Vijayanagara in modern historiography: A survey

Abstract

What Sewell called the 'Forgotten Empire' once unified the larger part of South India, governing it from Vijayanagara for over 200 years. Once modern methods of research took root, the effort began to reconstruct its history. British historians saw in it a predecessor-an imperfect, but predecessor all the same. Indian historians tended to see in it good evidence of Indian capacity for military enterprise and efficient administration. Since Independence, the trend has continued, with Burton Stein on one side and T.V. Mahanlingam, on the other side. But a more objective trend is also noticeable now, in the work of Y. Subbarayalu and N. Karashima.