A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c11.6

c11.6

For if a comparison is made between the narrative of Batuta and the traditional account given by Nuniz as to the events that preceded and led to the foundation of Vijayanagar, little doubt will remain in the mind that both relate to the same event. According to Ibn Batuta,³ Sultan Muhammad marched southwards against his rebel nephew, Bahâ-ud-dîn Gushtasp, who had fled to the protection of the “Rai of Kambila,” or “Kampila” as Firishtah calls the place, in his stronghold amongst the mountains. The title “Rai” unmistakably points to the Kanarese country, where the form “Râya” is used for “Râjah;” while in “Kambila” or “Kampila” we recognise the old town of Kampli, a fortified place about eight miles east of Ânegundi, which was the citadel of the predecessors of the kings of Vijayanagar. Though not itself actually “amongst the mountains,” Kampli is backed by the mass of rocky hills in the centre of which the great city was afterwards situated. It is highly natural to suppose that the “Rai,” when attacked by the Sultan, would have quitted Kampli and taken refuge in the fortified heights of Ânegundi, where he could defend himself with far greater chance of success than at the former place; and this would account for the difference in the names given by the two chroniclers. Ibn Batuta goes on to say that the Râya sent his guest safely away to a neighbouring chief, probably the Hoysala Ballâla, king of Dvârasamudra in Maisûr, then residing at Tânûr. He caused a huge fire to be lit on which his wives and the wives of his nobles, ministers, and principal men immolated themselves, and this done he sallied forth with his followers to meet the invaders, and was slain. The town was taken, “and eleven sons of the Rai were made prisoners and carried to the Sultan, who made them all Mussalmans.” After the fall of the place the Sultan “treated the king’s sons with great honour, as much for their illustrious birth as for his admiration of the conduct of their father;” and Batuta adds that he himself became intimately acquainted with one of these—“we were companions and friends.”