Who of the following founded a new city on the south bank of a tributary to river Krishna and undertook to rule his new kingdom as the agent of a deity to whom all the land south of the river Krishna was supposed to belong?
- Amoghavarsha I
- Ballala II
- Harihara I
- Prataparudra II
Explanation
Option (c) is correct
- Harihara I, along with his brother Bukka, founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336 CE. He established a new city on the south bank of the Tungabhadra River (a tributary of the Krishna River) and named it Vijayanagara.
- The decline of the Hoysala kingdom enabled Harihara and Bukka to expand their newly founded kingdom. By c. 1346 CE, they brought the whole of the Hoysala kingdom under their control. Bukka succeeded his brother in c.1356 and ruled till 1377 CE. During his reign, the Sultanate of Madurai was eliminated.
Option (a) is incorrect
- Amoghavarsha I (c.814−878 CE) was one of the most famous of the Rashtrakutas, who built a new capital city, that of Manyakheta (modern Malkhed). He was a patron of literature and was an accomplished scholar in Kannada and Sanskrit himself.
- He wrote the Kavirajamarga – the earliest Kannada work on poetics and the Prashnottara Ratnamalika in Sanskrit, which is considered as a writing of high merit and was later translated into the Tibetan language. Because of his religious temperament, his interest in the arts and literature and his peace-loving nature, he is often compared to emperor Ashoka and called “Ashoka of the South”, and is also compared to Gupta king Vikramaditya in giving patronage to men of letters.
Option (b) is incorrect
- The Hoysalas ruled over parts of the present Karnataka and most of the Tamil region. The first independent ruler of the kingdom was Ballala II (1173-1220).
- He caused the demise of the Kalyani Chalukya dynasty. His period also saw prolific literary activity in Kannada. He patronised Ranna and Rudrabhatta. The Kedareshwara temple at Halebidu and Amritheswara temple in Chikmagalur were some important temples built by him.
Option (d) is incorrect
- Prataparudra II, also known as Rudradeva II, was the last significant ruler of the Kakatiya dynasty of southern India. He ruled from 1289 CE to 1323 CE and is known for his resistance against the Delhi Sultanate’s invasions.
