A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.101

c17.101

But the civil war had given Bijapur its opportunity. The sultan at last realized his ambition of capturing the western Telugu country. In 1619-20 he sent Abdul Wahab Khan against Kurnool where Gōpālarāja offered stout resistance in which he was aided by Golconda; Abdul Wahab Khan was defeated and forced to make peace. But this was only a truce, for in 1624 he came back and attacked Kurnool once more. Gōpālarāja was now aided by his friends in the neighbourhood; but the Bijapur forces won the battle that followed, and Gōpālarāja abandoned the fort and fled. Rāma was too preoccupied to intervene. His death in 1630 at an early age of twenty-eight set the seal on the Muslim conquest of Kurnool which passed to Bijapur for good.