The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.192

v3.c29.192

The abortive attempt of Ibrāhīm ‘Ādil Shāh I to add the fortress and district of Adonī to his dominions has already been described². This act of aggression aroused the enmity of Sadāshivarāya, who eagerly embraced the opportunity afforded by an invitation from Burhān Nizām Shāh I of Ahmadnagar of attacking Bījāpur. The story of the intervention of Sadāshivarāya in the quarrels of the Muslim kings of the Deccan, first as the ally of Ahmadnagar against Bījāpur, and afterwards as the ally of Bījāpur against Ahmadnagar, of the gratuitous insults offered to the Muhammadan religion, of the foolish arrogance which united against him those by whose differences he might long have continued to prosper, of his defeat and death at Talikota, and of the destruction of his great kingdom has been related in Chapter XVII¹, and little need be added to that account. The evacuation of the strongly fortified city of Vijayanagar has not yet been explained. It was due, according to Caesar Frederick, who was at Vijayanagar two years after the battle of Talikota, to the mutiny of two corps of Muhammadan mercenaries, each of which is said to have been 70,000 strong, employed in the army of Vijayanagar. The attitude of the Hindus to Islam during the campaigns in the kingdom of Ahmadnagar had been such as to exasperate all Muslims, and it is not surprising that the victory of their co-religionists should have encouraged these mercenaries to turn their arms against their former employers and to transfer their allegiance to the conquerors.