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A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16: Chapter XI. The Bāhmanīs and the Rise of Vijayanagar

A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c16

Language
English

Contents

Chapter XI. The Bāhmanīs and the Rise of Vijayanagar

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First Khilji invasion of the Deccan and subjugation of Devagiri—subsequent invasions—Malik Kafur—invasion of Hoysala and Pāndya countries—Hindu reaction—kingdom of Kampili—Pāndya civil war and Tughlak invasion—end of the Yādava and Kākatīya kingdoms—rebellion of Baha-ud-Din Garhasp and its results—fall of Kampili—movement for liberation—Kāpaya Nāyaka and Ballāla III—Harihara and Bukka—Vidyāranya—foundation of Vijayanagar—Sultanate of Madura and Ballāla III—expansion of Vijayanagar till 1346.

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Foundation of the Bāhmanī kingdom—Ala-ud-din I Bahman Shah—Muhammad I—Mujahid—Daud—Muhammad II—Ghiyas-ud-din—Shams-ud-din—Firuz—Ala-ud-din II Ahmad—Humayun—Nizam Shah—Muhammad III—Mahmud—end of the Bāhmanī kingdom—nominal rule of the four sons of Mahmud.

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THE sultanate of Delhi was established towards the close of the twelfth century, and for a hundred years thereafter its attention was confined to Northern India. The idea of subjugating the Deccan and the land beyond began with the Khiljis, although the first Muslim attack on a Deccani kingdom was a quasi-private enterprise planned in secret and carried out with suddenness. The story is that Garhasp Malik, the future Ala-ud-din, nephew and son-in-law of Sultan Jalal-ud-din, resented the supercilious conduct of his wife towards him and wanted to punish her. Before he could do so, however, he had first to gather strength and resources enough to be able to oppose the sultan and his sons. First he obtained the sultan's permission to lead an expedition against Malwa, but in fact went much farther south and advanced rapidly against the Yādava kingdom of Devagiri (February 1296) at a time when its army was engaged on a distant expedition. The reigning king, Rāmadeva, was overwhelmed by the swiftness of the onslaught, and sued for peace at the end of a week's siege of his capital. He surrendered much treasure and many elephants and horses, and even gave one of his daughters in marriage to the conqueror. When Sangama, his son, heard of the threat to the capital, he hastened back with his army and wanted to resume hostilities. By the time he arrived, however, peace had been concluded, Rāmadeva was in the hands of the enemy, and Sangama himself also had to make his submission, at least for the time. Rāmadeva's kingdom was restored and he and Ala-ud-din exchanged vows of lifelong friendship. The treasure he took from Devagiri played no small part in paving Ala-ud-din's way to the throne which he seized soon after by murdering Jalal-ud-din.

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As sultan, Ala-ud-din pursued a policy of plunder and loot in the South in preference to the extension of his territories. In 1303-4 he sent an expedition against Warangal by way of Bengal. It was led by Malik Fakhr-ud-din Juna (later Muhammad bin Tughlak) and ended in failure; the Telugu army met the invader before he could reach Warangal, inflicted severe losses on him, and compelled him to retreat. This disaster so lowered the prestige of the sultanate in the Deccan, that Sangama of Devagiri withheld the tribute his father had agreed to pay and gave shelter to the refugee king of Gujarat and his daughter who had fled their country to escape falling into the hands of the sultan's forces. Either out of loyalty to Ala-ud-din or pursuit of a deeper policy, Rāmadeva denounced his son, and asked Ala-ud-din to take steps to restore his authority before it was too late. An army was sent immediately (1307) under the sultan's favourite slave Malik Kafur; Sangama was defeated near Devagiri and fled. Malik Kafur plundered the city, took possession of the kingdom in the name of his master and carried off Rāmadeva and his family as prisoners to Delhi. But the sultan treated Rāmadeva with great kindness; he kept him by his side for six months before sending him back, loaded with money and presents, to rule over a kingdom extended by the addition of portions of Gujarat. The sultan's generosity was rewarded, for Rāmadeva remained loyal to him for the rest of his life and gave valuable aid to his forces in their operations in the South.

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Late in 1309 Malik Kafur was sent against Warangal to wipe out the disgrace of the last defeat sustained by the imperial armies at that place. He first proceeded to Devagiri where Rāmadeva was all attention to his requirements. Thence he crossed the Yādava territories and entered the Telugu country, reaching the neighbourhood of Warangal by rapid marches early in 1310. The siege of the double-walled city lasted a month; the outer fortress was taken by storm, and the consequent overcrowding in the inner fort made it imperative for Pratāparudra to open negotiations with the invader. The sultan's price for raising the siege was the surrender of a vast amount of treasure, many elephants and horses, and an annual tribute. Malik Kafur returned to Delhi with the booty in June 1310 where he was received with honours by his master.

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Early next year, Malik Kafur again set out on another expedition to the South, this time against the kingdoms of Dōrasamudra and Ma'bar, i.e., the Hoysala and Pāndya kingdoms in the far South. Devagiri again became the base of operations, where Rāmadeva was glad to offer help, for the Hoysala ruler, Ballāla III, was no friend of his, having at one time seized some of his territory. Kafur's army waited to attack the Hoysalas until Ballāla was away on an expedition in the Pāndya country. That land was disturbed by quarrels among Kulaśekhara's sons, and Ballāla hoped to turn the situation to his advantage and to regain territory that Kulaśekhara had seized some time before. Kafur's advance was therefore practically unchecked and he spread destruction and panic throughout his journey to the Hoysala capital. Ballāla returned in haste, but saw that resistance was hopeless, and overruled his nobles and officers who wanted to fight. He consented to become a tributary (zimmi) to the sultan and to surrender his wealth, elephants and horses.

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Kafur spent less than a fortnight in Dōrasamudra, and then started towards Ma'bar. Ballāla accompanied him and guided the army along the difficult mountain routes that led from the tableland to the plains. Though divided among themselves, the Pāndya princes were at one in resisting the invader, harassing him incessantly, but avoiding pitched battles and taking care not to shut themselves in fortresses that might easily be reduced. Malik Kafur first marched against Bīr Dhūl, the capital of Vira Pāndya in the neighbourhood of Uraiyūr. The king escaped before the city fell into the enemy's hands, and Kafur's further operations were hampered by rains. He braved the weather, however, and pursued Vira Pāndya who was reported to have fled to Kandūr (not identified). On the way he seized a convoy of treasure from the backs of a hundred and twenty elephants, but even when he reached Kandūr, and took it, there was no sign of Vira Pāndya. He therefore marched to Kānchipuram (or Marhatpuri to the Muslim historians) where he plundered and desecrated the temples before returning to Bīr Dhūl. Thence he planned a sudden descent upon Madura, the Pāndya's main capital, where Sundara Pāndya was king; but Sundara was forewarned and abandoned the city, taking his family and treasure into the country. At this stage Vikrama Pāndya, Sundara's uncle, came out of retirement to lead the Pāndyas against the Muslims and inflicted a decisive defeat on them. Malik Kafur was 'obliged to retreat and bring back his army'; but he managed to keep the vast booty he had taken from Vira Pāndya and convey it safely to Delhi. He reached the imperial capital in October 1311 and later presented Ballāla III's son to the sultan, speaking highly of the help the invaders had received from his father. The Hindu prince was treated with kindness and then sent back to his father whose kingdom was also returned to him. The Ma'bar expedition was thus only a military raid, and not a very successful one at that; it had no permanent results, though indeed South India was drained of a vast amount of treasure: 'six hundred and twelve elephants, ninety-six thousand mans of gold, several boxes of jewels and pearls, and twenty thousand horses', according to Barni.

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About a year later, in 1312, Rāmadeva died and his son Sangama came to the throne of Devagiri. His hostility to the sultanate was well known, and Malik Kafur was sent out with an army once again, this time to seize and annex the Yādava kingdom to the empire of Delhi. This was easily accomplished, without any fighting, as Sangama fled. Kafur behaved with moderation to convince the people that they had nothing to fear from their new rulers. He regulated administrative affairs with commendable wisdom, though in one respect he was inexorable; he insisted on pulling down temples and erecting mosques in their place. A great mosque was built at Devagiri itself and named after the sultan in accordance with his wishes. Nevertheless, considerable areas of the Yādava kingdom did not submit to the new rule, and the kingdom of Kampili proclaimed its independence under Singeya Nāyaka and his more famous son Kampiladeva. This new kingdom included the present Bellary, Raichur and Dharwar districts, and three important forts—Kampili itself, Kummata and Hosadurg (Anegondi?)—all on the Tungabhadra. Malik Kafur led one indecisive expedition against Kampili; and before he could make another attempt he was recalled to Delhi where he died in the political revolution that intervened between the death of Ala-ud-din (1316) and the accession of Kutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah.

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The same revolution led to the voluntary withdrawal of the Muslim government from Devagiri because Kafur recalled the lieutenant he had left behind. Harapāla Deva, Rāmadeva’s son-in-law, was thus able to re-establish the Yādava power for a time, but soon after his accession, Mubarak Khilji again marched south in 1318, with an army led by his favourite slave Khusrau Khan, resolved to retake Devagiri. The reduction of Harapāla involved some hard fighting in mountainous country; he was wounded in the final encounter, taken prisoner and put to death—flayed alive, according to Barni. The sultan’s return to Delhi was delayed by rains, so during his enforced stay in Devagiri he reorganized the administration. Malik Yak Lakhy was made governor of Devagiri; subordinate officers and collectors of revenue were stationed at different places, and garrisons posted at strategic points. An attempt to force a garrison on the Hoysala capital Dōrasamudra failed. When the sultan returned to Delhi (August 1318) he left Khusrau Khan behind to deal with Pratāparudra II of Warangal who had not sent his annual tribute after the death of Ala-ud-din. Khusrau therefore marched in, collected all the arrears due and easily restored the sultan’s supremacy.

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Shortly afterwards, however, Khusrau had to march south again to suppress the rebellious governor of Devagiri and then to bring the country of Ma’bar under Muslim rule. Malik Yak Lakhy had set up independent rule under the title Shams-ud-din and began to mint coins in his own name; but his easygoing and profligate nature made him thoroughly unpopular, so that the nobles of his court joined together to capture him and hand him over to Khusrau when he advanced towards Devagiri. The unfortunate rebel was sent, bound hand and foot, to Delhi, while Khusrau proceeded further southward.

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The civil war between Vira Pāndya and Sundara Pāndya continued after Malik Kafur’s return (1311). Sundara fared so badly in the struggle that at first he sought Muslim aid which was given only in very small measure and availed him little. The ruler of south Travancore, Ravivarman Kulaśekhara, who professed allegiance to Sundara till about 1312, took advantage of the confusion to invade the Pāndya country and marched as far north as Kāñchipuram. Vira Pāndya seems to have joined him, and Sundara Pāndya appealed to the Kākatiya ruler Pratāparudra II for aid. A large army was sent in his support in 1317, under the leadership of Muppidi Nāyaka, the governor of Nellore, who defeated Ravivarman Kulaśekhara and Vira Pāndya, compelled the former to withdraw into his own kingdom, and installed Sundara Pāndya on the throne at Viradhavalapattanam (Bir Dhūl). Then came Khusrau's invasion. The Pāndya followed his usual policy of evading battle by evacuating his capital, taking his family and all his wealth with him. A rich Muslim merchant who stayed behind hoping his religion would protect him was robbed and insulted by Khusrau, and finally committed suicide. Nevertheless, Khusrau's expedition was not a success. Rains hampered his movements; and, what is more, he himself seems to have contemplated rebellion. When this was discovered and disapproved of by his followers, he had to submit to being carried back in fetters to Delhi.

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The political revolution in Delhi which ended Khilji rule and ushered in that of the Tughlaks gave Pratāparudra II the opportunity of declaring himself free once again. His example spread and caused disaffection even in that part of Mahārāshtra which was under a governor of the sultanate. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak resolved, therefore, to do away with the Hindu kingdoms of the South one after another until the sway of Islam extended to Cape Comorin. He began in 1321 by sending against the kingdom of Warangal an expedition led by his son and heir, Ulugh Khan. The army marched as usual by way of Devagiri, laying waste the country and investing fortresses as soon as it entered Telengana. Pratāparudra retreated and shut himself and his forces up in the well stocked and strongly fortified capital city. The siege that followed lasted six months, at the end of which dissensions arose in the camp of the invaders, his lieutenants turned against Ulugh Khan and entered into negotiations with Pratāparudra. The Hindu monarch agreed to let them go back in peace, and when they did so, he fell upon the rump of the army under Ulugh Khan and compelled it also to retreat. Nor was it left in peace until Ulugh Khan entered into negotiations with the rebel section of his army and succeeded in interposing it between himself and the Warangal forces, so that his further retreat to Devagiri might be unhampered. On his way, however, he came by another section of the army which, under the command of Majir Abu Rija, was engaged in the vain attempt to reduce the fortress of Kotgir. Majir was cordial to Ulugh Khan and offered to help him in dealing with his rebel lieutenants; he sent instructions round that zamindars and heads of districts were to attack the rebels, seize them and send their chiefs to the court of the king. He then accompanied Ulugh Khan back to Devagiri. His way of dealing with the rebels proved effective; some of them fell fighting, others fled and hid themselves, and others were caught and sent to Delhi to be executed under the orders of the sultan.

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Elated by his success against the invader, Pratāparudra dispersed the troops and provisions he had gathered in his capital, and acted as if he had secured perpetual immunity from further attack. To Ghiyas-ud-din, on the other hand, the failure of his son in Telangana was but a spur to a further and stronger effort to reduce that country. He sent large reinforcements to Devagiri, and Ulugh Khan soon led a second expedition against the Kākatīya kingdom. Bidar on its western frontier and several other forts including Bodhan were captured by the invading troops, and Warangal itself invested. Ill-prepared as Pratāparudra was, he held out for five months after which famine compelled him to sue for peace. He delivered himself and his family into the hands of Ulugh Khan (1323) who sent him under a strong escort to Delhi, but he seems to have put an end to his own life on the way. Ulugh Khan plundered and devastated Warangal, and subjugated the rest of the country by fighting where resistance was offered, but generally by accepting the submission of the Hindu chieftains in the different localities.

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Ulugh Khan also sent an army into Ma'bar. The country was conquered and, for a time, brought under the sway of Delhi, whither the Pāndya king, Parākramadeva, was taken as a prisoner. Ma'bar, in fact, was still counted as a province of the Delhi empire when sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak made Devagiri its capital in 1326. Ulugh Khan led yet another expedition against Jajnagar in the Ganga kingdom of Orissa. Here his aim was not so much to conquer that kingdom as to secure the frontier of Warangal on that side.

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Thus at the accession of Muhammad bin Tughlak considerable portions of the Deccan and South India acknowledged the sovereignty of the Delhi sultanate. Devagiri and Warangal were under the effective control of imperial officers, and a viceroy was set over distant Ma'bar charged with the duty of consolidating the new conquests and firmly establishing and extending imperial authority. Prominent among the Hindu states that still continued to enjoy their independence were Kampili and Dōrasamudra. The famous king of Kampili, himself called Kampiladeva, rose to prominence in the first years of the fourteenth century when he rendered valuable service to his suzerain Rāmadeva of Devagiri in the wars against Hoysala Ballāla III. He was a consistent opponent of the growing power of Islam in the South, but was much hampered by his feuds with the neighbouring states of Dōrasamudra and Wārangal. All the same, he built up a kingdom of considerable size which included parts of the present-day Anantapur, Chitaldrug and Shimoga districts besides Raichur, Dharwar and Bellary; the Krishna river separated it from the Maratha province of the Delhi empire. He treated with contempt a demand for tribute from the officers of the Tughlak sultanate, and entered into friendly negotiations with Baha-ud-din Garshasp, a cousin of Muhammad bin Tughlak and governor of Sagar, in the neighbourhood of Gulbarga, who had some grievance against his cousin, laid claim to the Delhi throne, and set up the standard of revolt. Thereupon the sultan ordered Malik Zada, governor of Gujarat, and Majir Abu Rija, governor of Devagiri, to deal with the rebel. A battle on the banks of the Godāvari ended disastrously for Garshasp who fled to Sagar pursued by the victorious imperial army. He soon left Sagar with his women and children and took refuge with Kampiladeva. Meanwhile the sultan had taken the field in person and come down to Devagiri where he got news of the defeat of Garshasp and of his flight to Kampili. The task of reducing the defiant Hindu ruler who harboured the defeated rebel engaged his attention at once, but it proved more troublesome than he had anticipated, and two expeditions failed to take the strong fortress of Kummata. The third attempt led by Malik Zada ended in success; Kummata was overthrown, and Kampiladeva was forced to shut himself up in Hosadurg (Anegondi?), which was invested on all sides by the sultan's troops. Lack of provisions made it impossible for the besieged to hold out longer than a month; but meanwhile, Kampiladeva succeeded in sending Garshasp and his family to the court of Dōrasamudra, commending them to the care of Ballāla III. Kampiladeva met his end with courage and determination. He announced to his women that he had made up his mind to die fighting, and advised them to burn themselves in advance to escape falling into the hands of the enemy. They did so cheerfully, and their example was followed by the wives and daughters of the ministers and nobles of the kingdom. Thereupon Kampiladeva and his followers sallied out of the fort, fell upon the enemy and wrought havoc in their ranks before they fell in the fight. Kampiladeva's head was stuffed and sent to the sultan to announce the victory, and a garrison was posted at Hosadurg to hold the country round about (1327).

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Malik Zada then began to plan an invasion of the Hoysala kingdom in pursuit of Baha-ud-din. Ballāla III had no mind to risk his kingdom and fortune by sheltering a rebel Muslim sent to him by Kampila, with whom he had never been friendly. He therefore seized Baha-ud-din when he presented himself and sent him to Malik Zada, at the same time acknowledging the supremacy of the sultan of Delhi. This pleased Malik Zada who withdrew his forces and returned to Devagiri.

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For some time after the fall of Kampili, Muhammad bin Tughlak remained in Devagiri, making arrangements to complete the transfer of the imperial capital to that place. Also, after a siege of eight months, he captured the strong fortress at Kandhyāna (Sinhagad) near Poona, and forced its Hindu chieftain, Nāga Nāyaka, ruler of the Kolis, into subjection. Nāga Nāyaka was treated with honour when he made his submission and the fort passed into the hands of the sultan who returned north very shortly afterwards.

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With pardonable exaggeration, Muslim historians include the whole of the Deccan and South India in the empire of Delhi in this period (1324-35). They divide it into the five provinces of Devagiri, Tiling, Kampili, Dōrasamudra and Ma'bar; some adding Jajnagar (Orissa) as a sixth, although there is less justification for this. Each of these provinces had a governor (naib) set over it who was assisted by a military coadjutor in charge of the provincial army, and a kotwal who policed the capital of the province. Except in Devagiri, however, the power of the sultan was nowhere firmly established. Dōrasamudra, for example, owed nothing more than nominal allegiance, and the bulk of the people—especially in the rural areas—was not reconciled to the new rule. The system of iqtas (military fiefs) by which the land was parcelled out among Muslim chieftains who had to maintain a quota of troops and pay a stipulated amount to the treasury did not make for peace or smooth administration. No wonder that this loose fabric crumbled quickly at the first touch of revolt which came naturally not long after.

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The movement for the liberation of the Deccan from the Muslims may be said to have begun immediately after the sultan left for Northern India in 1329. The people had never willingly accepted Muslim rule. At this time, moreover, they and their leaders were under the influence of a strong revival of Śaivism and in no mood to submit passively to the profanation and destruction of their temples and to the corruption and overthrow of their long-established usages. In its single-minded devotion to Śiva, its fanatical intolerance of the followers of any other creed, whom it stigmatized as bhāvis (infidels), and in its ideal of perfect equality among the bhaktas, the new Śaivism was a worthy rival of Islam, and the impetus it gave to politics had not a little to do with the failure of Tughlak rule to take root in many parts of the Deccan. The abrogation of religious and charitable endowments, and the extortions to which the farmers and artisans were subjected by the sultan and his provincial governors, added the stimulus of material interest and strengthened the movement for liberation. Prominent among its leaders were Prolaya Nāyaka and his cousin Kāpaya Nāyaka, the Kanhaya Nāyaka of Muslim historians. Tradition affirms that no fewer than seventy-five lesser Nāyakas heartily assisted them in their enterprise, the celebrated Prolaya Vema, founder of the Reddi kingdom of Addanki and Kondavīdu, among them. By 1331, or a little later, the entire coastal region from the Mahanadi to the Gundlakamma in Nellore district had been freed from the Muslims, and Hindu chieftains had entered upon the task of restoring and reconstructing the civic life of the people on its old lines. At the same time, Somadeva, who claimed descent from the ancient line of the Chālukyas and became the progenitor of the later Aravīdu kings of Vijayanagar, led the Hindus of the western Telugu country in revolt against their Muslim overlord Malik Muhammad, governor of Kampili. With the centre of his power in the neighbourhood of Kurnool, he seized the forts of Anegondi, Raichur and Mudgal. As the Hoysala Ballāla III also threw off his allegiance to the sultan and invaded the province of Kampili, Malik Muhammad was helpless. He told the sultan (as Nuniz records) that ‘the land was risen against him’, ‘everyone was lord of what he pleased, and no one was on his side’; the people came to ‘besiege him in the fortress, allowing no provisions to go in to him, nor paying him the taxes that had been forced on them’. On the advice of his councillors that order could only be restored by someone connected with the late Rāja of Kampili, the sultan sent Harihara and his brother Bukka to govern the province of Kampili after taking oaths and pledges of loyalty from them.

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Harihara and Bukka belonged to a family of five brothers, all sons of Sangama. They were at first in the service of Pratāparudra II, but after the Muslim conquest of his kingdom in 1323 they went over to Kampili. When Kampili also fell in 1327, they became prisoners and were carried off to Delhi where, because they embraced Islam, they stood well with the sultan. Now, once again, they were sent to the province of Kampili to take over its administration from Malik Muhammad and to deal with the revolt of the Hindu subjects. What really happened after their arrival in the South does not emerge clearly from the conflicting versions of Muslim historians and Hindu tradition. Both are agreed, however, that the two trusted lieutenants of the sultanate very soon gave up Islam and the cause of Delhi, and proceeded to set up an independent Hindu state which soon grew into the powerful empire of Vijayanagar. They started by doing the work of the sultan, their former connexion with Anegondi making their task easy, though their Muslim faith set some people against them. They followed a policy of conciliation which pacified the people, and only used force where it was absolutely necessary.

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Gutti and its neighbourhood appear to have acknowledged Harihara earlier than the rest of the country, but a war undertaken against Ballāla III was not very successful at first. Then, Hindu tradition avers, the brothers met the sage Vidyāranya and, fired by his teaching, returned to the Hindu fold and accepted the mission of upholding the Hindu cause against Islam. A second expedition against Ballāla had better results, and left Harihara free to pursue his schemes of conquest and consolidation.

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Meanwhile important political changes elsewhere proclaimed the approaching doom of the Tughlak empire in the South. Jalal-ud-din Hasan Shah, the governor of Ma'bar, asserted his independence after doing away with the loyal lieutenants of the sultan, and began to issue gold and silver coins in his own name from Madura (1333-4). Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak got news of the revolt and marched to Wārangal, where the outbreak of an epidemic decimated his army and the sultan himself caught the infection. He therefore had to retrace his steps, having achieved nothing, and thus destroyed what remained of the prestige of the Delhi sultanate in the South. A false rumour that the sultan had died of the plague added to the confusion, and the rebels, both Hindu and Muslim, felt greatly heartened.

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Prolaya Nāyaka was dead, but his work was continued by his cousin Kāpaya. He saw that the considerable number of amirs and their slaves, the Muslim merchants and the numbers of Hindu converts to Islam scattered all over the country, might throw effective obstacles in the way of his attempts to restore Hindu rule and Hindu dharma in the Deccan. He set about his work with caution and entered into an understanding with Ballāla III of Dōrasamudra, who was the most powerful Hindu ruler in the South at that time. Ballāla strengthened the northern marches of his kingdom and prepared to meet any attacks from Devagiri. He also sent aid to Kāpaya Nāyaka in his struggle against the Muslims in Telengana where a defeat was inflicted on Malik Maqbul, the governor of Wārangal, who fled to Devagiri, and thence to Delhi, leaving Telengana free from Muslim rule (1336). Soon after, Kāpaya and Ballāla together entered the northern districts of Ma'bar, the area known as Tondaimandalam. They ousted the Muslim garrisons from the forts of that country and entrusted the task of its administration to a scion of the line of Sāmbuvarāyas, the native rulers of the region at the time. Other Hindu kingdoms came up elsewhere. The Koppula chiefs of Pithāpuram made themselves masters of the coastal region from the Godāvari to Kalinga; the Reddis of Kondavidu formed a principality which extended from Śrīśailam to the Bay of Bengal; and the Velamas raised a small state round Rājakonda in the hilly tract of the Nalgonda district of Andhrapradesh. The power of the Tughlak sultans was thus completely broken all over the Deccan except in the Maratha provinces. In Ma'bar half the territory had been recovered for Hindu rule, and although the rest was held by a Muslim ruler, he was a rebel against the sultan.

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We may well believe that this general anti-Islamic movement did much to disturb the loyalty of Harihara and Bukka to the sultan and to kindle in their minds a longing to serve their country and their ancestral religion in the old way. Their meeting with Vidyāranya (‘Forest of Learning’) thus probably furnished them with the best and perhaps the only means of following the promptings of their hearts; it needed a spiritual leader of his eminence to receive them back from Islam into Hinduism and to render the act generally acceptable to Hindu society. Thus it happened that the trusted Muslim agents of the sultan of Delhi, who were sent to restore his power in the Deccan, turned out to be the founders of one of the greatest Hindu states of history which later distinguished itself pre-eminently in the defence of ancient Hindu culture against the onslaughts of Islam. After establishing their sway over Kampili at first for the sultan, and conquering more territory in the same manner, the two Sangama brothers returned to the Hindu fold, proclaimed their independence, and founded a new city opposite to Anegondi on the south bank of the Tungabhadra to which they gave the significant names Vijayanagara (‘City of Victory’) and Vidyānagara (‘City of Learning’), the second name commemorating the role of Vidyāraṇya in these momentous events. Here, in the presence of God Virūpāksha, Harihara I celebrated his coronation in proper Hindu style on 18 April 1336. He undertook the rule of the kingdom as the agent of the deity to whom all the land south of the Krishna river was supposed to belong, and his successors kept up the practice he started of authenticating all their acts of state by the sign manual of Śri Virūpāksha.

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Ballāla’s part in the establishment of Śāmbuvarāya power in the northern districts of Ma’bar involved him in continuous hostilities with the newly-established sultanate of Madura and this led very soon to the absorption of the Hoysala kingdom in the rising state of Vijayanagar. At Madura, Jalal-ud-din Hasan Shah fell by assassination (1340) after a rule of five years, and was succeeded by one of his *amirs*, Ala-ud-din Udauji, a warlike prince who planned an expedition against Ballāla. The Hoysala monarch stationed himself at Tiruvannamalai in 1340; Udauji’s invasion came in 1341; but in the hour of victory an arrow shot by an unknown hand struck him and he died at once. Ballāla converted defeat into victory, and for a time it looked like the end of the small Muslim state of Madura. The late sultan’s son-in-law was put on the throne by the nobles, but being found unsatisfactory he was murdered. The next ruler was Ghiyas-ud-din Damghani, a bloodthirsty monster not, however, devoid of ability. At the time of his accession, Ballāla was investing the strong fortress of Kannanūr-Koppam, after a decisive victory against the Muslim forces in the open field. The siege lasted for six months at the end of which Ballāla acted with unaccountable folly and brought on his own doom. When the besieged forces opened negotiations, he consented to allow them to get into touch with the sultan at Madura to settle the terms of surrender; this naturally led to Ghiyas-ud-din’s marching quickly to the relief of the beleaguered garrison with some 4,000 troopers, all he could gather in the straits to which he found himself reduced. Ballāla was taken completely by surprise when his camp was attacked by the Madura army. Nasir-ud-din, the sultan's nephew and afterwards his successor, overtook an old man and was about to kill him when one of his slaves identified him as the Hindu sovereign; he was then made prisoner and taken before the sultan. Treating him at first with apparent consideration, Ghiyas-ud-din persuaded him to part with all his riches, horses and elephants; and then had him killed and flayed. ‘His skin was stuffed with straw and hung upon the wall of Madura, where,’ says Ibn Batuta, ‘I saw it in the same position’ (1342).

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Ballāla III was succeeded by his son Virūpāksha Ballāla IV who held his coronation in August 1343; but this is all we know of him, for his kingdom was overrun and annexed by the newly risen kingdom of Vijayanagar. Bukka had seized Penugonda while Ballāla III was still alive, and his tragic end enabled Bukka to complete the work of conquest. He was firmly established in the vicinity of Hosapattana and Harihar in the middle of 1344, and ‘the circle of earth belonging to the Hoysala family’ had become ‘an ornament to his arm’. The conquest of Tulu-nād on the west coast followed soon after; that country had been conquered by Ballāla III and made part of his kingdom, but had regained its independence at the end of his reign. In 1345, or perhaps even earlier, it acknowledged the supremacy of Harihara whose brothers, in the decade that followed the foundation of Vijayanagar, were engaged in expanding their power over other territory and in bringing the smaller kingdoms under their suzerainty. As early as 1340, Bādami had become part of the new empire.

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If the new danger from Islam was to be effectively combated, it was necessary that the power of the various Hindu states should be consolidated by welding them into one strong state, and that they should be prevented from continuing in their normal condition of mutual hostility. Harihara had gone a long way towards securing this so that, in 1346, the entire family of five brothers and their chief relatives and lieutenants could meet at Śringeri, the seat of the Hindu pontiff, to celebrate the conquest of dominions extending from sea to sea by holding a great festival (vijayotsava) in the presence of the most eminent spiritual leader of the Hindu community.

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But the very next year (1347) witnessed the birth of the Muslim sultanate of the Deccan which made the danger from Islam to the Hindu culture of the South much more immediate and constant. Harihara and his brothers had not entered upon their work a day too soon. In the rest of this chapter we shall trace the rise and history of the Bāhmani sultanate, reserving the further history of Vijayanagar for the next.

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The Bāhmani kingdom arose out of one of the many revolts that broke up the Tughlak empire towards the close of the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlak. The numerous foreign officials of the revenue department in the province of Daulatabad fell under the suspicion of the sultan because they had failed to collect the enormous revenue which they were required to make up; these ‘amirs of the hundred’ or ‘centurions’ were sent under escort by the governor of Daulatabad to Broach in accordance with the sultan’s orders. But news of the sultan’s merciless killing of the centurions of the neighbouring province of Malwa reached them, and they were by no means inclined to submit tamely to such treatment. They therefore revolted at the end of the first day's march, returned to Daulatabad, imprisoned its weak governor, and proclaimed one among themselves, Ismail Mukh, the Afghan, king of the Deccan under the title Nasir-ud-din Shah. An imperial army led by Muhammad himself soon made its appearance on the scene from Broach, defeated the rebels and shut them up in the citadel of Daulatabad. Some of them, including Ismail Mukh's brothers, contrived to make their escape to Gulbarga under the leadership of Hasan Gangu alias Zafar Khan. After about three months, Hasan gathered a considerable army, including some contingents from Kāpaya Nāyaka of Wārangal, and marched to Bidar. Meanwhile, Muhammad was called away by a rebellion in Gujarat, and Hasan easily defeated and dispersed an imperial army after slaying its commander. As he approached Daulatabad, the royal troops gave up the siege and retired to Malwa. The aged and ease-loving Nasir-ud-din Ismail Shah, the new king of the Deccan, now readily abdicated his troublesome charge in favour of Hasan who proclaimed himself ruler of the Deccan on 3 August 1347 under the name Sultan Abu'l Muzaffar Ala-ud-din Bāhman Shah. He is said to have traced his descent from a half-mythical hero of Persia, Bāhman, the son of Isfandiyar. Ferishta, however, records that he called himself Gangu Bāhmani, in honour of the Brahmin Gangu whose slave he had formerly been.

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Sultan Ala-ud-din Bāhman Shah reigned for eleven years till his death in February 1358. He spent most of his time waging war or conducting negotiations calculated to extend the territory under his sway. He had to encounter much opposition at first from nobles who were or professed to be loyal to their Tughlak suzerain. By a judicious mixture of force and clemency, Ala-ud-din changed the situation in a few years. Even Kāpaya Nāyaka of Wārangal had to surrender the fort of Kaulas and promise him tribute. As early as 1349 he attacked the territory of Vijayanagar and captured Karaichur. Five years later, as a result of an understanding with the new sultan of Madura who was a relative of his, Ala-ud-din attacked Vijayanagar a second time. While Muslim accounts claim for him the conquest of all territory up to the Tungabhadra, Hindu sources say that Harihara I inflicted a defeat on the sultan. However that may be, Ala-ud-din had become master of an extensive kingdom when he died. It extended up to the sea on the west and included the ports of Goa and Dabhol, the eastern limit was marked by Bhongir, while the Penganga and Krishna rivers bounded the kingdom on the north and the south. He gained recognition from the caliph, and his coin legend, ‘A second Alexander’, shows that he had further designs of conquest. He made Gulbarga his capital, and began adorning it with fine buildings. He organized the administration of the kingdom by dividing it into four provinces (tarafs) each under a governor; three were named after their chief cities—Gulbarga, Daulatabad, and Bidar—and the fourth was Berar.

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Ala-ud-din was followed on the throne by his eldest son, Muhammad I (1358-77), a diligent and methodical administrator whose institutions long survived him and influenced the polity of later kingdoms. He established a council of eight ministers including the Peshwa, and greatly decentralized the provincial administration—a step that made for efficiency and sound government so long as the king was strong and undertook frequent tours of the realm, but led ultimately to its dismemberment. He reorganized the bodyguard into four reliefs (naubats), each doing duty by turns for four days at a time. He took strong measures for the suppression of highway robbery, and no fewer than 20,000 brigands lost their lives before the sultan was satisfied that the safety of the roads had been secured. The great mosque of Gulbarga was completed in 1367. It is perhaps the only mosque in India which has no open courtyard and has been described as ‘a noble building impressive in its massive solidity’. He secured recognition from the puppet caliph of Egypt as a result of his mother’s journey to Mecca (1361).

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Muhammad waged wars with Telengana and Vijayanagar and had to suppress a revolt in Daulatabad. The neighbouring Hindu rulers sent hostile messages to Muhammad—Kāpaya Nāyaka demanded the restoration of Kaulas, and Bukka the cession of the Raichur doab, both conquered from them by his predecessor, and threatened to join Delhi in taking measures against him. Muhammad merely detained their messengers for eighteen months, during which time he completed his preparations. He then sent back haughty answers calling upon his ‘vassals’ to explain their failure to make the customary offerings at his accession, and to make it good by sending him all their elephants laden with gold, jewels and other treasure. Kāpaya Nāyaka’s reply was to send an army under his son Vināyak Deo (or Nāgdev according to some accounts) against Kaulas, aided by a body of 20,000 horse sent by Bukka. Vināyak Deo, however, was beaten back by Bahadur Khan who advanced to Wārangal and collected 100,000 gold huns and 26 elephants before he left Telengana. This resulted in permanent estrangement between the two kingdoms and continued hostilities. For example, in 1362 a caravan of horse-dealers reported that horses meant for Gulbarga had been forcibly purchased by Vināyak Deo, whereupon Muhammad captured and executed the Hindu prince and caused the devastation of much of the Telengana country, though not without serious losses to himself.

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Nor was Muhammad without other troubles, for during his excursion into Telengana, his cousin Bahram Khan Mazandarani, governor of Daulatabad, revolted. He made common cause with Kāpaya Nāyaka and sent a futile message to Delhi seeking the aid of Firuz Tughlak. Muhammad sent an army against Daulatabad, while he himself took the field once more against Telengana. Wārangal and Golconda were besieged; Kāpaya Nāyaka had to flee to the jungles and was only able to purchase peace by the promise of fealty and the cession of the town of Golconda, much gold and many elephants. He also yielded a throne studded with turquoises meant originally for Muhammad bin Tughlak. On 21 March 1365, Muhammad sat on the throne at Gulbarga, and celebrated the occasion with great *éclat*. He ordered, according to Ferishta, that the singers and dancers who entertained him on this occasion should be paid by a draft on the treasury of Vijayanagar, and despite his ministers' remonstrances he insisted on the literal execution of this rash order. When his messenger took the draft to Vijayanagar, Bukka (Ferishta calls him Krishnarāya) had him paraded on an ass in his city, and then crossed the Tungabhadra and seized Mudgal. Muhammad was furious and incontinently marched against Bukka though only with a moderate force. Bukka withdrew with his cavalry to Adoni, leaving the infantry to face the enemy and defend the country. Muhammad plundered and killed the defenceless inhabitants in the villages before he retired into Mudgal for the rains. The rest of his army then joined him; he marched in the direction of Adoni and, early in 1367, a battle was fought at Kauthal, south of the Tungabhadra. The Muslims gained the victory, thanks to their guns and their cavalry, the Hindu artillery not coming into play till it was too late, and their commander Mallinātha being mortally wounded. Ferishta is very definite that guns were used by both sides on this occasion and that the gunners were generally Europeans and Ottoman Turks. After his defeat, Bukka eluded Muhammad's pursuit for three months, and finally shut himself up in his capital. Not having the strength to besiege the vast city, Muhammad feigned sickness and retreated. Bukka ventured to attack him, but he had to retire into the city again after losing many men and some treasure. Muhammad then took to the promiscuous slaughter of all the inhabitants of the country and proclaimed his intention of not stopping until his draft was honoured by the ruler of Vijayanagar; the war was then ended by Bukka consenting to this. Four hundred thousand Hindus, ten thousand Brahmin priests among them, lost their lives in the massacre. So shocked were both sides by the dimensions of the slaughter that an agreement was made to spare non-combatants in future wars. Though violated on occasions, this agreement did do something to mitigate the horrors of the perpetual contest between the two states.

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Ferishta's account of Muhammad's wars with Vijayanagar cannot be accepted at face value. He retails as a cause of the first war an improbable story of a large issue of gold coins by Muhammad which were melted down by the Hindu bankers of his kingdom.

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at the instance of the Hindu rulers of neighbouring kingdoms. In his account of the second war he calls the Vijayanagar ruler Krishnarāya and mentions his general Bhojmal of whom history knows nothing. Again, according to Ferishta himself the Krishna river was recognized as the boundary between the two kingdoms by the terms of the treaty which ended the war: this virtually conceded the claim of Vijayanagar to the territory between the Krishna and Tungabhadra, which would not have been the case if Muhammad had been so uniformly successful in the war as Ferishta would have us believe.

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After the end of the war with Vijayanagar, Muhammad easily suppressed the revolt in Daulatabad; Bahram Khan fled and was pursued to the frontiers of Gujarat.

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Muhammad gets a good character from Ferishta to whom cruelty to infidels was, if anything, a commendation. The author of the *Burhan-i-Ma'asir* says that he died as a result of an ‘irreligious manner of living’, meaning perhaps indulgence in drink. The internal affairs of the kingdom during the reign were managed by Saif-ud-din Ghori, who had served the first sultan well and continued in service till the accession of the sixth sultan when he died at an age of more than 100.

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Muhammad was succeeded by his eldest son Mujahid, who provoked a quarrel with Vijayanagar by demanding territory and then invaded that kingdom. Bukka adopted the plan of wearing out his enemy by avoiding battle and finally retired into his capital. Although its outer defences were carried by the enemy, they soon afterwards sustained a decisive defeat. A futile siege of Adoni for nine months was followed by peace. Mujahid rebuked his uncle, Daud Khan, for the inefficiency of his operations against the city of Vijayanagar. Daud Khan retaliated by conspiring to procure Mujahid's murder on 15 April 1378 and made himself king. Within a month, however, Mujahid's sister contrived to have Daud murdered, and Muhammad II, son of the youngest son of Ala-ud-din I, was proclaimed king.

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Muhammad II was a man of peace, devoted to religion and poetry. He sent large presents to Hafiz of Persia together with an invitation to visit him, but the poet was frightened by a storm in the Persian Gulf and would not continue his journey to India. A less amiable side of his character, however, is to be seen during the years of famine between 1387 and 1395, when the relief measures he organized were confined to his Muslim subjects. Muhammad II died of a fever in April 1397 and was succeeded by his elder son—Ghiyas-ud-din, a strong-willed and indiscreet youth of seventeen. Within two months (June 1397) he was dethroned and blinded by an angry Turkish slave, Tughalchin, who raised to the throne Shams-ud-din Daud, Ghiyas-ud-din's younger half-brother, and made himself regent. Firuz and his brother Ahmad, sons-in-law of Muhammad II and grandsons of Ala-ud-din I, wanted to redeem the royal line from domination by a slave, and, after an initial failure, succeeded in overpowering Tughalchin and his master in the palace in November 1397. Firuz became king under the title Taj-ud-din Firuz Shah.

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Firuz had a vigorous body and a keen mind. Ferishta considered him the greatest of the Bāhmani kings, and the author of the *Burhan-i-Ma'asir* speaks of him as a 'good, just, and generous king who supported himself by copying the Quran, and the ladies of whose harem used to support themselves by embroidering garments and selling them'. But these are exaggerated estimates, and there is no doubt that Firuz drank hard and his character degenerated as his reign advanced; he ruined his vigorous body by excessive indulgence in the company of women. He built a new city Firuzabad on the Bhima where he set up a harem of 800 women of various nationalities; he was reputed to be a master of many languages and able to converse with each of his mistresses in her own tongue. Firuz made his brother Ahmad chief minister, and regulated the administration efficiently, not hesitating to employ Brahmins in important posts.

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In 1398, Harihara II invaded the Raichur doab, and there was at the same time a rebellion of the Kolis on the north bank of the Krishna led by a Hindu chief. The Koli rebellion was crushed, but the armies of Berar and Daulatabad that came to aid Firuz against Harihara II had to go back to deal with the Gond rāja of Kherla who had invaded Berar. Firuz only had 12,000 horse with him as he advanced on the Krishna, while Harihara was encamped on the southern bank with a vast but ill-organized array. Firuz saw the difficulty of crossing the river for the attack in the face of the enemy, and Quazi Siraj-ud-din suggested a stratagem and offered to carry it out himself; he disguised himself and a number of his friends as a company of strolling performers and went into the enemy camp. In a few days they made a reputation for themselves and gained permission to perform before the son of Harihara when in the course of a dance with naked swords they suddenly fell upon the prince and killed him on the spot. Such confusion arose in the Hindu camp that Firuz was able to cross the river unopposed and Harihara fled to Vijayanagar, carrying with him the corpse of his ill-fated son. Firuz pursued him and took large numbers of prisoners, including 10,000 Brahmins, but released the captives on payment of a big ransom, and the war came to an end. Firuz now separated the Raichur doab from the home province of Gulbarga, and appointed Fulad Khan as its first military governor.

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Soon after, Firuz led a successful expedition against Narsingh of Kherla who had to surrender 40 elephants, much money and a daughter into the hands of Firuz as the price of peace. In 1401 Firuz sent a mission with presents to Timur, and Timur issued a decree bestowing the Deccan, Malwa and Gujarat on Firuz. The rulers of Malwa and Gujarat were alarmed and entered into negotiations with Harihara II who now began to withhold tribute and defy Firuz successfully; fearing an attack from the north, Firuz let Harihara alone. Harihara died in 1404, and two years later his son Devarāya I started a war, according to Ferishta, on account of a pretty girl, the daughter of a goldsmith of Mudgal, who had caught his fancy. Devarāya's attempt to seize her by force miscarried, and he laid waste some villages in the neighbourhood of Mudgal. This act of aggression provoked Firuz who invaded Vijayanagar and attacked the city; being wounded himself, he had to withdraw to a fortified camp some distance away, from where he sent his lieutenants to ravage and conquer the country to the south of the city up to Adoni. Devarāya had to make peace on the sultan's terms which included the gift of a daughter in marriage, the surrender of Bankapur as her dowry, besides pearls, 50 elephants, 2,000 boys and girls skilled in song and dance, and a large cash indemnity. The marriage was celebrated with due pomp, but as the king did not accompany Firuz far enough out of the city when he left it, they parted in anger. Firuz secured for his son Hasan Khan the girl whose charms had brought on the war. The story of the goldsmith's daughter is, however, unknown to other writers.

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