The account given by the BURHAN-I MAASIR as to Muhammad Shah's proceedings at this period is that on going to Rajahmundry he found there Narasimha Raya "with 700,000 cursed infantry, and 500 elephants like mountains of iron," who, in spite of all his pomp and power, fled like a craven on the approach of the army of Islam. The Sultan then reduced Rajahmundry, which had been held by a HINDU force -- not Muhammadan, as Firishtah declares. In November 1480[161] he marched from Rajahmundry to Kondavid, going "towards the kingdom of Vijayanagar." After reducing that fortress, he proceeded after a while to Malur, which belonged to Narasimha, "who, owing to his numerous army and the extent of his dominions, was the greatest and most powerful of all the rulers of Telingana and Vijayanagar," and who "had established himself in the midst of the countries of Kanara and Telingana, and taken possession of most of the districts of the coast and interior of Vijayanagar." While at Malur the Sultan was informed that "at a distance of fifty farsakhas from his camp was a city called Ganji," containing temples, &c., to which he promptly marched, arriving before the place on 13th March A.D. 1481.[162] He sacked the city and returned. After this the Sultan went to Masulipatam, which he reduced, and thence returned to Kondapalle. This was his last success. His cold-blooded murder of the celebrated Mahmud Gawan, his loyal and faithful servant, in 1481, so disgusted the nobles that in a short time the kingdom was dismembered, the chiefs revolted, the dynasty was overthrown, and five independent kingdoms were raised on its ruins. Muhammad Shah died on 21st March. A.D. 1482. Shortly before his death he planned an expedition to relieve Goa from a Vijayanagar army which "Sewaroy, Prince of Beejanuggur," had sent there (Firishtah); but the Sultan's death put a stop to this (BURHAN-I MAASIR). We have some further information on the affairs of Kulbarga during the reign of Muhammad Shah in the writings of the Russian traveller Athanasius Nikitin, but it is very difficult to fix the exact date of his sojourn there. Nikitin was a native of Twer, and set out on his wanderings by permission of the Grand Duke Michael Borissovitch, and his own bishop, Gennadius. This fixes the time of his start so far that it must have taken place subsequent to 1462, and the author of the "Bombay Gazetteer," RE Poonah, assigns the period 1468 to 1474 as that of Nikitin's stay in India. Nikitin first went to Chaul, and thence travelled by land to Junir. "Here resides Asat, Khan of Indian Jooneer, a tributary of Meliktuchar.... He has been fighting the Kofars for twenty years, being sometimes beaten but mostly beating them."