Which one of the following kingdoms was founded by the two brothers Harihar and Bukka?
- (a)Bahmani
- (b)Vijayanagara
- (c)Malwa
- (d)Maratha
Correct — B, Vijayanagara. The empire was founded in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, who began the Sangama dynasty. Its capital, Vijayanagara ('city of victory'), grew on the banks of the Tungabhadra at the site now known as Hampi, and the rulers governed in the name of the god Virupaksha.
- (a)Bahmani — The Bahmani Sultanate was founded in 1347 by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, a Muslim rebel against the Delhi Sultanate — it was Vijayanagara's Deccan rival, not the kingdom of Harihara and Bukka.
- (c)Malwa — The Malwa Sultanate was established in the early fifteenth century by Dilawar Khan Ghuri after the decline of the Delhi Sultanate; it had no connection to the two brothers.
- (d)Maratha — The Maratha kingdom was founded much later, in the seventeenth century, by Chhatrapati Shivaji — not by Harihara and Bukka in the fourteenth.
The Vijayanagara Empire (founded 1336) was the great Hindu power of peninsular India, checking the southward spread of the Deccan sultanates for over two centuries. Its first dynasty, the Sangama, was established by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I. The capital Hampi became one of the largest and richest cities of the medieval world before its sack after the Battle of Talikota (1565).
All four options are Indian polities, but only Vijayanagara is tied to two founding brothers. The Bahmani Sultanate — its contemporary rival across the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab — is the most tempting distractor because the two rose at almost the same time in the Deccan.
- Vijayanagara was founded in 1336 by Harihara I and Bukka Raya I (Sangama dynasty).
- Its capital was Hampi on the Tungabhadra river, in present-day Karnataka.
- Rulers styled themselves as governing in the name of the god Virupaksha (a form of Shiva).
- Its most famous king was Krishnadeva Raya (Tuluva dynasty); the empire declined after Talikota in 1565.
- Confusing Vijayanagara with its contemporary rival the Bahmani Sultanate, founded around the same time in the Deccan.
- Assigning the 'two brothers' founding to a later kingdom such as the Marathas.
Asked as a fact-recall linking founders (Harihara and Bukka) to the kingdom they established.
Consider the following events: I. Reign of Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagara. II. Construction of Qutab Minar. III. Arrival of Portuguese in India. IV. Death of Firoz Tughlaq. Which one of the following is the correct chronological sequence of the above events?
- (a) II, IV, III, I
- (b) II, IV, I, III
- (c) IV, II, I, III
- (d) IV, II, III, I
Answer(a) II, IV, III, I
Same empire — Vijayanagara. UPSC places its greatest ruler, Krishnadeva Raya, in chronological sequence, while this NDA item asks about the two brothers who founded the empire.
Vijayanagara rulers claimed that they were ruling on behalf of
- (a) Lord Murugan
- (b) Lord Venkateshwara
- (c) Shri Virupaksha
- (d) Shri Vallabha
Answer(c) Shri Virupaksha
Same empire from another angle — the NDA has tested that Vijayanagara kings ruled in the name of Virupaksha, complementing this question on who founded that kingdom.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The first dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire, founded by Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, was the:
- (a)Tuluva dynasty
- (b)Sangama dynasty
- (c)Saluva dynasty
- (d)Aravidu dynasty
Answer(b) Sangama dynasty.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The capital of the Vijayanagara Empire was located on the banks of which river?
- (a)Kaveri
- (b)Krishna
- (c)Tungabhadra
- (d)Godavari
Answer(c) Tungabhadra — at Hampi.