The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c18.58

v1.c18.58

5. But not long after, probably in the following year 1576, the Sultan of Bijapur reappeared in the territories of Vijayanagara with a large army. Ranga set out from Penukonda to check this expedition. When the two armies met, a great battle ensued, in the course of which the Emperor Ranga unfortunately fell a prisoner into the hands of Ali Adil Shah; this mishap turned the tide against the Hindu army, which was beaten and routed by the enemy. The immediate result of this victory was the possession of the territories to the North of Penukonda, which never went back into the hands of the Vijayanagara Emperors. “On hearing about this defeat of Sri Ranga,” continues the author of the *Annals of Hande Anantapuram*, “Hande Malakappa Nayadu, thinking that the Muhammadan fortunes were destined to rise and his master’s to wane, transferred his allegiance to them and behaved obediently in their service. So they showed great favour to him, and bestowed upon him the lands formerly granted to him by the Vijayanagara sovereigns: Bukkapatnam in the Elamanchi country, and Anantasagaram along with the hamlets under them, with the title of Padishah Vazir¹. This misfortune of Ranga justified a strange title given him two years before: in a grant of 1574, this sovereign is called ‘Establisher of the kingdom of the Mussulmans’².