The extension of the Vijayanagar Empire into the Tamil country began with the southern inroads made by Sangama kings between 1356 and 1378. With the destruction of the Madurai Sultanate in 1377-78, most of the present-day Tamil Nadu, eventually, came under the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire. The rule of the Vijayanagar kings was characterized by the restoration of religious freedom to the Hindu majority which was denied by the Madurai sultans and a revival of music, arts and crafts. The rule of the Vijayanagar kings also witnessed the steady decline of Tamil language as the new rulers patronized Kannada and Telugu over Tamil. The Vijayanagar Empire's hold over the Tamil country collapsed in the mid 16-th century as the kingdom itself disintegrated into a number of petty chieftainships.
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History
The Vijayanagar kingdom was founded by two brothers Harhara and Bukka who were captured by the Emperor of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq and forcibly converted to Islam but later escaped and renounced their new faith and launched a crusade against the Muslim invaders. In 1336, they founded the city of Vijayanagar on the banks of the Tungabhadra which they made their capital and undertook repeated campaigns against the northern invaders. The campaigns eventually culminated in the overwhelming defeat of the forces of the Delhi Sultanate and restoration of Hindu rule in South India.
The Pandyas of Madurai, the immediate Hindu predecessors of the Vijayanagar Empire in the Tamil country, had been defeated by Malik Kafur the general of Alauddin Khilji and their kingdom was annexed to the Delhi Sultanate in about 1310. However, in 1335, Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, the Sultan's viceroy at Madurai declared himself independent and formed the Madurai Sultanate after declaring himself sultan. The Madurai Sultanate ruled from Madurai and held sway over most parts of the Tamil country from 1335 onwards fighting closely contested battles with their Hindu neighbours before being dissolved in 1378.
The Sangama kings of Vijayanagar, along with the Hoysalas were the arch enemies of the Madurai Sultanate and tried their best to drive them out. Vira Ballala III, the Hoysala king, fought a long drawn-out war with the Madurai Sultanate before succumbing at Tiruchirappalli in 1342. The Vijayanagar Empire's first conquest in the Tamil country was the territory of North Arcot which was annexed by Kumara Kampana after a victorious battle with Sambuvarayar chieftains in 1356. Kumara Kampana proceeded further southwards and after inflicting a crushing defeat on Nasir-ud-din, the Madurai sultan left him in charge of Madurai and some of the surrounding areas alone. The conquest of the Madurai Sultanate was complete in 1378, when Harihara declared himself as the "Emperor of the South".
Literature
Tamil literature from this period came from Tamil speaking regions ruled by the feudatory Pandya who gave particular attention on the cultivation of Tamil literature, some poets were patronised by the Vijayanagara kings. Svarupananda Desikar wrote an anthology of 2824 verses, Sivaprakasap-perundirattu, on the Advaita philosophy. His pupil the ascetic, Tattuvarayar, wrote a shorter anthology, Kurundirattu, that contained about half the number of verses. Krishnadevaraya patronised the Tamil Vaishnava poet Haridasa whose Irusamaya Vilakkam was an exposition of the two Hindu systems, Vaishnava and Shaiva, with a preference for the former.