Deva Raya II

Deva Raya II (r. 1422–1446 CE) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire. The greatest of the Sangama dynasty rulers, he was an able administrator, warrior, and scholar. He authored well-known works in the Kannada language (Sobagina Sone and Amaruka) and in the Sanskrit language (Mahanataka Sudhanidhi). He was patron to some of the most noted Kannada poets of the medieval period, including Chamarasa and Kumara Vyasa, the Sanskrit poet Gunda Dimdima, and the noted Telugu language poet Srinatha, whom the king honored with the title Kavisarvabhauma ("Emperor among poets"). He supported development in secular literature as well as the noted South Indian mathematician Parameshvara, from the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics lived in his empire.

According to the historian Sastri, Deva Raya II had the title Gajabeteegara, which literally means "Hunter of elephants", an honorific that explained his addiction to hunting elephants or a metaphor referring to his victories against enemies who were "as strong as elephants". Despite some reversals, Deva Raya II extended and held territories up to the Krishna river. According to an account of the visiting Persian chronicler Abdur Razzak, Deva Raya II's empire extended from Ceylon to Gulbarga, and Orissa to the Malabar. According to the historians Chopra, Ravindran and Subrahmaniyan, the king maintained a fleet of ships which helped him in his overseas connections. From the account of the contemporary European explorer Nicolo Conti, the king levied tribute on Ceylon, Quilon, Pegu, Pulicat and Tenasserim.