Kampili Kingdom- An end which leads to a Great Start

The end of the Kampili Kingdom was sudden and inevitable but its end led to the foundation of an empire that would last for centuries, making great histories and birthing eccentric warriors. Read the story of the great battles that made and broke Kampili, to understand the role it played in the long run, in making the history of south India a glorious one.

Ruins of Kampili, Source: Pinterest

The threshold between glory and unknowns is marked by a cursed piece of land, a blackened history that no one wants to mention or remember because it sounds like a haunted script or an unfinished prophecy. When they said that great empires have risen out of enormous ruins, it’s no lie.

The foundations of someone’s happiness could be made on the misfortune of the dead. Just like that, the bricks of the foundations of the most illustrious south Indian empire, the Vijayanagara Empire were based on the heap of ruins of the Kampili Kingdom. This is the story of the gruesome and short-lived misfortune of the Kampili Kingdom.

The Kampili Kingdom is not a favorite subject of study for historians as its history is quite short-lived and rather not significant. It is only known as the root empire which grew to become the Vijayanagara Empire but if one studies the past of the Kampili Kingdom then it's as much fascinating as that of any long-lived large kingdom. The Kampili Kingdom was small in the 14th century, founded by a Hoysala commander called Singaya Nayaka III who found the kingdom deserted after a Delhi Sultanate invasion and decided to make it his home.

Little did Nayaka know that the land he is calling home was a disputed land and was already under the claim of the Delhi Sultanate. Whatever bad vibes the land did emit, Nayaka ignored them all and bought his family and made a home for himself on the land, naming his small kingdom after his son and successor Kampili. Nayaka had a quiet reign as long as he was alive as Muhammed Bin Tughlaq was lying low after his persistent invasions and so time went on smoothly and peacefully for the people of Kampili Kingdom until King Nayaka died in 1300 CE.

A Shiva Temple made by Kampili Deva, Source: Wikipedia

After the death of Nayaka, his son Kampili became the lord of the Kingdom and it was during this time of upheaval that the Delhi Sultanate army returned to reclaim its disputed property. War raged from both sides. Kampili had a son called Kumara Rama who also participated in the war with a warrior’s spirit. The people of Kampili did everything in their might to protect the little home they had made after so much hard work.

From Muhammed Bin Tughlaq’s side his army commander, Malik Zada raged a gruesome war against Kampili, their strength was immeasurable and the strength of their foe was invisible. Kampili falls quite soon. When news of the king’s defeat reached the royal palace, a mass fire suicide called Jauhar was performed by the queens and princesses of Kampili. It is said that Malik Zada sent the straw-stuffed head of Kampili to Tughlaq as a token of their victory and that’s how the short-lived glory of the Kampili Kingdom was vanquished.

Years later, in 1336 CE, not long after the battle of Kampili, when the Tughlaq army had once again left the land of Kampili unclaimed, the empire of Vijayanagara rose from the ashes of the deceased Kampili Kingdom, which went on to reach great heights and rose to enormous fame, becoming the greatest empire of south India for 200 years. The story of Kampili Kingdom proves this saying that ‘from cruel examples are made great histories’. Kampili might have died early but it lived on and on, in the history of the Vijayanagara Empire.