The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c10.209

c10.209

Towards the end of the fifteenth century the Bahamani dominions had become greatly extended, and they were redistributed into eight provinces, one of which Daulatábád was the head, and of another Junnar. About A.D. 1485 these provinces were placed under Malik Ahmad Beheri, who made Junnar his head-quarters, and employed himself in reducing the petty Marátha chiefs. His father, Nizám-ul-Mulk, was murdered at Bidar in A.D. 1489, and Malik Ahmad threw off his allegiance to the Bahamani kings. He defeated the first force sent against him; and when a second army was sent he retired to Junnar, and then marched to Jeur, a village near the source of the Sína river. The Bahamani troops marched by Tisgaon to Bhingár, and remained inactive there for nearly a month, till Malik Ahmad suddenly marched across from Jeur, surprised and routed them. This victory secured the independence of the kingdom of Ahmadnagar and the power of the Nizám Sháh dynasty as the line of Ahmad is called; and about the same time Yusúf Ádil Sháh made himself independent at Bijápur. The history of the Dakhan for the next century and a half is the story of a succession of wars between the Muhammadan kings of Khándesh, Berar, Ahmadnagar, Bidar, Golkonda, and Bijápur; and till the completion of the Mughal conquest of Ahmadnagar in A.D. 1637, hardly a year passed in peace, and the state of the country, especially round Sholápur, must have been miserable. Khándesh was more fortunate than the Dakhan, and till the Maráthás began, their depredations it enjoyed comparative rest. Under its own kings and under the Mughals it was one of the richest countries in India. Under the Mughals Burhánpur was the head-quarters of a royal viceroy, and the aqueducts and the remains of the palaces and mosques attest its former importance. The population of the country was large, irrigation was common, and districts such as Navápur Sultánpur and the Pál Tappa, now almost deserted on account of their unhealthy climate, were formerly thickly peopled and highly cultivated.