History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c28.9.3

v1.c28.9.3

According to the same Musalman history, a rebel chief named Muḥammad Khān was appointed to govern the district of Rāyāchal.¹ Though Varaṅgal was occupied in 1423, the northern districts of Telingana both above and below the Ghats remained to be conquered. According to the Tārīkh-i-Firishta Humāyūn Shāh Bahmanī desired to consolidate the conquest of Varaṅgal or Eka-śilā-nagarī by subduing the outlying districts. Khwājah-i Jahān was sent with a large army to capture Devārkoṇḍa. The Telugu chief of that place appealed to Kapilendra for help who was possibly his suzerain. Kapilendra marched so swiftly to the relief of Devārkoṇḍa that he caught the Musalman army unwares. The besieged Hindus also sallied out and attacked the besiegers from the other side. Caught at a disadvantage between two armies, Khwājah-i-Jahān was compelled to seek safety in flight. According to *Firishta* this battle took place approximately in A. H. 864=1459 A. D. The Bahmanīs never again attempted to conquer any part of Telingana during the lifetime of Kapilendra and the Musalman historians had to invent plausible excuses for this disgraceful defeat of the Musalman army and the subsequent failure of Humāyūn Shāh Bahmanī to retrieve the prestige of Bahmanī arms. It is possible that on this occasion, or a little before that, Kapilendra wiped out the Reḍḍi kings of Koṇḍavīḍu and other places. This was the relation between the Bahmanī Sulṭāns and the newly founded empire of Orissa.