When the Portuguese first arrived in India, most of the northern and central parts of the subcontinent were ruled by Muslim rulers of Turkic, Afghan and Persian extract (although there remained several pockets of resistance such as the kingdom of Mewar). The southern half of the Indian peninsula, however, was home to a remarkable Hindu empire remembered today by the name of its capital—Vijayanagar. Built on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it was then the largest city in the world.
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