A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c10.20

c10.20

The year 1001 A.D. saw the first inroad into India of the Muhammadans from over the north-west border, under their great leader Mahmûd of Ghazni. He invaded first the plains of the Panjâb, then Multân, and afterwards other places. Year after year he pressed forward and again retired. In 1021 he was at Kalinga; in 1023 in Kâthiâwâr; but in no case did he make good his foothold on the country. His expeditions were raids and nothing more. Other invasions, however, followed in quick succession, and after the lapse of two centuries the Muhammadans were firmly and permanently established at Delhi. War followed war, and from that period Northern India knew no rest. At the end of the thirteenth century the Muhammadans began to press southwards into the Dakhan. In 1293 Alâ-ud-dîn Khilji, nephew of the king of Delhi, captured Devagiri. Four years later Gujarât was attacked. In 1303 the reduction of Warangal was attempted. In 1306 there was a fresh expedition to Devagiri. In 1309 Malik Kâfur, the celebrated general, with an immense force swept into the Dakhan and captured Warangal. The old capital of the Hoysala Ballâlas at Dvârasamudra was taken in 1310, and Malik Kâfur went to the Malabar coast where he erected a mosque, and afterwards returned to his master with enormous booty.¹ Fresh fighting took place in 1312. Six years later Mubârak of Delhi marched to Devagiri and inhumanly flayed alive its unfortunate prince, Haripâla Deva, setting up his head at the gate of his own city. In 1323 Warangal fell.