A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c17.47

c17.47

His first task was to repulse the Bāhmani forces which invaded his territory in pursuit of the policy of annual jihad resolved upon by Mahmud II in 1501. As usual, prominent Bāhmani nobles assembled in Bidar and started with the Sultan Mahmud II on their annual raid into the Rāya's kingdom (1509); but they soon discovered that they were no longer free to plunder and ravage. The progress of the Muslim armies was checked at the unidentified town of Diwani where they were decisively defeated in the battle that followed. The sultan himself was thrown off his horse and sustained serious injuries from which he recovered only slowly, whereupon his nobles ‘folded up the carpet of contention and war’, and returned to Bidar. Krishnadeva pursued the retiring armies, particularly that of Yusuf Adil Khan, who turned round to oppose him near Kovilkonda and lost his life in the battle that followed. The citadel of Kovilkonda became Krishnadeva's before he returned to his capital.