Why did Gajapati Prataparudra Deva lose possession of so many forts to Krishna Deva Raya?

There are certain metaphysical and ur- Civilizational reasons which were the actual cause but I'm yet to build a wide-enough fan following on Kora to really start discussing them so I'll just describe the more prosaic and overt reasons which are more likely to get me followers.

Basically Orissa was so incredibly over-stretched that even relatively small problems could compound into serious crises.

Ever-increasing Peaceful population had not only led to a near-constant state of War in the North, it'd also led to a collapse of Trade Networks that Oriyas had traditionally depended on. This had gone on with a corresponding bureacratic and agricultural contraction that led to Wars not only with the North Peacefuls but the Southern Hindus as well. This impacted Oriyas far worse than it impacted the other two cohorts, since Orissa- almost uniquely among most Hindu nations- lacks a true large-scale riverine drainage system across the land, a problem that was earlier manageable with canal networks connecting the Godavari, Mahanadi, and Damodara but which appears to have fallen into disrepair during the last days of Routray rule.

I suspect that of the Nine Crore citizens Gajapati Kapilendradeva claimed to rule over, less than a third were Oriya by blood.

As a result, for almost 200 years, Orissa was not only becoming increasingly militaristic, its old more bureacratic Chodaganga System had shifted to a more “feudal” Routray system, since the latter was cheaper to run, more response to external threats, and more robust to external shocks- such as the Tughlaq campaign till Cuttack during the reign of Gajapati Bhanudeva II two centuries before Prataparudradeva's reign. The maintenance of such a Kingdom demanded more and more martial Gajapatis, even with the dejure state of Orissa as a Theocracy acting as a pressure valve for discontent.

What does seem to have sparked the final collapse though, appears to have been a series of poor monsoons, beginning from the middle of the 15th Century which, I suspect, was on account of the phenomenon known as the Little Ice Age in the Firangistans. Of course, studies are lacking since our great Intellectuals are incompetent degenerates. A certain Dr Liddle from Angrejistan had conducted a study on this stuff though and I'd mailed her asking for more data on this last year but I never got a reply.

Anyway…

We know that 13th Century Orissa was probably the best administered nation in the Continent with every inch of land accounted for. However this doesn't seem to be the case come the 15th Century; vast stretches in Mahakantara are seemingly abandoned. There are extensive lengths of wilderness right outside Berhampur and Bhadrak. This is despite a massive building and development programs under the Routrays, including what was probably the first mass education initiative in any Bharata State.

So, we have:-

1- Declining Crop yields amidst Water scarcity.

2- Some sort of Demographic decline among Oriyas.

3- A political system that increasingly relies on Martial victories by the Gajapati to shore up Administrative stability which is increasingly dependent on cash-strapped Feudal lords who can't trade anymore.

In the hands of exceptional Gajapatis like Kapilendradeva or Purushottamadeva, this could've worked but by the reign of Gajapati Prataparudradeva, possibly the situation had detoriarated too far to be salvaged. Of course, note that Oriyas were FAR more overstretched during Gajapati Prataparudradeva's time than we'd ever been in history after the reign of the Emperor Kharavela, more than a millennia earlier.

And the entire peacenik BS by this wanderer named Chaitanya didn't help either. I won't say much about him for the sake of politeness but no serious Oriya should bear any respect for this alleged godman.

Nonetheless do note that the Historical Core Oriya territories were scarcely touched, even at the nadir of Gajapati Prataparudradeva's reign. In theory, he was still reigning over territories far greater than any Keshari or even most Chodaganga rulers had.

The deathblow to both the Routray line, and the Oriya State in general, came later. But that's another story.

Jai Jagannath.