History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c11.5

c11.5

Extracts from the *Prapannamritam* of Anantārya in S. K. Ayyangar's sources of Vijayanagar History, pp. 34—40, and from the *Āchāryasuktimuktāvali* of Nāmbūri Keśvāchārya in Ayyangar's work, pp. 40—45. The latter work deals overbore all opposition and the whole country lay smitten to death, as it were, under their terrible onslaughts. The religion of the Hindus was treated with open disregard; old shrines venerated for centuries were desecrated, and their most cherished susceptibilities were outraged in a wanton manner. But the establishment of Muhammadan supremacy was far from complete in the South. The Deccan drew the northern invaders far away from their base, and the long distance made them ever anxious for the security of their possessions in Hindustan. The absence of means of communication made it impossible to hold large tracts of land permanently. What the rulers of Dihli could do was to exercise a perfunctory supervision from the headquarters, while the actual work of government was left to the provincial satraps who were appointed by the imperial government and who were all Muhammadans. The Muslim conquest of the Deccan did not lead to the Islamisation of the Hindus, for the forces of conservatism proved too strong for the new influences. The Muslim invasions were usually accompanied by acts of vandalism so that the conquerors came to be looked upon with secret but inextinguishable hatred. The smallness of their numbers compelled the Muslims to leave much of the administration to the Hindus themselves, whose pride of caste and creed did not allow them to mix with their conquerors or to adopt their customs and manners. While the north had somewhat tamely submitted, and the Rajputs bowed before the Muslim throne, the potentates of the Deccan assumed an attitude of sullen hostility and never ceased to strive for independence. The Muslim governor was not slow to take advantage of inadequate and spasmodic supervision of the central government, and he was more interested in trying to establish his own independent power than in the consolidation of the imperial rule. This fact is borne out by the frequent rebellions of provincial satraps, who withheld public revenues and formed cliques to support them in overthrowing the imperial yoke. Defiance of the central government was a normal feature of provincial politics in the middle ages, and the Deccan governors easily took