Mysore/Mysuru: A stone inscription found near a temple in Tumakuru district has revealed that Sri Krishnadevaraya, a finest king of medieval period who had kept the Muslim invaders at bay for very many years, had died on Oct. 17, 1529.

This, perhaps, is the first rare stone inscription that has recorded the exact date of death of one of the Hindu kings of India whose popularity had reached the foreign soil. It was during his reign, the priceless stones, emeralds and gold were sold on the streets of Hampi, the capital of the erstwhile Vijayanagara Kingdom.

T.S. Subramanya, Deputy Director, Mysore Palace Board, told SOM that his office received photograph of this inscription from Prof. K.R. Narasimhan, engraved on a slab placed to the North side of Gopalakrishna Temple at Honnenahalli in Tumakuru. 

It is written in Kannada and depicted in characters. The inscription records the demise of Sri Krishnadevaraya (Virakrishnaraya Maharayalu Yitatha Tithiyalu Astamayaragalu) in Saka 1451, Virodhi Samvatsava, Su.15, Lunar Eclipse, which corresponds to 1529 AD, Oct. 12, Sunday of Anebiddasaraya Sthala in Penugonda Rajya, for conducting worship and providing offerings to the God Viraprasannahanumantha of Tumakuru by Timmappanna Nayaka along with some officials and inhabitants of Tumakuru.

Similarly, an inscription engraved on the North and West walls of 3rd Prakara of the Kalahastisvara temple at Srikalahasti, Chittor District, Andhra Pradesh, dated Saka 1454, Nandana, Sravana Ba.10, (1532, July 27, Saturday) mentions that King Achyutaraya was coronated in the year Virodhi, Karttika Maasa Ba.5, which corresponds to 1529 AD, Oct.21, in the presence of God Kalahastisvara at Kalahasti. Thus, from these two inscriptions, it is known for the first time that Achyutaraya was coronated on the 4th day after the demise of Sri Krishnadevaraya.

It may be mentioned here that in the 1990s, the Department of Archaeology and Museums had found a stone inscription in Hampi to confirm that in the year 1509, on Sri Krishna Jayanthi day, Janamashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna, Raja Krishnadevaraya ascended the throne of Vijayanagara, a kingdom that reached its zenith during his reign.