Deva Raya I

Deva Raya I (reigned 5 November 1406 – 25 February 1423) was an Emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (of the Sangama Dynasty). After Harihara II died, there was a dispute among his sons over succession, in which Deva Raya I eventually emerged victor. He was a very capable ruler noted for his military exploits and his support to irrigation works in his empire. He modernized the Vijayanagara army by improving the cavalry, employed skilled archers of the Turkic clans and raised the fighting capacity of his bowmen and imported horses from Arabia and Persia.

The Italian traveler Niccolo Conti, who visited Vijayanagara c. 1420, described Deva Raya I thus: "In this city, there are 90,000 men fit to bear arms... their king is more powerful than all the kings of India". Conti also noted that the royal city had grown to a circumference of 60 mi.

Deva Raya I was a patron of Kannada literature and architecture. Madhura, a noted Jain poet was in his court and wrote in Kannada the Dharmanathapurana on the life of the fifteenth Jain Tirthankara (Dharmanatha), and a poem in eulogy of Gommateshvara of Shravanabelagola.