[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900) › c19.182 # A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c19.182 A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c19.182 - **Language:** English ### [c19.182](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19.182) On the following day, Tuesday, January 23, 1565,¹ both sides having made their dispositions, a pitched battle took place² in which all the available forces of both sides were engaged. In one of his descriptions Firishtah estimates the Vijayanagar army alone as amounting to 900,000 infantry, 45,000 cavalry, and 2000 elephants, besides 15,000 auxiliaries; but he himself varies so greatly in the numbers he gives in different parts of his narrative that there is no necessity to accept these figures as accurate. There can be little doubt, however, that the numbers were very large. The Hindu left, on the west, was entrusted to the command of Tirumala; Râma Râya in person was in the centre, and the right was composed of the troops of Venkatâdri. Opposed to Tirumala were the forces of Bîjapûr under their Sultan Ali Âdil; the Mussulman centre was under the command of Hussain Nizâm Shâh; and the left of the allied army, in Venkatâdri’s front, consisted of the forces brought from Ahmadâbâd and Golkonda by the two Sultans, Ali Barîd and Ibrâhîm Qutb. The allied forces drew up in a long line with their artillery in the centre, and awaited the enemy’s attack, each division with the standards of the twelve Imâms waving in the van. The Nizâm Shâh’s front was covered by six hundred pieces of ordnance disposed in three lines, in the first of which were heavy guns, then the smaller ones, with light swivel guns in the rear. In order to mask this disposition two thousand foreign archers were thrown out in front, who kept up a heavy discharge as the enemy’s line came on. The archers fell back as the Hindus of Râma’s division approached, and the batteries opened with such murderous effect that the assailants retreated in confusion and with great loss. - [Previous: c19.181](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19.181) - [Next: c19.183](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19.183) - [Up: c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19.182](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sewell-1900.c19.182) · Pramāṇa