The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c27.43

v3.c27.43

In the spring or early summer of 1377 Muhammad I died, and was succeeded by his elder son, Mujāhid, remarkable for his personal beauty, his great physical strength, and his headstrong disposition. One of his earliest acts as king was to demand from Bukka I the cession of the extensive tract bounded on the north by the Ghātprabhā and on the south by the Tungabhadra, and stretching eastward nearly as far as Mudgal and westward to the sea. Bukka replied by demanding the return of the elephants captured in the previous reign, and Mujāhid at once invaded his dominions. Sending a force under Safdar Khān Sīstānī to besiege Adonī, he marched in person against Bukka, who was encamped on the bank of the Tungabhadra, near Gangāwatī, and retreated southward on his approach. For five or six months Mujāhid followed him through the jungles of the Carnatic, without succeeding in forcing a battle, and in the end Bukka eluded him and shut himself up in Vijayanagar. Mujāhid followed him, penetrated beyond the outer defences of the city, and defeated successive forces of Hindus sent against him. The failure of his uncle, Dāūd Khān, to hold a defile, the defence of which had been entrusted to him, imperilled his retreat, but he forced his way through the defile and retired at his leisure towards Adonī with sixty or seventy thousand captives, whose lives were spared under the pact into which his father had entered. Bukka feared to follow, and Mujāhid besieged Adonī for nine months, and was on the point of receiving its surrender when the rainy season began, replenished the water supply of the garrison, and caused much distress in the besiegers’ camp. Saif-ud-dīn Ghūrī persuaded him to raise the siege, peace was made with Bukka, and Mujāhid set out for his capital.