Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.8

c14.8

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, India south of the Vindhyas presented a deplorable picture. It was then a land of warring kingdoms and principalities being divided among four important powers, the Yādavas of Dēvagiri, the Kākatīyas of Warangal, the Hoyśālas of Dvārasamudra and the Pāṇḍyas in the extreme south. It was at this time that the Sultans of Delhi began to interfere in South Indian politics, and thus drove a wedge into the confusion that prevailed in that part of India. Muḥammad Bin Tughlak invaded the Hoyśāla territory in 1327 and compelled Ballāḷa III to submit. The dispute between Sundara Pāṇḍya and Vīra Pāṇḍya in the Pāṇḍyan court in the extreme south over the succession question weakened the empire and made it easy for the Mahammadan invaders to interfere in her affairs, plunder her territories and add to the confusion in the country.² After the preliminary excursions had been led into South India, Muḥammad Bin Tughlak “subdued the whole of the Karṇāṭak both in length and breadth even to the shore of the sea of Oeman”³ in 1327 and appointed Jalāl-ud-din to rule over Madura which he had made a province of the Delhi empire. But Jalāl-ud-din declared his independence. Tughlak arranged an expedition against the rebellious chief but his attempt proved abortive. The Madura Sultan was murdered and was succeeded by his son-in-law Ghiyās-ud-din, who in the course of a war with Vīra Ballāḷa inflicted "the worst of all defeats" on the Hindus and murdered the Hoyśāla ruler. Ghiyās-ud-din was successively followed on the throne by Nāṣir-ud-din, 'Ādil Shāh, Fakr-ud-din Mubārak Shāh and 'Alā-ud-din Sikandar Shāh. The Sultanate seems to have come to a close about 1377-78 as a result of the early wars of the Vijayanagar prince Kampaṇa.