The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.57

v3.c29.57

Talikota was one of the decisive battles of India, and broke for ever the power of the great kingdom of Vijayanagar, which had maintained for a century and a half an equal warfare with the Bahmanī kingdom and threatened to devour piecemeal the smaller kingdoms into which it had been divided. The victory of the Muslims against such overwhelming odds has the appearance of a miracle, but the superiority of their artillery and of their troops, especially the Foreigners, helps to explain it. Their cavalry was better armed, better mounted, and excelled in horsemanship, and the mounted archers, of whom the Hindus seem to have had none remaining, were probably at least twice as efficient as cavalry equal to them in other respects but armed only with sword or lance. The main strength of the Hindu army was its infantry, ill-armed, ill-clad, ill-trained, and deficient in martial spirit. The capture of Sadāshivarāya was fortuitous, but no oriental army would have stood before the sight of its lifeless leader’s head, carried before an enemy.