In this episode, we’re talking about a real historical King. Krishnadevaraya. You might know about Krishnadevaraya from the Tenali Raman stories that we have covered before on the show. Despite what’s in those stories, Krishnadevaraya was more than just a sidekick for Tenali Raman. Similar to how Akbar was more than just a sidekick for Birbal. Krishadevaraya ruled over a pretty substantial part of the country. I’ll explain more about that in the show notes. But for now, let’s dive right in.
A General turns King
The story begins in Vijayanagar, in the year 1491. Narasa Nayak was a general who was a rather competent one. He had accomplished a fair bit in his time as commander of a part of the King’s army. But he wanted to be more than just a general, as did all the other generals.
So when the King died, one unnamed general decided to make a grab for the throne by having the crown prince executed. That didn’t work out so well for this unnamed general. Narasa Nayak helped put the King’s younger son on the throne. The new King was just a child. Which suited Narasa Nayak perfectly. Because it meant he got to rule for real. The child-King, Narasimha Raya the second was practically a prisoner of Narasa Nayak.
A few years later, it became easy for Narasa Nayak to formally become the King and to actually imprison Narsimha Raya. So there’s a lesson here – that’s one way to effectively take over a kingdom. Not by quick and direct frontal assault, but slowly over the years.
Narasa Nayak was rather powerful as a King. He had his enemies on the backfoot most of the time. But then one of his enemies Yusuf Adil Khan who had been unable to defeat Narasa Nayak suggested a truce instead. It was a trap. Yusuf Adil Khan had Narasa Nayak and dozens of his ministers executed at what was meant to be a treaty signing.
Krishnadevaraya the warrior
The news of the King’s demise was a shock to Vijayanagar. Maybe one person was happy: Narasimha Raya the second, the child King who was no longer a King and no longer a child. But it’s not clear what happened to him.
Narasa Nayak had left behind three sons and one of them was going to ascend to the throne. Vira Narasimha Raya was choice number 1. He was the eldest. But the citizens of Vijayanagar wondered if Krishnadevaraya would be next. He was Vira Narasimha’s younger son, and according to people’s perception, he was a strong administrator. Still, it’s not like the people got a vote or anything.
What people admired about Krishnadevaraya was that he was a clever commander. He was known to outwit armies he was battling against. If you’ve seen the movie Braveheart, and admired William Wallace’s tactics in battle which surprised his opponents, that’s the kind of thing Krishnadevaraya did. He had spies in his rival armies who sent him secret messages informing him of their every move. Seems like ripe content for a blockbuster movie one day.
Krishnadevaraya’s sick brother
Not too long after taking the throne, Vira Narasimha Raya fell sick. He was actually on his deathbed. He called over his prime minister to tell him something important. The prime minister was Thimarasu, but everyone called him Appaji, because Appa means father and he was a father figure to most who knew him.
Appaji wasn’t prepared for what Vira Narasimha was going to ask for. He knew that the King hadn’t formally named a successor yet. And even though he knew the lads down at the pub were offering bets on Vira Narasimha’s 8 year old boy, Appaji was confident the Kingdom would pass on to Krishnadevaraya. But he was soon going to find out that the King wasn;t just physically sick.
A terrible order
“Appaji, I am ready to name my successor” said the King, slowly from his deathbed.
Appaji was ready with a quill and a document where he had already taken the liberty of filling in “Krishnadevaraya” into the “successor” column.
Vira Narasimha flung aside the document when he read Krishnadevaraya’s name.
“So I take it you don’t want your brother to succeed you” Appaji said calmly.
“No Appaji, why would I ask my brother when I have the most capable son?”
“But, your highness, your son is eight years old! The other day I saw him fighting with the other school kids over some marbles”
“That just proves he’s a warrior, Appaji,” the King replied. “I won’t hear any more objections against your new King. As for Krishnadevaraya, I want you to blind him and bring me his eyes”
Appaji was shocked. But it was a direct order from the King, even if it was from a delirious, dying King who desperately wanted to keep power to himself and his own line.
The ol’ switcheroo
Appaji was known to obey orders, but he was also fair. He wasn’t ready to give up an innocent life for the sake of a dying King’s crazy fantasy.
He had an idea of how to deal with this. The idea was similar to what the Huntsman decided to do in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Appaji took Krishnadevaraya early the next morning to the middle of the forest. Krishnadevaraya had been puzzled about where they were going. But he trusted Appaji completely. He had no idea why Appaji had brought along a goat, and two boxes attached to a couple of posts.
Appaji explained that this was the only way for Krishnadevaraya to survive. The king had ordered his execution. Krishnadevaraya was shocked. He wanted to go back and clarify things with his brother. There must be a mistake. But Appaji’s sincerity convinced him. Krishnadevaraya agreed to go in hiding. But not for too long, hopefully.
Appaji had two suggestions. That Krishnadevaraya subscribe to every newspaper he could to stay updated on all the happenings in Vijayanagar. The second was what these posts and boxes were about. Quickly they dug the posts into the ground, they could leave each other secret messages in these boxes.
“That’s a brilliant idea, Appaji. I imagine in the future everyone in the whole world will have a mailbox of their own”
And as for the goat, well. That was grisly story. The King had demanded proof. He wanted to see Krishnadevaraya’s eyes. Appaji figured a goat was a small price to pay to keep Krishnadevaraya alive.
The King squinted at the eyes and wondered why the irises were black instead of brown. Krishnadevaraya’s eyes were brown he knew that. Appaji calmly explained that that was just a natural process because it happened in death. Oh well, the King thought, that explanation’s good enough for me.
Krishadevaraya incognito
For the next several weeks and months, Krishnadevaraya traveled the country in disguise. This was a good thing. A King can learn a lot about the people he governs by experiencing their lives first hand.
He even met a lady, Chinnadevi and they fell in love. For reasons Chinnadevi couldn’t understand he didn’t want to marry her yet. But he promised he had a surprise in store for her.
“What is it?” Chinnadevi asked “Do you have another wife and kids? Even if you do, this is deeply patriarchal medieval India, so I don’t have a choice except to be okay with it”
But Krishnadevaraya did not divulge his secret. To tell one person was to tell them all.
All this while, he kept making at least weekly trips to the mailbox. There wasn’t much news. Other than that Vira Narasimha’s boy and Krishnadevaraya’s nephew had been declared Emperor of Vijayanagar.
But the news that Krishnadevaraya had been dreading soon came.
Gulbarga attacks
Mahmood Shah was the ruler of the nearby area of Gulbarga. To him, the newspapers brought great news everyday! His neighboring King Vira Narasimha Raya on his deathbed – great! His 8 year old son was now King – even more fantastic! And Narsimha Raya’s able commander brother Krishnadevaraya was dead – that was priceless!
I don’t see why I should not invade Vijayanagar. I’d actually be doing them a favor. Call it protection from the clutches of the other neighbors. So he sent an ultimatum. It was worded as if the only thing Mahmood Shah cared about was the welfare of his dear friend the new King, whose name he got wrong but that didn’t matter. But the message to the new King was clear: I’ve got the power and you haven’t.
Appaji knew the time had come to bring Krishnadevaraya back from the dead. Being a clever politician, he waited until the citizens and other ministers were experiencing the correct amount of despair. Not the King though. The King was busy commissioning more and more marbles for him to play with his elementary school friends with.
Krishadevaraya to the rescue!
Like a magician pulling back a curtain to show that the tiger had magically re-appeared in its cage, Appaji revealed to everyone that Krishnadevaraya had not actually died. He had been in hiding, secretly planning the Kingdom’s next move in defending itself. Krishnadevaraya grumbled something about politicians under his breath. But he smiled and agreed as he greeted the surprised crowds.
Yes, he had plans. The Gulbarga army was a pushover. He still had some spies there. He knew what they were planning and he knew exactly how to fight off the invasion.
All’s well that ends well….or not
So that’s exactly what happened. The morale of the invading Gulbarga forces took a heavy hit when they learned Krishnadevaraya was alive. The man was a legend. In fact, the Gulbarga army was trained on Krishnadevaraya’s textbook on military strategy and military tactics. They couldn’t imagine being able to survive a direct conflict with someone they admired. The battle was short and swift.
Krishnadevaraya was seen as a hero, and when someone proposed that he should be King, there were no objections. Least of all from the current King who was more than happy to go back to his marbles.
Krishnadevaraya did marry Chinnadevi as well. She had loved him for who he was as a person, when she didn’t know he would be the future king. And Krishnadevaraya respected that.
So you might think that everything was perfectly well and there were no problems at all. But in fact there were. You see, Vijaynagar attacked the neighboring Kingdom of Kalinga and won. They made a deal though. Krishnadevaraya married the Kalinga King’s daughter and returned back some of the lands he had conquered – everything to the east of the Krishna river.
But the Kalinga King never forgot his disgrace. He decided to take revenge on his forced son-in-law.
A conspiracy
Krishnadevaraya’s son was next in line to succeed his father to the throne. The boy had a major weakness – he loved sweets. Appaji indulged the boy in a sort of grandfatherly way. He would often fetch him some sweets from his own home. Secretly because the King might not approve. Krishadevaraya was always urging his boy to go to the gym, do warrior training classes etc.
When the Kalinga spy who was working for the Queen accidentally discovered Appaji’s little secret, she was delighted. This was what her master had been waiting for. The maid knew everyone’s habits and so the next time she knew that Appaji was going to drop by with a fresh batch of jalebis, she sneaked into the boy’s room and mixed a little powder into his nightly glass of water. That was specially imported powder, and just in case it isn’t clear – it wasn’t some kind of protein powder to compensate for the boy’s poor diet or lack of exercise. Quite the opposite. The boy was being poisoned.
Krishnadevaraya reacts poorly
Krishnadevaraya did not take his son’s demise very well. He knew in his gut there had been foul play. Naturally, he launched the resources of the Kingdom in finding out what had happened. There wasn’t CCTV footage, but when more than one servant in the palace said that they had seen Appaji going into the boy’s room with a box of jalebis, Krishnadevaraya was stunned.
If he had investigated and even just asked Appaji about it, maybe things would have turned out different. But in that moment the King was driven by emotion, not logic. Krishnadevaraya had Appaji blinded and exiled.
They never really patched things up between them. Which is an understandable outcome, if someone takes drastic and irreversible action, like blinding the person who saved their life. That’s how Appaji thought of it. He died in poverty, refusing any help at all from the King who had betrayed him so deeply.
So that’s Krishnadevaraya’s story, with a tragic ending for a person close to him. In one of the earlier Tenali Raman stories, I’ve also described how Krishnadevaraya didn’t get to say goodbye to his jester either. Raman had been bitten by a deadly snake and knew that he only had very little time to live. He dispatched an urgent message that he wanted the King to come to him. Tragically the King thought this was another of Raman’s jokes and completely ignored the message.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
Krishnadevaraya is well known in Indian history as one of the greatest administrators, though in popular culture he is well remembered for his association with Tenali Raman. On the website I’ve linked Tenali Raman stories we’ve covered before, check them out.
The Kingdom of Vijayanagar was a very famous one. The monuments at Hampi are designated a UNESCO world heritage site.
One practice that Krishnadevaraya started was considered unusual at the time, but may have contributed to his military success. In recruiting new members to his army, he did not restrict them by religion.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
One of you listeners requested a folk tale from Kerala, but we’ll actually cover a couple of them next week.