The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c22.56

v1.c22.56

8. No other wars between Golkonda and Vijayanagara are recorded in the Muhammadan histories. But in the meantime the Sultan of Bijapur, Ibrahim Adil Shah II, had sent several expeditions against the Kanarese country, as we shall relate in one of the following chapters. As a consequence of these incursions an alliance was made between Venkata and Burhan Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar against Bijapur. Then Ibrahim Adil Shah again marched his army towards the South and laid siege to Penukonda¹. According to Du Jarric, Venkata in this war against the Sultan of Bijapur, opposed his enemy with an army of seven hundred thousand infantry and forty thousand cavalry, besides five hundred elephants². Ferishta relates that on the approach of the Sultan, Venkata entrusted the command of the place as well as of his army to one of his nobles and ‘retired with his treasures and effects to the fortress of Chandragiri’. The Muhammadan writer does not tell us who this noble was, but we feel sure that he was no other than Mantla Ananta, called at that time ‘the right-hand of the Emperor of Karnata’. The Sidhout inscription referring to him says that ‘in the battle of Penukonda he destroyed the pride of the Muhammadan Padishah’³. This piece of information very likely refers to this action.