Thread by @VIBHU_Tweet

Veera Ballala III

Veera Ballala III (1292–1342 CE) was the last great king of the Hoysala Empire. During his rule, the northern and southern branches of the Hoysala empire (which included much of modern...
twitter.com/i/spaces/1MYxN…

...Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu) were consolidated and administered from Halebiedu.

During his rule, he fought numerous wars with the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Pandyan Dynasty of Madurai and other minor dynasties of South India.

But it was his conflict with the invading forces of Alauddin Khalji, and later those of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi, that would alter the course of history of South India. Even if Veera Ballala III survived & won the war, the Hoyasala empire would still...

...have disappeared, and the Vijayanagara empire would have taken its place. However in many ways, the Vijayanagara empire was just a continuation of the Hoysala empire, so this is really a moot question. Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the brothers who founded the...

...Vijayanagara Empire had served the king in a military capacity.

Around 1310, Ballala III successfully played 'king maker' in the affairs of Tamil country by appointing Sundara Pandya as the Pandya king as opposed to his competitor, Vira Pandya.

However his focus the rebellious ruler Kampilideva of the Kampili Chiefdom on the banks of the Tungabhadra river and on the affairs in the Tamil country to the south laid open the northern boundaries of his territories to the Invasion of Malik Kafur,...

...the commander of the armies of All-ud-din-Khalji. The Yadavas themselves, according to historian John Keay, provided the necessary help to Mallik Kafur's armies to march south.

Halebidu was attacked and plundered in 1311, only to be rebuilt in 1316.

Veera Ballala III had to accept defeat to the Delhi Sultan,pay a handsome tribute & send his son Veera Virupaksha to Delhi as an act of submission.His son returned in 1313.

Veera refused to pay tribute & withdrew from his earlier pact to support the Delhi Sultanate as a vassal.

Tughluq sent an army to the south in 1327 CE and Halebidu was plundered for a second time. Veera Ballala III had to find refuge in Tiruvannamalai from where he continued his resistance. By 1336 all Hindu kingdoms of south India with the exception of the Hoysala...

...Empire had been defeated and large areas annexed by the Sultanate of Delhi.

With an intention of confronting the Muslim invasion, Veera Ballala III founded a second capital called Hosapattna on the banks of Tungabhadra river, which according to historians Henry Heras...

...and William Coelho, later came to be called Vijayanagara, the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.

In 1342-3, a decisive war that would end the Hoysala fortunes was fought at Kannanur. Veera Ballala III fought a pitched battle against Ghiyas-ud-din, the Sultan of Madurai.

Just when a Hoysala victory seemed imminent, The Hoysala monarch was captured, and strangled and flayed.And this was the End of the Great Hoysala Empire.