The Sangamas were imploding due to a series of incompetent successors after the death of the Great Devaraya II. 

The Empire was literally teetering at the edge and shrinking from all sides, while its enemies and opportunistic rebels reared their heads sensing the vulnerability of the Imperial Structure at the Capital.

And there was a dramatic civil war raging in the Gajapati Kingdom of Orissa, after the death of the powerful Gajapati, Kapilendra Deva.

In the midst of all this chaos, there was a figure in Vijayanagara who was growing stronger by the day in both political and military power; At the cost of the imperial glory of the weak emperor of Vijayanagara.