The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c27.3

v3.c27.3

This kingdom was not conterminous with the southern provinces of Muhammad Tughluq’s great empire, for the Hindus of the south had not failed to profit by the dissensions of their enemies. Kānhayya Nāik of eastern Telingāna, who claimed to represent the Kākatīya dynasty, had readily assisted the rebels against the king of Delhi, but was not prepared to acknowledge Bahman Shāh as his master. Vīra Ballāla III of Dvāravatīpura had established his independence when the Muslim officers in the Deccan rose in rebellion, and having thrown off the yoke of Delhi was in no mood to bow his neck to that of Gulbarga. He pushed his frontier northward to the Tungabhadra river, which remained the extreme southern limit of Bahman’s dominions, nor did his successors invariably succeed in retaining even this frontier, for the great kingdom of Vijayanagar, which rose on the ruins of Dvāravatīpura, claimed the Doāb between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, with its two strong fortresses, Rāichūr and Mudgal, and this tract remained a debatable land while Bahman’s dynasty endured.