Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c12.s2.1

c12.s2.1

The name Bījāpūr is looked upon by some as a euphonized corruption of Vijaya Pura (city of victory), but according to another theory it is a different form of Vidyāpur (city of learning). The latter name, it is said, owes its origin to an old college ² still existing there, the original endowments of which by the Chalukya Dynasty of Kalyān are commemorated upon large stone pillars hard by. The inscriptions are not of very great antiquity, one being of the Chalukya Dynasty (1192 A.D.), and the other of the Yādava (1249 A.D.). The local tradition says that a band of Muhammadan fanatics who preceded the main Muhammadan army in the second invasion of Malik Kāfūr (’Alāuddīn’s general) killed or drove away the Brāhmaṇas of the college, and occupied it. The story is not improbable, since there are traces, as Mr. Fergusson says, of similar occupation in other parts of the Deccan. It was