The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.166

v3.c29.166

Such common action was hardly called for from the character of the first invasions under ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī. The first invasion was no more than a plundering raid; and the next one under him was little more. It was the advent of Malik Kāfūr with more definite instructions from his master to reduce the southern Hindu states to the position of tributaries that aroused these states to the real danger of the Muhammadan invasions. Even then the four kingdoms were so divided and separate in interests that the misfortune which befell one kingdom hardly evoked any active intervention on the part of the others. The Muhammadan conquests at first introduced hardly any sensible change in the political condition of the kingdoms, involving no more than nominal subordination and the payment of tribute annually if it could be enforced. Hence Deogīr fell and Warangal fell after two invasions, and a raid was undertaken against the Hoysala capital of Dvārasamudra. The kings of the three kingdoms were treated almost similarly by ‘Alā-ud-dīn. They were regarded as feudatories of high rank in the empire liable to tribute and subjected to occasional extortion when they gave cause by failure to send tribute. As often happened in Southern India, a pretext for intervention in the affairs of the Pāṇḍya kingdom presented itself to the Muslims. Vīra and Sundara, the sons of the great Pāṇḍya, Māravarman Kulaśēkhara, contended for their father’s throne, and Sundara, being worsted, appealed to ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī for help. Malik Kāfūr, then occupied with the Hoysalas, invaded the Tamil kingdom, placed Sundara Pāṇḍya on the throne, and took advantage of the occasion to march through the Chola and Pāṇḍya country as far south as Rāmēsvaram, his chief object being to secure the treasure accumulated in the temples of Southern India and gain possession of the elephants in the stables of the South Indian monarchs. Malik Kāfūr returned to the north after his magnificent march across peninsular India, carrying elephant loads of treasure unheard of before. This success confirmed his position at court. ‘Alā-ud-dīn’s illness and Malik Kāfūr’s intrigues gave the south respite from foreign aggression, and enabled a Malabar ruler to descend from his mountains and carry his arms successfully across the whole of the Pāṇḍya and Chola territory as far as Nellore. This was Ravivarman Kulaśēkhara, who, starting from the Travancore country, defeated the Pāṇḍya, and marched northwards occupying Tiruvadi in South Arcot, then Kānchī and then Poonamalle, going as far north as Nellore itself. He left inscriptions in all these places and was anointed in Tiruvadi and Kānchī, and, on his return journey, in Srīrangam. He was however expelled by the officers of Pratāparudra II, who penetrated as far south as Jambukēsvaram in the island of Srīrangam, where one of them left an inscription. Thus the four states of Southern India were left to themselves, and their tribute naturally fell into arrears.