The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.318

v3.c20.318

Reports which he brought of the great wealth of the temples and the Hindu rulers of the extreme south excited the king’s cupidity, and in 1310 Malik Nāib and Khvāja Hājī were again sent southwards with a large army to plunder the kingdom of the Hoysāla Ballālas, which lay to the south of the Krishna, and to explore the southern extremity of the peninsula. The army marched again by way of Deogīr, where Shankar Deo had succeeded his father who had, in the words of an uncompromising historian, ‘gone to hell’ either late in 1309 or early in 1310. Historians are not agreed on Shankar’s attitude to the Muslims. Some describe him as being as loyal as his father, but one says that his fidelity was not above suspicion, and that Malik Nāib deemed it prudent to protect his communications by establishing a military post at Jālna, on the Godāvarī. From Deogīr he took the direct route to Dvāravatīpura, the capital of the Hoysāla Ballālas, called by Muslim historians Dhorasamundar, the ruins of which are still to be seen at Halebid, in the Hassan district of the Mysore State. The rapidity of his advance took the Hindus by surprise; Vīra Ballāla III, the tenth raja of the dynasty, was captured in the first attack on his capital, and the city itself fell, with great ease, into the hands of the invaders. Thirty-six elephants, the plunder of the great temple, and all the raja's treasures rewarded them, and a dispatch announcing the victory was sent to Delhi. From Dvāravatīpura Malik Nāib marched to the kingdom of the Pāndyas in the extreme south of the peninsula, to which the attention of 'Alā-ud-dīn had been attracted by recent events. Sundara Pāndya had slain his father, Kulashekharadeva, and attempted to seize his throne, but was defeated by his brother, Vīra Pāndya, and in 1310 fled to Delhi. Malik Nāib advanced to Madura, which Vīra had evacuated, plundered and destroyed the great temple, and thence marched eastwards to the coast. Here he founded, either at Rāmeswaram on the island of Pāmban or on the mainland opposite to it, a mosque which he named after his master.