South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.14

c13.s1.14

Ibn Batuta mentions a great victory that his host gained over ‘Bilal Deo’ (Vīra Ballāḷa III). This last great Ballāḷa had at least three capitals Dvārasamudra in Mysore, Kundāṇi in Salem, and Tiruvaṇṇāmalai in North Arcot. During the last fifteen years of his reign he was constantly in the last place, apparently because of the predatory activities of these southern Muhammadans, and the need for protection along this frontier. Tiruvaṇṇāmalai is on the main line of communication between Madura and the North. According to Ibn Batuta, Ballāḷa aimed at the conquest of the whole of the Coromandel Coast, and was able to put into the field a hundred thousand men not counting about twenty thousand Muhammadans whose services he enlisted. As against this, according to him, the Muhammadans had about six thousand troops of which the half were worthless. ‘The conflict began at the town of Kabban,¹ and the Hindus routed their enemies who retreated to Mutrah (Madura) their capital.’ The Ballāḷa encamped close to the former, which is described as one of the chief strongholds of the Muhammadans, and invested the place closely. Finding it impossible to defend themselves any longer the garrison asked for terms, and the Hoysala king offered to let them return to Madura under a safe conduct if they surrendered the town. He gave them also a fortnight’s respite to send to the headquarters and obtain permission. On receipt of this offer which was read out in the mosque in the presence of all who had assembled for prayer the Muhammadans in Madura thought that the surrender of this fortress on any terms would be followed by their own destruction, and resolved to make an effort at raising the siege. They therefore secretly marched against the Hindu camp and threw the besieging army into confusion and ultimate flight. The old sovereign, who was about eighty years at the time according to Ibn Batuta, endeavoured to mount a horse and escape, but he was taken prisoner by Nasiru-d-din, the nephew of the Sultan of Madura. Not recognizing the old man, Nasiru-d-din was about to kill him, when a slave in attendance exclaimed ‘it is the king’. ‘Whereupon he (the Ballāḷa) was taken prisoner and treated with apparent consideration; and, whilst under promise of eventual release, all his riches were extorted from him. He was then murdered and his skin stuffed with straw was hung from the walls of Mutrah (Madura)’, where Ibn Batuta says he saw it suspended.¹ This was the lamentable fate of the last great king of that dynasty. This event must have taken place just in the last known year of Ghiyathu-d-din because soon after his return to Madura he lost his only son, his wife and his mother, by an attack of cholera, and himself died a fortnight later ‘from the effects of an aphrodisiac prepared by a Yogin (a mendicant given to the practice of exhibiting supernormal power).’ All these events had taken place before Ibn Batuta left Madura in the reign of his successor Nasiru-d-din.²