retirement period (1882-1925) saw continued scholarly production, with contributions to journals including the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, where his expertise in combining European archival sources with Indian inscriptional evidence established new methodological standards for colonial-era Indian historiography.
The Work
Scope and Methodology:
The volume’s structure proceeds from foundation narratives through dynastic succession to imperial collapse. Sewell examined competing origin legends for Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the Sangama brothers who established the empire in 1336, including theories connecting them to the fallen Kampili kingdom (conquered by Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1327), service under the Hoysala Empire, or prior administration in the Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal. He documented the tradition associating the brothers with the Sringeri sage Vidyaranya, who purportedly guided them to establish a Hindu kingdom as a bulwark against Delhi Sultanate expansion. The Sangama dynasty’s consolidation under Harihara I and Bukka I (1336-1377) involved territorial acquisitions from declining Hoysala domains and sustained conflict with the Bahmani Sultanate over control of the Raichur Doab—the fertile tract between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers containing valuable diamond mines.
Sewell’s treatment of the Bahmani-Vijayanagar wars (beginning 1362-1367) utilized both Portuguese accounts and Muslim chronicles to reconstruct two centuries of intermittent conflict. The disputes originated in economic competition over the Raichur Doab and currency acceptance, escalating into sustained military campaigns. After Bahmani Sultan Muhammed Shah I’s 1367 siege of Vijayanagar, Bukka Raya I sued for peace, establishing a pattern of inconclusive warfare that preserved territorial status quo until the Bahmani Sultanate fragmented into five independent Deccan sultanates—Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, and Golconda—by the late 15th century.
The Paes and Nuniz chronicles provide detailed ethnographic data on Krishnadevaraya’s reign (1509-1529), documenting the import of Arabian horses through Goa’s ports for Vijayanagar cavalry, urban planning at Hampi with its multiple fortification rings, and the elaborate ceremonial of the Mahanavami festival. Nuniz’s later account (1535-37) describes the succession crisis following Krishnadevaraya’s death, when his brother-in-law Rama Raya manipulated the weak Aravidu rulers, eventually becoming de facto regent. Sewell cross-referenced these narratives with inscriptions from Conjeeveram that confirmed Achyuta Raya’s coronation date and co-regency with his predecessor, demonstrating his method of using epigraphic evidence to verify or correct Portuguese chronology.
The work’s archaeological sections document Hampi’s material remains: the systematic fortifications with multiple defensive walls, hydraulic infrastructure including stepped tanks (pushkarini) and canal systems supplied by the Tungabhadra River, and temple architecture displaying the Vijayanagar style’s characteristic features. Sewell described the Vittala temple’s 56 musical granite pillars that produce distinct tones when struck, the monolithic stone chariot, and the elaborate relief sculptures depicting mythological narratives. His documentation of the Virupaksha temple noted Krishnadevaraya’s patronage of its ornate central mandapa, establishing architectural chronology through stylistic analysis correlated with inscriptional dedications.
Historical Context:
Sewell positioned Vijayanagar within 14th-16th century Deccan geopolitics as a Hindu successor state to the Hoysala and Kakatiya kingdoms, both destroyed by Delhi Sultanate invasions in the 1320s-1330s. The empire’s foundation coincided with Muhammad bin Tughluq’s administrative overreach and the subsequent fragmentation of Delhi’s southern territories. The establishment of the Bahmani Sultanate (1347) by Hasan Gangu Bahmani created a rival Islamic power in the Deccan, initiating the territorial competition that defined both states’ military strategies for two centuries. Vijayanagar’s control of South India’s temple networks and agricultural zones generated revenue through land grants and commercial taxes, while the Deccan sultanates controlled trade routes connecting the western coast to interior markets.
Portuguese arrival on the Malabar coast following Vasco da Gama’s 1498 voyage altered regional dynamics. Afonso de Albuquerque’s 1510 conquest of Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, achieved with Vijayanagar support, established Portuguese control over Arabian horse imports critical to Vijayanagar military capacity. Portuguese chroniclers including Paes and Nuniz traveled to Hampi as commercial envoys during this period of Indo-Portuguese cooperation, producing the eyewitness accounts Sewell later translated. The relationship between Portuguese Goa and Vijayanagar combined commercial interdependence with diplomatic cooperation against common Muslim adversaries, though tensions emerged over trade monopolies and coastal jurisdiction.
The Battle of Talikota (January 1565) resulted from Rama Raya’s diplomatic failures and military overconfidence. Despite commanding numerically superior forces, Vijayanagar’s army collapsed when two Muslim commanders defected to the allied sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda, and Bidar. Rama Raya’s capture and execution precipitated the systematic plunder of Hampi, whose destruction Sewell documented through Persian chronicles and archaeological evidence of deliberate monument defacement. The Aravidu dynasty maintained nominal sovereignty from new capitals at Penukonda and later Chandragiri until 1646, but never recovered Vijayanagar’s territorial extent or administrative capacity.
Significance
Contemporary Reception:
Sewell’s publication received immediate recognition in British orientalist circles as the first systematic English-language treatment of Vijayanagar’s political history. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society reviewed the 1900 edition, acknowledging its contribution to filling a significant gap in South Asian historiography. Contemporary scholars particularly valued the Portuguese chronicle translations, which had remained largely inaccessible to English readers since David de Melo Lopes’s 1897 Portuguese edition. The work’s integration of European sources with Indian epigraphic evidence represented a methodological advance over purely text-based histories, though colonial-era interpretive frameworks emphasizing Hindu-Muslim conflict as the empire’s defining characteristic shaped Sewell’s analytical approach.
Later Assessment:
Subsequent Vijayanagar scholarship built upon Sewell’s documentary foundation while revising his interpretive conclusions. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri’s A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (1955) incorporated Sewell’s chronology into a broader narrative of South Indian political development, though Burton Stein later critiqued Nilakanta Sastri’s characterization of Vijayanagar as a centralized bureaucratic state. Stein’s application of the “segmentary state” model emphasized decentralized power structures and contested Sewell’s assumption of unified imperial administration. Phillip B. Wagoner’s work on Vijayanagar material culture and Indo-Islamic architectural influences (1996) utilized Sewell’s Paes and Nuniz translations while questioning colonial-era interpretations of cultural boundaries between Hindu and Muslim polities.
Modern archaeological surveys at Hampi, initiated systematically in the 1970s, confirmed many of Sewell’s architectural descriptions while expanding documentation of residential zones, market areas, and industrial facilities absent from his account. The establishment of Hampi as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1986) reflected sustained scholarly and preservation interest stemming from Sewell’s baseline documentation. His identification of key monuments and topographical features remains essential for correlating Portuguese descriptions with extant ruins, though scientific dating techniques and systematic excavation have refined chronologies and functional interpretations.
Value for Researchers:
A Forgotten Empire retains utility for scholars working on three distinct problems: the integration of European travel literature with indigenous historical sources, the reconstruction of pre-colonial South Indian political systems, and the material culture of 16th-century urban centers. The Paes and Nuniz translations provide irreplaceable eyewitness testimony on aspects of Vijayanagar society—including military organization, taxation systems, and ritual practice—inadequately documented in inscriptional sources. Sewell’s careful notation of inscription locations and texts enables verification of his chronological reconstructions, while his documentation of since-deteriorated monuments at Hampi serves as historical archaeological evidence. The work’s limitations—including acceptance of dynastic narratives without source criticism, limited engagement with Telugu and Kannada literary sources, and interpretive frameworks emphasizing religious conflict—require critical engagement but do not diminish its value as a foundational compilation of Portuguese and epigraphic evidence on South India’s most significant pre-colonial empire.
Digital Access
Complete digital editions are available through Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3310) and the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/forgottenempire00robe), providing free access to Sewell’s text, including the Paes and Nuniz chronicle translations and appendices documenting inscriptional evidence. These open-access versions enable continued scholarly engagement with Sewell’s documentary compilation and his integration of European and Indian sources for reconstructing Vijayanagar’s political and material history.
Note: This description was generated with assistance from Claude (Anthropic), using web research to compile scholarly information about Robert Sewell’s historical work and its significance in Vijayanagar Empire studies.