Vijayanagara Empire

The Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Empire, was a late medieval Hindu empire that ruled much of southern India, established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty in the aftermath of Delhi Sultanate invasions in the late thirteenth century. At its height in the early sixteenth century under Krishnadevaraya, the empire subjugated nearly all of southern India's ruling dynasties and covered territory across what is now Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, southern Kerala, and parts of Telangana and Maharashtra. Its wealth drew European travelers including Domingo Paes and Fernao Nunes, whose written accounts document the empire, and its capital ruins at Vijayanagara, now Hampi, form a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the empire was disestablished in 1646.