Achyuta Deva Raya

---

title: "Achyuta Deva Raya" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["year-of-birth-missing", "1542-deaths", "16th-century-indian-monarchs", "hindu-monarchs", "indian-hindus", "vijayanagara-emperors", "tuluva-dynasty"] description: "Emperor of Vijayanagara from 1529 to 1542" topic_path: "people/1540s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achyuta_Deva_Raya" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Emperor of Vijayanagara from 1529 to 1542 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox royalty"]

Field	Value
reign	30 November 1529 – June 1542
coronation	30 November 1529
Vijayanagara, Vijayanagara Empire
title	Rajadhiraja
succession	Emperor of Vijayanagara
predecessor	Krishnadevaraya
successor	Venkata I
birth_place	Vijayanagara, Vijayanagara Empire (modern day Hampi, Karnataka, India)
father	Tuluva Narasa Nayaka
mother	Obamamba{{cite book
first1	Krishnaswamy
death_date	June 1542
death_place	Tirumala, Vijayanagara Empire (present-day Karnataka, India)
spouse	Tirumalamba
Varadambika
spouse-type	Consorts
dynasty	Tuluva
religion	Hinduism
issue	Venkata I
image	File:Achyutadevaraya and his consort Varadarajamma.jpg
caption	Achyutadevaraya (left) and his consort Varadambika (right)
::

| reign = 30 November 1529 – June 1542 | coronation = 30 November 1529 Vijayanagara, Vijayanagara Empire | title = Rajadhiraja | succession = Emperor of Vijayanagara | predecessor = Krishnadevaraya | successor = Venkata I | birth_date = | birth_place = Vijayanagara, Vijayanagara Empire (modern day Hampi, Karnataka, India) | father = Tuluva Narasa Nayaka | mother = Obamamba{{cite book |last1=Ayyangar |first1=Krishnaswamy |title=Sources of Vijayanagar History |date=1919 |publisher=University of Madras |location=Chennai |page=16 }} | death_date = June 1542 | death_place = Tirumala, Vijayanagara Empire (present-day Karnataka, India) | spouse = Tirumalamba Varadambika | spouse-type = Consorts | dynasty = Tuluva | religion = Hinduism | issue = Venkata I | image = File:Achyutadevaraya and his consort Varadarajamma.jpg | caption = Achyutadevaraya (left) and his consort Varadambika (right)

Achyuta Deva Raya (died June 1542) was a emperor of Vijayanagara who succeeded his older brother, Krishnadevaraya, after the latter's death in 1529.

During his reign, Fernao Nuniz, a Portuguese-Jewish traveller, chronicler and horse trader visited India and spent three years in Vijayanagara.

Achyutaraya patronised the Kannada poet Chatu Vittalanatha, the great composer and singer Purandaradasa, one of the major proponents of Carnatic music, and the Sanskrit scholar Rajanatha Dindima II. Upon his death, the succession was disputed. His son Venkata I succeeded him but ruled for a very short period and was killed in a chaotic succession dispute in which many claimants to the throne were killed. The dispute ended when his nephew, (younger brother's son) Sadasiva Raya, finally became the emperor while yet a child, under the regency of Rama Raya, a son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya. His wife's name was probably Varadambika. Sadasiva Raya was probably the son of Varadambika's sister Hemavati and her husband Ranga Raya.

Reign

The time when Achyuta Deva Raya became the emperor was by no means a favorable one. The peace and prosperity of the halcyon days under Krishnadevaraya were coming to an end. Feudatories and enemies were waiting for an opportunity to bring down the empire. In addition, Achyuta Deva Raya had to contend with the powerful Rama Raya, who was competing for the throne.

While the works of Nuniz speak very lowly of Achyuta Deva Raya as being a monarch given to vices and cruelty, there is enough evidence to prove that the emperor was indeed noteworthy in his own right and fought hard to keep the prosperity of the empire alive. He had been personally chosen by Krishnadevaraya himself as a capable successor, handpicked to assume the imperial throne.

The Turko-Persian Sultan Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur invaded and captured the Raichur doab. The Gajapatis of Orissa and Quli Qutub Shah of Golconda Sultanate were defeated and pushed back. Achyuta Deva Raya along with his general Salakaraju Tirumala went on a southern campaign to bring the governors of Travancore and Ummathur under control. They were successful. Then they attacked the doab north of the Tungabhadra and recaptured the forts of Raichur and Mudgal successfully.

The two Sanskrit works Achyutarayabhyudaya () and Varadambikaparinaya () describe the emperor's life and reign in detail.

Throughout his rule, Achyuta Deva Raya had to contend with the manipulations of Rama Raya who in his powerful capacity had replaced many of the faithful servants of the Empire in high ranking positions with men of his own favour. On more than one occasion the Bahmani Sultans were brought in to play the role of mediator between the emperor and Aliya Rama Raya in the game of power sharing. This would further weaken the Empire. Around 1540, Rama Raya imprisoned Achyuta Deva Raya in a coup.

In 1542, Achyuta Deva Raya died, and was succeeded by his young son of Venkata I (Venkata Raya or Venkatadri Raya). But he was soon killed, and Sadasiva Raya became the new emperor. Rama Raya became the imperial regent and let very little governance in the hands of Sadasiva Raya.

The Tiruvengalanatha temple was built at Vijayanagara during his reign. It has become popularly known by his name as Achyutaraya temple, rather than by the name of the deity Venkateswara to whom the temple was dedicated. File:Shiva temple (1539 AD) at Timmalapura.jpg|The Shiva temple at Timmalapura was constructed in 1539 CE during the reign of Achyuta Deva Raya File:Kannada inscription of 1539 AD at Shiva temple in Timmalapura.jpg|Kannada inscription of emperor Achyuta Deva Raya dated 1539 CE in the Shiva temple in Timmalapura File:Kannada inscription of Achuta Raya (1536 AD) at Vitthala temple in Hampi.JPG|Kannada inscription (1536 CE) of emperor Achyuta Deva Raya on molding of Vittala temple in Hampi File:Kannada inscription (1536 AD) of Achyuta Raya at entrance to Vitthala temple in Hampi.JPG|Kannada inscription (1536 CE) of emperor Achyuta Deva Raya at the Vittala temple in Hampi File:View from within the Shiva temple at Timmalapura 2.jpg|Shiva temple built by emperor Achyuta Deva Raya at Timmalapura near Hampi

References

• Prof K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, History of South India, From Prehistoric times to fall of Vijayanagar, 1955, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002)

References

1. Sherwani, H. K.. "History of Medieval Deccan".
2. Pletcher, Kenneth. (2010-08-15). "The History of India". The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
3. Datta, Nonica. (2003). "Indian History: Ancient and medieval". Encyclopaedia Britannica (India) and Popular Prakashan, Mumbai.
4. Stein, Burton. (1990). "The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara". Cambridge University Press.
5. Khan, Iqtidar Alam. (2008-04-25). "Historical Dictionary of Medieval India". Scarecrow Press.
6. (1988). "Indian History". Allied Publishers.
7. Mukherjee, Sujit. (1998). "A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850". Orient Blackswan.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::