The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c27.94

v3.c27.94

After a demonstration in the direction of his northern frontier, which expelled a force which had invaded the Deccan from Gujarāt, Ahmad marched, with 40,000 horse, against Vīra Vijaya, who, with the help of the raja of Telingāna led an army, of which the infantry and gunners numbered nearly a million, to the southern bank of the Tungabhadra, where he purposed to oppose the passage of the Muslims. Ahmad marched to the northern bank, and, having for forty days attempted in vain to lure the enemy into attempting the passage, took the offensive. A division of 10,000 men was sent up stream by night, to cross the river above the enemy’s camp and create a diversion by attacking him on the left flank, or in rear. The Hindus, expecting a frontal attack in the morning, bivouacked by the river bank, but Vīra Vijaya himself was pleasantly lodged in a garden of sugarcane in rear of the position. The division which had crossed the river in the night reached the garden shortly before dawn, on their way to attack the Hindus in rear, and the raja’s attendants fled. The Muslims, who had still some time to spare, spent it in cutting sugarcanes for themselves and their horses, and Vīra Vijaya, fearing lest he should fall into their hands, crept out and concealed himself in the standing crop, where he was found crouching by the troopers. Taking him for the gardener they gave him a sheaf of sugarcane to carry, and drove him on before them with blows of their whips. Meanwhile the main body of the Muslim army had begun to cross the river, and the Hindus, momentarily expecting their onslaught and taken in rear by the force which had, all unknowingly, captured the raja, were seized by the panic which always strikes an eastern army on the disappearance of its leader, and dispersed. The Muslims began to plunder the camp, and the raja, exhausted by the unwonted exercise of running under a heavy load, and smarting under the humiliation of unaccustomed blows, seized the opportunity of making his escape. He might even yet have rallied his army, but his spirit was so broken and his bodily powers so exhausted that he fled with it to Vijayanagar.