Owing to the opposition of the Bahmanis, the Vijayanagara empire could not expand towards the north and so it advanced eastward and westward across the peninsula and southwards into the Tamil country.
On account of clashes with the Bahmanis and others, the boundaries of the empire kept changing between 1336-1422, when alliances with some neighbours strengthened their position. Between 1422-46, suffering a defeat in the hands of the Bahmanis, Vijayanagara reorganised its army by employing Muslim archers and getting better quality horses.
Between 1465-1509, they had to surrender initially Goa, Chaul and Dabhol ports to the Bahmanis. In the 1490s, however, with the separation of the Bijapur state from the Bahmani kingdom, they occupied Tungabhadra region, resuming contacts with Arabs on whom they depended for the supply of horses.
They had earlier driven the Gajapatis as far as Godavari and captured Masulipatam and other areas from them. But Masulipatam was lost to the Bahmanis in 1481, and the Mysore chieftains constantly rebelled against them. However, these setbacks were all overcome from the year 1509 when the greatest of all Vijayanagara rulers, Krishnadevaraya (1509-29) ascended the throne. It was also the time when the Bahmani empire disintegrated into five states. Krishnadevaraya acquired a lot of territories from them and the Gajapatis.