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Leaving it to others better informed to throw light on this point, I return to Bukka Raya and his doings. Firishtah says that there were two roads to Vijayanagar: "one fit for the passage of armies, the other narrow and difficult. As the former was lined with ambushes, he chose the latter, through which he marched with a select-body of troops, and appeared suddenly in the suburbs of the city."
Civil war and rebellion amongst the Muhammadans helped Harihara and Bukka in their enterprise. Sick of the tyranny and excesses of Muhammad Taghlaq, the Dakhan revolted in 1347, and the independent kingdom of the Bahmanis was for a time firmly established. The chronicle of Nuniz opens with the following sentence:
We know from other sources that part at least of this story is correct. Harihara I. and Bukka were the first two kings and were brothers, while the third king, Harihara II., was certainly the son of Bukka. The success of the early kings was phenomenal.
There are two inscriptions extant of Bukka II., his eldest son, both dated in A.D. 1406, and several of the latter's successor, the younger brother of Bukka II., whose name was Devaraya I., and whose reign lasted till at least A.D. 1412.
But meanwhile we have another story from an inscription on copper-plates which is to be seen preserved in the Collector's office at Nellore. It has been carefully edited by Mr. H. Krishna Sastri. According to this it would appear that Bukka I., who undoubtedly was a man of war, usurped the throne. It asserts that the father of Harihara I., who was named Samgama, had five sons.
This was followed by a joint embassy from Bukka of Vijayanagar and the prince of Warangal to the Sultan of Delhi, in which they offered to act in conjunction with him should an army be sent southwards by that monarch in order to regain his lost power in the Dakhan; "but Feroze Shah, being too much employed with domestic commotions to assist them, did not attend to their representations."
He was son of Chaicha, minister of Bukka II. His name appears on a pillar in a Jain temple near Kamalapura at Vijayanagar in an inscription bearing date A.D. 1385; which proves that the king was tolerant in religious matters. There seems also to have been a general named Gunda living in his reign, but his date is uncertain.
Warangal was not long left in peace, and it may be well to glance at its subsequent history before returning to the events of the reign of Bukka at Vijayanagar.
Before continuing the story I must note that Firishtah calls the king of Vijayanagar "Kishen Roy," otherwise Krishna Raya; but there can be no doubt that his real name was Bukka. The historian collected his information more than two hundred years after these events, and often misnamed the Hindu kings of whom he writes.
The eldest was Harihara himself, the second Kampa, and the third Bukka. We want to know who succeeded Harihara. There is extant an inscription of Bukka dated in 1354, and there is this Nellore inscription dated in 1356.
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