14. Vijayanagara - The Last Emperors of South India

[AUDIO ONLY]

On the rocky banks of South India's Tungabhadra River, an enormous ruined city lies crumbling...

In this episode, we look at the Vijayanagara Empire of Southern India, a civilization that has all but faded from memory in many parts of the world.

Find out how this remarkable society rose up out of an age of conflict and fragmentation, how it built one of the largest and most impressive medieval cities in the world, and developed an identity that was both South Indian in nature, and global in its outlook. With readings in Sanskrit, and the sounds of traditional Carnatic music, find out what happened to bring the great stone temples of Vijayanagara crashing down in fire and flame.

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Credits:

Voice actors:

Peter Walters
Michael Hajiantonis
Kim Heron
Nick Denton
Paul Casselle

Sound engineering by Alexey Sibikin

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[riverinaremedies]

I too want to drop in to say thankyou so much for producing this content!! This is just the gold standard of Youtube.

[AAMARTCLUB]

I’m an abstract artist and I often play your podcasts whilst creating. It’s amazing how much the colours shapes textures reflect the descriptions of your beautifully described cities… it’s totally unconscious so I guess the colours themselves assemble in tribute to your wonderful stories. Thank you from my heart!

[arealbigboss]

A 3 hour podcast on a civilization I haven’t heard of, sweet.

[revantii]

Another new podcast added to the list I have on repeat. Must have listened to the Fall of Civilizations series over 10 times now. Paul and his team really don't miss with these bangers.

[purpleclove]

I was just telling my husband, about 6 hours ago, how much I enjoy this podcast!! Imagine my surprise when y'all show up in my notifications!!

[AlexKalve]

I’ve listened to all of the 13 episodes out many times each already. The quality and historical information presented by your soothing voice is the absolute perfect meditative companion. When I opened my podcast app to see finally after almost 9 months a new episode is out, was like being a child again. We are blessed to have your narration and quality. Thank you so much for all your hard work!

[thegardenoffragileegos]

Yes, my favorite podcast has made another well produced and researched ep.

[roshanibabu]

Paul Cooper and Team, many thanks for this detailed and well-researched podcast on the Vijayanagara Kingdom. I'm from the state of Karnataka and I loved the fact you pronounced ALL the names of the places, rivers people, and dynasties so very clearly, all the spellings are right, the Carnatic music notes are correct too, and many more. This indeed shows how detailed your team is with their research and how much care goes into producing such a podcast. I live a few hundred kilometers away from Hampi and have covered the ruins on foot. That, the locals say, is the best way to cover this monument. Anyone coming to India must visit this place. The best time to visit it is between September to February. Hampi is a UNESCO Heritage site and well maintained. Locals have homestays all over the place as well. Thanks a ton for this!

[runkeral]

I am overjoyed you are back, Paul, you and your lovely team! I hope you are healthy and well. Thank you for being back, I too love your channel very much! Greetings from Bulgaria!

[mshara]

As a Sri Lankan Tamil, so excited to hear this episode. My favourite podcast.

[Fjodor.Tabularasa]

My first word when I saw this video:
You make me so happy with your videos. They are the absolute best on YouTube.

[uditasharma]

The amount of research, time and effort that seems to have gone into this is astounding! I feel like I am re-learning my history lessons from eighth grade! Thank you for reminding me of how rich and complex my culture is; and my country's history, even more complex!

[alyboatright]

I listen to this podcast every night. I can enjoy the same ones over and over, but the excitement when I saw this! Appreciate you and all the work you put into these.

[antongeorgiev]

Fall of Civilizations is pretty much the best thing in YouTube.

[abhishekkhardenavis]

This is literally a dream come true! Ever since I got into this podcast, I always wanted South Indian kingdoms to feature on this. Super excited to dig in!

[SE]

I swear I don’t watch a single video on YouTube twice. But this channel man… I must have listened to every single one 10 times each!

[kringe]

It's always nice to see a coverage on some of the lesser known and often forgotten kingdoms (at least for the outsiders). I'm waiting for the video version for a bit more "flavour" of this episode.

[davids]

Tremendous work as ever. If there was a YouTube award for best independent documentary maker I would not be surprised by your victory. Thank you again Mr Cooper.

[spacetime]

Very impressed you added the Vijayanaragara empire, some really cool ancient south Indian history to be heard of. Keep it up.

[roshansapkota]

As someone who was born in the high Himalaya and now works in Karnataka… I cannot thank you enough for making this episode…. Such a brilliantly researched and narrated (which is simply brilliant ) .. thank you so much for this brilliant revisit to the history of our people..
it would be amazing if you were also able to touch up upon the Gupta dynasty of ancient India too in your following episodes….