1336-1565 CE
From 1336 to 1565 CE, the Vijayanagarans raised the last great Hindu empire as a bulwark against Muslim expansion — their capital's ruins still astonish visitors, its markets once selling diamonds by the bushel, its temples towering over the Tungabhadra while their armies held the Deccan sultanates at bay. Krishnadevaraya's reign gilded the zenith; at Talikota, five sultanates combined to destroy what one alone could never conquer.