Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c14.s2.51

v1.c14.s2.51

The first monarch who established the precedent of admitting Muhammadans into the Hindu service was Dēva Rāya II. Epigraphic evidence definitely proves that a large number of Turkish cavalry was enlisted in the Vijayanagara army. In A.D. 1430 he had ten thousand Turushka horsemen in his service.³ An inscription dated only in the cyclic year Siddhārthin (Saka 1362 = A.D. 1440-41) records the building of a well by Ahmad Khān, a servant of the king Vīra Prātāpa Dēva Rāya II.⁴ The presence of a large body of Muhammadan cavalry explains the attitude of the Hindu rulers towards the Muhammadans ever since the days of that monarch.