The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.20

v3.c29.20

The first of Ibrāhīm’s many wars was a campaign against Vijayanagar, for which the intestine affairs of that state furnished a pretext. For some years past the actual rulers had been the ministers, and when Venkatarāya, the regent, attempted in 1530 to assume the style of royalty, public opinion obliged him to enthrone a child of the royal house, and to appoint as his guardian his maternal uncle, Hoj Narmal Rāj. While the regent was engaged with a refractory chieftain in a remote part of the kingdom the mob at Vijayanagar rose in the interests of their young raja, and Hoj Narmal, intoxicated by the prospect of power, put his nephew to death and usurped the throne. The people, disgusted by this outrage, opened communications with Venkatarāya and Hoj Narmal sought aid of Ibrāhīm. Venkatarāya, anxious to prevent, at all costs, Muhammadan invasion, feigned submission to the usurper and reminded him of the excesses committed in past times by their hereditary enemies. Hoj Narmal, beguiled by the regent’s professions and terrified by his warnings, assured Ibrāhīm that he had no need of his services and bribed him with a large sum of money to retire, and Venkatarāya marched on Vijayanagar. Hoj Narmal’s fantastic tyranny had rendered him odious to all, and when he discovered that he would probably be surrendered and called to account for the murder of his nephew the wretched maniac hamstrung the royal horses, blinded the elephants, ground the jewels to powder, and plunged a dagger into his own breast. Venkatarāya ascended the throne of Vijayanagar without opposition, and Ibrāhīm, on the pretext that he had broken faith with his late ally, sent an army under Asad Khān Lārī to besiege Adonī, where he was defeated by Venkatādri, brother of Venkatarāya. The story told by Muslim chroniclers of a successful night attack on the Hindu camp, which redeemed his defeat, is to be regarded with suspicion, for he was obliged to obtain his master's sanction to a treaty of peace.