Chapter II: Virkupaksha I
Part 1: Blood on my Hands (1401-1406)
"But...you can't do that!" Peperna protested.
"I can do anything I want," the Vijayanagaran emperor replied. "You would do well to remember that."
"You will tear our faith apart if you do this."
"No," he replied serenely. "I will save it."
*******
I Have a Dream
Virkupaksha, Rajah of the city and empire of Vijayanagara, was twenty-four when he assumed the throne. As a youth he gained the reputation for being a bully, the result of relying a little too much on intimidation and birthright to get his way. By the time he finished his mandatory training as a warrior and scholar he'd grown irresolute and fond of drink and women. In one memorable scene in 1397 he nearly fought with a member of the royal house of Travanacore over a matter of honor.
Chanra Nistha (of Travanacore) said:
Forgive me, (Prime Minister Vijaya Jeoomal). It is hard to feel secure in your lord's hall when drunken monkeys are able to enter with such ease.
Harihara II quickly banished his son, who was indeed making a spectacle of himself, and smoothed over the insult. Virkupaksha never forgot, though the idea of vengeance never really made its way to the surface of his thoughts until Harihara's death.
The rajah claimed he had a vision. While modern scholars such as ourselves can smile at that justification, all sources agree that Vijayanagara's drunken, irresolute lord abruptly found his calling. He appeared energized and proclaimed his vision for a new India.
The Muslims, he said, were not the problem. They were a gift from Vishnu, a 'wake up call' to deal with his peoples' cultural and spiritual differences before a hostile force could divide and conquer them piecemeal. Hinduism, with its general tolerance and adaptability, could be the vehicle to cure the world's ills ... but only if they could get their house in order.
That meant Hindus needed to unify under one banner, and whose better than Vijayanagara's?
(New Mission: Conquer Malabar in Travanacore)
The
Kaavya Vijaya - 'Poems of Victory' maintained after Harihara's death by future chief secretaries and artists, is silent on the council's reaction to Virkupashka's vision. We do know that
Mahapradhana Jeoomal found himself driven out of Vijayanagara and exiled.Perhaps Jeoomal protested, though it seems unlikely the normally very quiet, accomodating man would have done so publicly. His banishment served as an example for those who disagreed with their emperor's dream.
In his place Virkupashka appointed Verkata Chennavet
(Level 1 Theologian), one of the priests at the now sacred shrine to the holy man who'd guided the last two generations of Vijayanagara, Vidayarana. Chennavet's first mission was to prepare a religious document adopting (and justifying) Virkupashka's goal of uniting Hindus.
One of his justifications would be the Marathi revolt of 1402. What started as a cultural misunderstanding in cosmopolitan Goa soon spread into the countryside. Marathi refused to work the city's docks while raiders intercepted a number of merchants bringing goods to Mysore and points south. Finally they unified under a local named Misari Muhammand Khan Latesh and declared Goa's independence.
(Marathi Revolt: Suppress - 11 Patriot regiments rise up in Goa)
Misguided or not, Virkupashka was no coward.
(F2 Sh0 M4 Sg1) He led five thousand men by ship around India's coast and landed six miles north of the city on February 20. Latesh met him with eleven thousand ill trained, but fanatical Marathi. Imperial war elephants proved ineffective in the rugged terrain, so for two days footsoldiers maneuvered and traded glancing blows. On the third day the Imperial army retreated to their ships having given and received about 1,700 casualties.
An equal bloodletting didn't serve Latesh's purposes. He'd already recruited almost anyone willing to risk life and limb for an independent kingdom, and loyalists continued to hold out in Goa itself. Virkupashka simply sailed home, picked up fresh troops recruited by his father, and returned in May. This time he trapped the Marathi on the western fringes of the Deccan plateau where his war elephants could thunder through their ranks. Four thousand Marathi died in a matter of hours. Latesh fled to Konkan where he found the Deccan sultans just as unwilling to live with a hostile army dreaming of a new nation.
In December 1402, with Vijayanagara's now bloodied and experienced army massing on the Travanacore border and their alliance formally dissolved, Chennavet released his masterwork.
The
Avaghosanaa Anusthaana Vijaya is one of the most tolerant treatises on religion in the history of humanity. Amazingly progressive by medieval standards, there is very little in it that would alarm even a modern humanitarian. Some of the key components:
* The Gods have many names and there are many paths to worship them, seek enlightenment, and so fulfill your
dharma (duty, destiny)
(Accept all Gods as Brahmin: Missionaries -0.2, Tech Cost -2%, Heretic relations +1, Relations with Orissa -25)
* Since it should be obvious from the above that all serve the same gods, none shall be cast out, persecuted or made to suffer based solely on how they pursue enlightenment.
(Accept Religious Sects: Missionaries -0.2, Heretic relations +1)
* For it is self evident that, just as there are powerful entities for good who seek to help us pursue our dharma, there are evil and malevolent forces who would seek to rob us of our chance to ascend (become enlightened, and therefore break the reincarnation cycle).
(Support the Haridasa (Dualist) Movement: National Tax -4%, Stability -6%, Missionary Chance +2%)
The
Avaghosanaa Anusthaana Vijaya was a powerful, well meaning document...enslaved to the whims of a driven, some say megalomanic zealot. It gave voice to his vision and so rang true in the hearts and minds of men who would soon be asked to make sacrifices for Imperial gain.
(Stability +3)
The problem lay in that Virkupashka meant it. He agreed with the spirit, if not the exact wording, of the document. He didn't care if you were Muslim or Buddhist or Christian, so long as you came to Vijayanagara with peaceful intentions you were welcome. It wasn't your fault if your spirituality was flawed and your efforts at enlightenment were, at best, inefficient since you didn't know the proper names and rituals.
Hinduism didn't have that excuse. Indeed, Hindus had the existential burden to raise up their flawed brothers and sisters. That meant Hinduism had to unify - one pantheon, one set of rituals, one moral and religious code, one shining example to the rest of the world. If that meant suppressing other versions of Hinduism by force, so be it.
Vijayanagara's flag changed on that day. Unfortunately he wouldn't be the last man to pervert ancient symbols of peace.
(Yes, I know it's a recent symbol. If you can put up with talking cows, you can put up with some minor factual errors.)
And So it Begins
Virupaksha (I) said:
Why do I care what other men say? I answer only to the gods.
Call it zeal, mania or tawdry revenge. In the end all that mattered was that in May 1403 Vijayanagaran armies crossed the border into Travanacore. Mysore and Orissa declined to join in. Indeed, Orissa promised to defend their friend against 'a child's aggression.'
There wasn't much room for strategic maneuvering. The northern army, more formidable in appearance yet less experienced, raided villages near Calicut to hopefully commit Ravi Kerald Varma Joardar and his army to the city's defense. Virkupasha took veterans from the Marathi campaign across the southern border, left a token force to reduce Malabar, then launched a joint attack on Joardar. A handful of men under local control rendezvoused on the Orissa border.
Aggression dismayed Virkupashka's people and his new
Mahapradhana worked hard to justify the need for war.
(Reconquest CB, but with good relations Stab fell to 2) For the most part he succeeded, but noblemen in Tiruchchirapalli, displeased by this and Muslim conversions in the area, voiced their concern.
(Aristocrat faction forms. Local Defense +10)
Piracy off the Madurai coast spread there as well. Some say the local nobles sponsored these privateers to check their king. Others argued that Prime Minister Chennavet hired them to keep these same nobles in line. We will never know for sure, though it's probable these were just opportunists taking advantage of Imperial distraction.
(Uncontrolled piracy. Also, Event to Sponsor Privateers: Decline)
On June 14, Virkupashka descended on Calicut with thirteen thousand men. The two armies were more or less identical in composition, with war elephants supported by lightly armored footsoldiers. Travancore held a slight advantage in that they'd begun the conversion to archers mounted on horseback. These archers lacked elephants' sheer mass and shock, but made up for it in maneuverability which proved useful as the two armies jockeyed for position along the Western Ghats.
The southern Imperial army moved through a pass to emerge on the west coast while the northern army converged from the north. Joardar abandoned his outer holdings and deployed in a rough crescent. Travancore archers succeeded in slowing and disrupting the Imperial attack, but failed to kill, injure or otherwise spook the elephants. Their mass on Joardar's flanks turned the tide and he withdrew into the city. Days later he snuck out by ship, redeployed south of Calicut, and marched to relieve Malabar.
The initial battle left 2,000 dead for Vijayanagar and perhaps 1,000 for Travancore. In a series of skirmishes up and down the coast Virkupashka harried his enemy. Finally on September 5, having been caught more or less in the open by a monsoon that left the remnants of his army sick, exhausted and injured, Joardar surrendered.
He may have surrendered, but a small detachment of Travancore soldiers refused. They attacked Kongu, Chennavet's home city, in hopes of forcing the prime minister to yield against his rajah's orders. Leaving about a third of his army behind to subdue the kingdom's towns and cities, Virkupashka descended on the nine hundred or so diehards with over six thousand men. The battle lasted about forty minutes as Imperial elephants charged and stormed through the heart of their formation.
Orissan Tragedies
While Virkupashka worked to subdue Travancore, a small army of three thousand men defended Vijayanagara against Orissan counterattack. They were led by an inexperienced commander whose name doesn't survive through history, a man who Orissan king Narasimhadeva IV successfully tricked into a rash attack into Orissan soil.
This commander learned of recruiting efforts in the border region of Telingana. Imperial warships mistakenly reported the heart of Narasimhadeva's army on the Bengali border several hundred miles away. He attacked to break up the recruits before they could train and mobilize ... and ran into the heart of Orissa's army.
The
Praayanaa Atidrutam Orissa - the Orissan quick march, saw Narasimhadeva's army advance at approximately fifty miles per day. They paralleled the coast perhaps two or three miles inland to avoid easy detection. On July 20 they materialized as if by magic on the Vijayanagaran flank. Seven thousand Orissans, many of them lightly armored horsemen with bows and swords, thrust into the surprised and undertrained army destroying it. Narasimhadeva then crossed the border into Vijayanagara and advanced towards the City of Victory.
By now Virkupashka had left Kongu, visited Tiruchchirapalli long enough to ensure loyalty from the local hereditary nobles, and deal with complaints from local merchants. These men complained that Muslim merchant houses founded in the last years of his father's life undercut their prices and so drove them out of business.
Rajah Virkupashka cared little for their troubles, especially with a hostile army on his soil. He coldly replied that if local merchants, many patronized by or serving the very nobles he came to intimidate, couldn't make a profit then maybe Vijayanagara should withdraw its investment.
(Merchants unhappy: -500 Trade Investment)
This silenced any complaints, yet the local merchant houses had a valid point. Since the war's onset, they'd found it harder and harder to deal with competitors in China and Malacca. It would take them three years to regain lost ground.
In early January 1404, Virkupashka met Naramsimhadeva along the Tungabhadra River east of Vijayanagara. This would be their first meeting and they deployed in a setpiece battle.
As was his style, Virkupashka deployed his elephants in mid formation with infantry flanking, while Orissa deployed its horsemen along the flank away from the river. The resulting clash was short and bloody, with little in the way of tactics. Horsemen sniped at the Imperial flank. Elephants thrashed the Orissan center. Lightly armored, but heavily armed infantry butchered each other. Neither ruler directly joined the bloodshed, instead leading from the rapidly thinning reserve.
It was a close run thing, but in the end Virkupashka held his army together slightly better than his enemy. Losses on both sides were heavy - three thousand Vijayanagarans and 2,500 Orissans, but it was Narasimhadeva who retreated across the border.
Virkupashka reasoned that if he could destroy the Orissan army he could dictate any terms he wanted, so he pursued the broken king across the border. In March they met at Telingala and both armies lost another 1,500 men. Vijayanagara could afford the bloodletting more than their cousins, so the emperor pursued them deeper inland.
Over the sweltering rainy season, with temperatures above 100 deg. Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) and humidity approaching 100 percent, the two armies marched and countermarched. Here Virkupashka's zeal betrayed him. He didn't notice, until it was far too late, his own sickening and exhausted army. A particularly nasty stomach virus spread through the Vijayanagaran army like a plague paralyzing them. Then, in August, Narasimhadeva appeared.
Narasimhadeva's army suffered almost as cruelly, but at least this was their home ground. They knew of streams where the water was reasonably pure, they had people in a score of villages willing to offer what support and comfort they could. For the first time both armies fought on nearly even terms, and this time it was Orissa who prevailed.
Virkupashka retreated. It's a testament to his mens' fighting spirit that, despite their illness and growing infirmity, they bloodied Narasimhadeva enough that he didn't dare pursue. The Imperials safely crossed the border in late September and spent the rest of the year recovering.
Holy men throughout Vijayanagara hailed his successful retreat as a miracle, claiming that other armies would have perished during the retreat. Surely, they argued, this was proof of Vishnu's blessing on their endeavor. They venerated Vishnu as the great preserver, standing alongside Brahma (the creator) and Shiva (the destroyer) at the head of the pantheon. They knew Vishnu stepped in when the world's balance was seriously compromised and awaited his ninth incarnation (of ten predicted) eagerly.
Perhaps, some whispered, Virkupashka
was Vishnu's ninth incarnation.
These priests on the verge of deifying their king migrated to Madurai and spread their teachings. Chennavet distanced himself from their growing zeal. Rajah Virkupashka secretly approved.
(Religious faction in Madurai. -5% Missionary cost, +2% Missionary chance)
Divine or not, as 1404 turned into 1405 other realms noticed his growing power. Gondwana felt it best to keep him close and so offered a military alliance that Virkupashka accepted. They then promptly declared war on Delhi (along with Manipur and Assam). He agreed to join the fighting, but noted his first priority had to be Orissa.
In March 1405, Narasimhadeva IV passed away and the Orissan throne entered a personal union with Vijayanagara's nominal ally, Manipur. In a gesture of good faith, Virkupashka offered peace in exchange for 'reasonable' indemnities. Manipur agreed. Orissan nobles retorted that, since Vijayanagara started the war, they were the ones who should pay.
(For RP reasons I offered a white peace. Nope. Too bad for them.)
Virkupashka reacted furiously to their refusal and invaded Telingana later that month. His army of eleven thousand met five thousand under the Orissan marshal, Narashima Deva Vansa. Yet again losses were about equal, and again Virkupashka proved slightly better at holding his army together. Vansa retreated. The emperor pursused.
Last year's near defeat taught Virkupashka caution. He moved slower than before, husbanding his forces and ensuring adequate supplies before advancing against Vansa. This allowed the Orissans to mass their army in Palakmui, but this time the Vijayanagarans prevailed. A final battle in June crushed Orissan resistance, and by September all the kingdom's major towns and cities were under siege.
Victory
Tranvanacore struck back at their foe one last time: Three warships - the entire Travanacore navy - slipped out of Calicut harbor in September. They were led by Marthanda Nishtha. Three heavy carracks and two lighter warships intercepted them south of the city.
The Imperial warships were larger, not as seaworthy as one might hope but also vulnerable to the choppy waters along the western coast. Further, Nistha was a reformed pirate. He hid his fleet in coves when the wind turned against him then, when the wind turned in his favor, he surged through the heart of the Vijayanagaran navy.
Even had either admiral had contact with Europe, this was really before the age of lines of battle. Neither fleet had gunpowder, and while the Imperial navy had what amounted to ballistae, the sea was too choppy and crew too inexperienced to use them. This turned their battle into a series of melees where the pirate excelled.
By the end of a week long campaign, the Vijayanagaran western fleet ceased to exist. Nishtha looted the ships of valuable cargo, 'recruited' anyone willing to switch sides, killed the rest and sunk the vessels. He took no losses.
Nishtha couldn't save his people however. Calicut fell in June 1405. Malabar followed in December 1406 under Virkupashka's new favorite general, Varupaksha Masllikarjun. Travanacore agreed to give up Calicut, their treasury, and abandon all relations with outside powers.
Orissa wouldn't even be allowed petty vengeance. In July 1406 their capital fell and the nobles finally valued peace. After intense negotiations brokered by their Manipuran overlords, Orissa too surrendered. They gave up Telingana and Palakmui.
By the end of 1406, Virupaksha's goal of unifying the Hindu people had begun in earnest. While still technically at war with Delhi, he had no intent of fighting the sultanate that troubled India for the last two hundred years.
This didn't mean a sudden desire for peace, much as his people began to more openly pray for it.
(War Exhaustion is about 11 right now. Naturally by MMU standards my infamy is well into yellow range.)
No, as far as the Vijayanagaran Rajah was concerned, the war had barely begun.
