Hinduism: Details about 'Aliya Rama Raya'
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Rama Raya, popularly known as "Aliya" Rama Raya, was the progenitor of the "Aravidu" dynasty of Vijayanagara Emperors. This dynasty, the fourth and last to hold sway over the Vijayanagara Empire, is often not counted as a ruling dynasty of that empire, for reasons delineated below.
Career"Aliya" Rama Raya was a son-in-law of the great Vijayanagara Emperor Krishna Deva Raya. The word "Aliya" means "son-in-law" in the Kannada language. Rama Raya was a successful army general, and conducted many victorious campaigns. After the demise of his illustrious father-in-law, Rama Raya, as a member of the family, began to wield great influence over the affairs of the state. Krishna Deva Raya was succeeded in 1529/30 by his much younger brother Achyuta Raya, upon whose demise in 1542, the throne devolved upon his nephew Sadashiva Raya, then a minor. Rama Raya was appointed Regent during the minority of Sadashiva Raya. Third Battle of TalikotaRama Raya remained loyal to the legitimate dynasty until it was finally extinguished by war. In 1565, it was Rama Raya, as the pre-eminent general of the Vijayanagar army, who led the defense against the invading army of Deccan Sultans (i.e. Husain Nizam Shah, Ali Adil Shah and Ibrahim Qutb Shah) in the third battle of Talikota. This battle was a disaster for Vijayanagara, a blow from which it never recovered. The city of Vijayanagara was thoroughly sacked by the invaders; the inhabitants were massacred; the royal family was largely exterminated. Vijayanagara, once a city of fabled splendour, the seat of a vast empire, became a desolate ruin, now known by the name of a village within it, Hampi. Aravidu DynastyIn the wake of this disaster, Rama Raya moved to the nearby fortress of Anegundi, across the river Tungabhadra from the capital city. With the massacre of nearly all other prominent members of the royal family, and given the prestige that Rama Raya had long enjoyed at court and among the nobility, it soon came to pass that his family inherited by default the position held hitherto by the royal family. Thus was the "Aravidu" dynasty of Emperors born. The position of Emperor however was an empty one, as the Vijayanagara Empire had de facto ceased to exist. The major fuedatories of Vijayanagara, such as Mysore and Madurai, soon began to exert their independence in the period of anarchy that followed the rout of 1565, while various muslim adventurers carved out their own fiefs under the nominal suzerainty of the muslim overlords, being at first the Bahmani sultans and later the Mughals. While the Aravidu dynasty never actually wielded power over the erstwhile empire, they nevertheless enjoyed immense prestige in the land, and often received homage from the great satraps of the empire. They were always treated with much honour and ceremony even by major rulers, such as the Kings of Mysore and Madurai. Even to this day, the "Raya of Anegundi" who belongs to the "Aravidu" dynasty enjoys honour among the princes of India. South India in the post-Vijayanagara periodThe five Bahmani sultanates that had united for the single purpose of laying Vijayanagara waste were soon at odds with each other, and were unable to establish their authority much beyond the vicinity of the erstwhile capital city. They were soon extinguished by the Mughal's under the leadership of Aurangzeb, who spent nearly the whole of his abnormally long life attempting in vain to add the Deccan and south India to his empire. This effort, and Aurangzeb's religious bigotry, drained the Mughal empire of both resources and support, and the Mughal empire crumbled into anarchy upon the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The Marathas were the primary cause for this sudden decline of the Mughal empire. Chhatrapati Shivaji's spiritual preceptor, Swamy Samarth Ramdas, had been deeply moved by the ruins of Vijayanagara; he played a critical part in motivating the young Shivaji to dream of Swaraj. The Marathas under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji were successful in ousting from the land those forces that had caused the collapse and ruin of Vijayanagara, and the Peshwas extended the Maratha empire all the way to Delhi within 150 years of Talikota. The main powers in South India in the post-Vijayanagara period were rulers of Madurai, Mysore and Travancore; the Marathas, including the rulers of Kolhapur and Thanjavur; and the Mughals, represented by the rulers of Hyderabad and Arcot. They were gradually either co-opted or supplanted by the British who held sway until the Independence of India in 1947. See also
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