History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c29.10

v1.c29.10

Purushottama lost more than one half of his ancestral dominions within five or six years of his accession. The loss of the southern provinces of the empire was followed by a reaction. An Oṛiyā officer of Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī named Bhīmarāja returned to the allegiance of his own king and, capturing Koṇḍapalle in 1474, invited Purushottama to come and recover his ancestral dominions in Telingana. Purushottama arrived with ten thousand horse and eight thousand foot and drove out Niẓām-ul-mulk Ḥasan Baḥrī from Rājamahendri. Sulṭān Muḥammad III Bahmanī was compelled to march in person accompanied by Khwājah-i-Jahān Maḥmūd Gāwān Gilānī and the heir-apparent prince Maḥmūd. Bhīmarāja shut himself up in the fort of Koṇḍapalle and Purushottama re-crossed the Godāvarī. According to *Firishta*, Sulṭān Muḥammad III sent twenty thousand horse in pursuit of Purushottama, ravaged the districts as far as the capital in 1477 and intended to send for Maḥmūd Gāwān in order to occupy the country permanently. Purushottama was compelled to sue for peace, sent repeated embassies and purchased peace by delivering twenty-five elephants belonging to his father. Muḥammad III Bahmanī is said to have retired with these presents.¹ It is necessary to receive these statements of *Firishta* with very great caution. In the first place, if Muḥammad III had really retired from the capital of Orissa after receiving twenty-five elephants, then it has to be admitted that he was compelled to turn tail by a superior force. No victorious Musalman army had ever let off a defeated Hindu king at such a small cost. *Firishta's* story reminds one of the retreat of Seleukos Nikator from India with a present of five hundred elephants from Chandragupta Maurya after ceding four of the fairest provinces of Alexander's empire to the Indian monarch. As soon as he received twenty-five elephants Muhammad's intention to occupy Orissa permanently vanishes. No indemnity or permanent cession of territory is demanded and the Mussalman king retires with his so-called victorious army. This story is accepted without any caution by Sir Wolsely Haig, who adds that Muḥammad captured Koṇḍaviḍu, and made Rājamahendrī his headquarters for three years.¹ Let us now return to the comparatively sober account of the Burhān-i-Ma'āṣir :—