The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t5.28

v2.c15.s2.t5.28

The Sulṭān’s command fell in with Pratāparudra’s designs, since it would enable him not only to re-establish his authority over the kingdom of Nellore without difficulty but also to wrest from the Pāṇḍyas the city of Kāñchī, which they had taken from his predecessors in earlier times. He therefore gathered together all his forces, and placing them under the command of Muppiḍi Nāyaka, dispatched them to the South with instructions to take possession of Nellore and to restore Sundara Pāṇḍya to his kingdom. Although the available epigraphical evidence clearly indicates that the Sulṭān’s army participated in the struggle,¹ yet the main burden of the expedition seems to have devolved on the shoulders of Pratāparudra himself, owing to the death of the Sulṭān in A.D. 1316, and the subsequent withdrawal of all the Muslims from the Deccan by the orders of Malik Nā’ib Kāfūr.² Operations during the campaign fell into three definite stages: (1) the subjugation of the kingdom of Nellore; (2) the fight with Ballāḷa III and the restoration of the Śambuvarāya; and (3) the war with the Pāṇḍyas and the restoration of Sundara Pāṇḍya. The Kākatīya army commanded by Muppiḍi Nāyaka’s son Pedda Rudra seems to have set out from Warangal and to have marched against king Śrī Raṅganātha of Nellore, who was defeated and put to flight. The commander next came into conflict somewhere in the neighbourhood with a certain chief of the name of Kōṭa Tikka, who was slain in battle together with all his followers. After this he proceeded to the forest tracts of Nārāyaṇavanam, and reduced the numerous manniya forts which then abounded in that region. The Nellore kingdom which Pratāparudra seems to have assigned to Muppiḍi Nāyaka as an appanage was quickly brought under control, and Pedda Rudra then advanced against Ballāḷa III, who seems to have been somewhere in the neighbourhood at that time. How he came to be there just then is not difficult to surmise. Ever since the death of his cousin Viśvanātha and the unification of his kingdom in A.D. 1300, Ballāḷa III had been making attempts, whenever circumstances appeared favourable, to recover his family possessions in the Tamil country. Thus on the death of Māravarman Kulaśēkhara in A.D. 1310, and the outbreak of civil war between his two sons, Vira Pāṇḍya and Sundara Pāṇḍya, Ballāḷa set out toward the South on an expedition of conquest, but was compelled to retrace his steps by the unexpected appearance in his rear of the Malik Nā’ib Kāfūr at the head of the Delhi army. Although he had for a time to give up his project of annexing the southern country owing to his fear of the Sulṭān and the presence of the Malik Nā’ib in the Deccan, yet the death of the former and the withdrawal across the Narmadā to Delhi of the latter, with all his Muslim forces, emboldened him to make a fresh attempt to realize his ambi-