Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c9.s5.81

v1.c9.s5.81

Over such a magnificent city there blew a terrible storm.³ On the battlefield of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi, which by a strange idiosyncrasy of history has been termed Tālikōṭa, on the 25th of January A.D. 1565⁴ the combined forces of the followers of Islām met the gallant army of the Hindu monarch. Into the causes and course of this memorable battle, the most decisive so far as the history of southern India is concerned, we shall not enter.⁵ But there is one little point that deserves an explanation, especially in a treatise like this which deals with the life of the Hindu people under the Vijayanagara kings. The crushing defeat which the Hindus sustained, the glowing description of the success of the enemy in the accounts of later Muhammadan chroniclers, and the misconception which exists in some quarters about the Vijayanagara Empire in A.D. 1565 and after—all these have been responsible for the charge of cowardice that has been levelled against the Hindu monarch and their soldiers on the battlefield of Rākshasa-Taṅgaḍi. Thus Francis wrote in the *Bellary Gazetteer*: "Deserted by their king and the commandant of their troops, the people of the capital made no effort to defend themselves and the very next day the city was looted by the hordes of wandering gipsy tribes of the country. On the third day the victorious Muhammadans arrived, and for the next five months they set themselves deliberately to destroy everything destructible within the walls of the capital".¹ How far this is an accurate estimate of the conduct of the Hindus and Muhammadans deserves now to be seen.