South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.16.5

c9.s2.16.5

Though they were worthy of death, yet as they were Mussalmans, they were pardoned.’¹ This shows that at Kandur, which I have identified with Kaṇṇanūr, near Śrīrangam, there was a settlement of Muhammadans quite different from the northern Mussalmans, who came along with the invaders. Ibn Batuta’s statement that Vīra Baḷḷāḷa had a contingent of 20,000 Muhammadans in his army, though made up of slaves and prisoners of war, would seem quite probable as he had a number of Muhammadan settlements on the west coast under his government, among whom the leading one at Honawar owed allegiance to his Viceroy Hariyappa Oḍayar (Horaib), the Harihara I of Vijianagar history. It seems thus clear that the Muhammadans of South India have a history anterior to the invasions from the north.