A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of IndiaSewell, Robert
History
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
Sewell, Robert
Vijayanagar (Empire) -- History
Ala-ud-din died February 13, A.D. 1458, (?)[151] and was succeeded by
his son Humayun, a prince of "cruel and sanguinary temper." In the
following year Humayun waged war against the country of the Telugus
and besieged Devarakonda, which made so stout a resistance that the
Dakhani armies were baffled, and retired. He died on the 5th September
1461,[152] to the great relief of all his subjects. Mallikarjuna
appears to have been then king of Vijayanagar.
Nizam Shah succeeded to the throne, being then only eight years old,
but his reign was of short duration. He was succeeded by his brother
Muhammad on July 30, A D. 1463,[153]
In the middle of the year 1469, while either Rajasekhara or Virupaksha
I. was the king of Vijayanagar, Mahmud Gawan, Muhammad's minister,
marched towards the west, and after a fairly successful campaign
attacked Goa, then in the possession of the Raya of Vijayanagar, both
by sea and land. He was completely victorious and captured the place.
The war was probably undertaken in revenge for a cruel massacre of
Muhammadans which took place in this Year A.D. 1469, according to
Barros.[154] At this period the coast trade was altogether in the hands
of the Muhammadans, and they used to import large numbers of horses,
principally for the use of the great contending armies in the Dakhan
and Vijayanagar. The Hindu king depended on this supply to a large
extent. In 1469 the Moors at Batecala (Bhatkal) having sold horses
to the "Moors of Decan," the king of Vijayanagar ordered his vassal
at Onor (Honawar) "to kill all those Moors as far as possible, and
frighten the rest away." The result of this was a terrible massacre, in
which 10,000 Musulmans lost their lives. The survivors fled and settled
themselves at Goa, thus founding the city that afterwards became
the capital of Portuguese India. Nuniz alludes to the loss of "Goa,
Chaull, and Dabull" by Vijayanagar in the reign of "Verupaca."[155]
(Purchas states that the massacre took place in 1479 A.D.)
Shortly afterwards there arose to power under the Sultan Muhammad
one Yusuf Adil Khan, a slave, who before long grew to such power
that he overthrew the Bahmani dynasty, and became himself the first
independent sovereign of Bijapur -- the first "Adil Shah." In 1470,
says the BURHAN-I MAASIR, the Sultan took Rajahmundry and Kondavid from
the king of Orissa. An inscription at Kondapalle, a fine hill-fort
beautifully situated on a range of hills, gives the date as 1470 or
1471; my copy is imperfect.
Firishtah tells us that --
"In the year 877 (A.D. 1472 -- 73) Perkna, roy of the fortress of
Balgoan, at the instigation of the prince of Beejanuggur, marched
to retake the island of Goa.... Mahummud Shaw, immediately upon
intelligence of this irruption, collected his forces and moved against
Balgoan, a fortress of great strength, having round it a deep wet
ditch, and near it a pass, the only approach, defended by redoubts."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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