History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c6.112

c6.112

Qutb-al-Din had reasserted his authority over the southern kingdoms. Harpal Deva, the Raja of Devagiri, had revolted, but he was defeated by the Sultan in person, taken prisoner and according to all accounts finally flayed alive. His minister Raghu had been previously overpowered with his 10,000 Hindu horsemen by Khusrau Khan who was appointed to command the Deccan expedition. Amir Khusrau in his Nuh Sipihr (The nine Heavens or Spheres) which was written during the reign of Qutb-al-Din Mubarak Shah gives a detailed account of Khusrau's reconquest of Warangal and the complete submission of the Hindu Raja to a most humiliating treaty imposed upon him. Barani and Firishta omit to mention this expedition, but the account of a contemporary like Amir Khusrau which is so detailed cannot be a mere slip.⁴⁷ Barani describes Khusrau's attempt to conquer Ma'bar and writes that before his advent the rais of that country fled with their treasures and valuables, and a hundred elephants fell into the hands of Khusrau. Here Barani relates in his usual orthodox style that Khusrau robbed and put to death a Sunni merchant Taqi Khan who had amassed considerable wealth. From the inscriptions of Vīr Ballāla III who is designated at this time as Emperor and sun of the south and the worshipper of the lotus feet of Visvesvara, it appears that he had fallen back upon the Tamil districts, which had been ruled by his uncle Ramanathā, and looked for a revival of his power in the old Pallava country to the east and south of Mysore.⁴⁸ In 1321 we find him living at Arunasamudra which, as Robert Sewell thinks, may be in this neighbourhood, but it is difficult to determine its exact position.49 Thus, there is incontestable evidence to show that Qutb-al-Din Mubarak had successfully established his authority over a large part of the Deccan early in his reign, but when Khusrau brought about a revolution in Dihli politics, the Deccan rulers obtained their long-desired opportunity. Vir Ballala was living in 1320 A.D. apparently at peace in the Tamil country. Pratap Rudra Deva Kākatīya II profited to the full by the relaxation of the central government and the steady decline of his southern rivals. He increased his resources to such an extent that the invasions of the king of Oddiyadesa were successfully repelled.50 His dominions extended as far as the Western Ghats, and from the Godavari to the Palar river.51 Though a vassal of the emperor of Dihli to whom he had agreed to pay tribute, the powerful Kākatīya behaved as an independent ruler and treated the suzerain power with scant respect. It was this attitude which compelled Sultan Ghiyas-al-Din Tughluq to send an expedition to Telingana under the command of his son Muhammad. Tughluq in 721 A.H. (1321-22 A.D.).