No More Learning

The weakening of the Chola power by
this successful Pandya invasion made it possible for the Chola feu-
datroy Kö-Perum Singa (Sans. Mahārāja Simha) of Sēndamangalam
in South Arcot, the son and successor of the Pallava ch ſtain vho
was responsible for turning the Ceylonese out of the Pāndya terri-
tory in the war of Pāndya succession to declare his independence
of his Chola overlord. He either invaded the Chola country or
otherwise involved it in a war, and made Rājarāja III prisoner in
his own capital of Sēndamangalam. This insolence called for the
intervention of Hoysala Narasimha II who took the Magara or
Magadai kingdom, the eastern part of the Salem district, and sent
forward two of his generals to attack Sēndamangalam itself and
release the Chola ruler, who was imprisoned there. They succeeded
in this and restored Rājarāja III to his position of authority. It
was probably in this war that Narasimha himself marched towards
Srirangam with a view to preventing the Pāndyas from invading
the Chola country, carried the war into the Pāndya country, and
is said to have set up a pillar of victory. at Rāmēsvaram. In this
southern campaign he seems to have associated with himself his
young son Sõmēsvara who came to the throne in 1233 and ruled till
1264. In the course of these southern campaigns of Narasimha, the
Yādavas had been active on the northern frontier and had gained
some success as for south as Balagāmi in 1213, but they were easily
beaten back during the reign of Narasimha.
Sõmēsvara's accession marks the beginning of a more vigorous
reign both in the south and in the north. He carried on a successful
war against the contemporary Yādava ruler Krishna Kandara, and


## p. 483 (#533) ############################################

XVIII ]
SOMESVARA HOYSALA
483
extended his boundary northwards to the river Krishna as an
inscription of his in Pandharpur near Sholapur of 1236 indicates.
But his activities were chiefly along the Chola-Pāndya frontier
which called for his presence so constantly that he erected for him-
self a royal city there and ruled his kingdom from that distant
southern capital, except for one short interval in the middle of his
reign when he is said to have been in his ancestral Hoysala terri-
tory proper. As early as 1236 we find him in residence in the
Pāndyamandala which is said to have been acquired by his strength
and valour. Probably about this time or earlier, in the reign of his
father, the Hoysala entered into a marriage alliance with the Pān-
dyas, so that, in inscriptions of Māravarman Sundara Pāndya II of
about this date, the Hoysala monarch is called 'uncle Sõmsēvara,'
and a record of this Pāndya ruler in the Tinnevelli district namas
a village granted at the request of Sõmēsvara, Vikrama-Somi-
Chaturvēdimangalam in honour of this uncle. It was about this
time, or a few years later, that a younger brother of Rājarāja III,
afterwards Rājēndra III, became so actively hostile to his elder
brother that Sõmēsvara's intervention was called for as against this
new rival. Rājēndra had under his rule all the northern territory
of the Cholas, extending from the coast between Nellore and
Kānchi across to the Hoysala frontier, and was the most important
feudatory in the kingdom during the first twenty-five years of his
brother's reign. He appears to have become hostile some time
about 1242 or 1243, perhaps on account of Rājarāja's subserviency
to the Hoysala, who dominated from his central position in Kanna-
nür both the Pāndya and the Chola kingdoms. As a matter of fact,
the Chola power was little more than a feudatory of Sõmēsvara.
Rājēndra therefore rose as a rival claimant and had to fight against
Sõmēsvara rather than the nominal ruler, his brother. Both sides
claim the victory. They seem however to have ultimately come to
an understanding as Rājēndra is said to have let his brother rule for
yet another three years, and at last killed him. With the accession
of Rājēndra to power there was a change in the political relations
between the Chola and the Hoysala, and the accession of another
Pāndya to the throne in the person of Jaāvarman Tundara Pāndya I
in 1251 brought the Pāndyas into hostility to Sõmēsvara. How
actually this change of relations came about is not recorded, but
soon after his accession the Pāndya set out on a campaign which
lasted for more than ten years and carried the war successfully
through the Chola country as far north as Nellore. According to a
full prasasti which details the deeds of this great Pāndya, he began
31-2


## p. 484 (#534) ############################################

484 HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA (ch.
by an invasion of the Travancore country and, having compelled
the Chera ruler to submit, iarched into the Chola country. There
he defeated a number of Sõmēsvara's generals, and took Sēnda-
mangalam. He expelled from Kānchi the Telugu Choda chieftains
and was anointed there. He then invaded the territory of the
Telugu Chodas themselves, defeated and killed in battle Gandago-
pala of Nellore, and placed one of his brothers, who submitted, on
the throne instead, thus carrying the war to the frontier of the
Kākatiya territory, whence he turned back towards his capital. On
the return journey we find him in occupation of the Hoysala
capital, Vikramapura, in 1264-65, and it was either in this year, or
the end of the previous one, that he defeated and slew Sõmēsvara
in battle and brought this victorious campaign to a close by
magnificent gifts to the great temple of Srirangam, which according
to this record had suffered at the hands of the Hoysalas. They Hoy.
sala Sõmēsvara is said to have built the front gopura of the Siva
temple at Jambukēsvaram. He was probably an ardent Saiva and
had neglected the Vishnu temple at Srirangam. That is what is
hinted at in the first verse of the elaborate Sundara Pāndya in-
scription at Srirangam. He is said to have weighed himself against
gold and jewels, mounting his elephant in full panoply of war, and
made a grant of the money which he himself appropriated for the
various works of extension and restoration to the great Vishnu
temple. He was anointed again in the Vishnu temple and crowned
with the crown nagarodaya.
Sõmēsvara had two sons of whom one, Narasimha III, the son
of queen Bijjala Rāni, was left in charge of the ancestral dominions
of the Hoysalas. Nearly ten years before his death he associated
with himself his other son Vira Rāmanātha, son of his queen Dēvala
Mahādēvi. The activities of the Yādavas probably called for this
division, and Narasimha III as regent of his father had to resist
more than one invasion. In 1276 the Yādava general Sāluva
Tikkama reached the capital, Dvārasamudra, but was beaten back
by the efforts of the prince. Vira Rāmanātha continued to rule
from Kannanūr, and some of his inscriptions are found in Tanjore
Sendalai and Mannargudi, so that the Hoysala Rāmanātha may
be reckoned among the rulers of the south. Narasimha reigned till
1292 when he was succeeded by his son, Ballāla III. Ramanātha
ruled his extensive territory with an alternative capital Kundāni
in the Salem district and waged war against his own brother in the
south of Mysore. He died shortly after his brother, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Visvanātha, who seems to have ſuled for three


## p. 485 (#535) ############################################

XVIII)
FOUR KINGDOMS OF THE SOUTH
485
years after the death of his father. When Visvanātha died the
southern territory also was again united under Vira Ballāla III,
the last great Hoysala.
The accession of Vira Ballāla marks a point in South Indian
History, when India south of the Vindhyas assumes, as it were, a
new political division and stands divided into four important king.
doms, two of which were situated in the Deccan and the other two
in the Peninsula. Of these four kingdoms three had formed part of
the Chālukya kingdom, the northern most being the kingdom of the
Yādavas, with their capital at Deogir. The Yādavas and the Hoy-
salas contributed most to the dismemberment of the Chālukya
empire, and when dismemberment came benefited most by occu-
pying compact blocks of territory. The river Krishna may roughly
be regarded as the frontier between the two, that being the frontier
for which the wars of the previous centuries were waged, whatever
were the dynasties actually ruling to the north and south of it.
The Yādava kingdom occupied the whole of the western half of the
Deccan, and its eastern frontier may be marked by a line drawn
roughly from somewhere east of Bījāpur through Gulbarga, Yādgir
Kalyāni, north east to Mahūr proceeding further north eastwards ;
all the territory west of it belonged to the Yādavas of Deogir. The
territory on the eastern side extending to the lower course of the
river Krishna belonged to the Kākatiyas, who as feudatories of the
later Chalukyas had their territory in the Nizām's dominions with
a capital at Anamkonda, which later on they transferred to their
own fortified citadel of Warangal. Therefrom the dynasty extended
its territory chiefly at the expense of the waning power of the
Eastern Chālukyas. During the long reign of Ganapati, perhaps
the greatest among this dynasty, the southern frontier was settled
for them at the lower course of the river Krishna by the reduction
of the Telugu Choda chiefs of Nellore by Jatāvarman Sundara
Pāndya I. His daughter Rudrama or Rudrāmba, who succeeded,
was well able to maintain the territory bequeathed to her and hand
it over in fullness of time to her grandson Pratāparudra II, who
came to the throne about the same time as Vira Ballāla III. With
the advent of Jatāvarman Sundara Pāndya the Chola territory had
been reduced to subordination to him. With the death of the
Hoysala Sõmēsvara, who had practically reduced the Cholas to a
position of complete insignificance and held their territory under
his own authority, so that under his son Vira Rāmanātha what had
been the Chola kingdom was generally regarded as the territory of
the Hoysala Rāmanātha, the Hoysala hold was gradually slackening


## p. 486 (#536) ############################################

486
( CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
1
while yet Vīra Rāmanātha was alive, chiefly from the pressure of
the Pāndyas from the south. When the last great Pāndya, Mara-
varman Kulasēkhara, ascended the throne in 1268 he seems to have
gradually increased the pressure so much that he is often referred
to as being in his capital Jayankonda-Solapuram, which is only
about six miles from the regular Chola capital Gangaikonda-Sõla.
puram. Under this great ruler, whose reign lasted till 1311, the
Chola territory had definitely become Pāndyan, and the Telugu
Chodas of Nellore, with their territory taking in the central block
of the Nellore district and the Ceded Districts adjoining, constituted
a buffer state between the Kākatiyas in the north and the Pāndyas
in the south along the whole length of the Coromandel coast. The
Hoysala frontier and the Pandya frontier ran together along the
whole length of it. Beginning from somewhere near Adoni, not far
from the banks of the Krishna, this frontier ran close to the foot-
hills of the Eastern Ghāts along the eastern frontiers of the present
day Mysore territory, and proceeding westwards as far as thc
Nilgiris through the two Kongus, north and south. The Hoysalas
as the central power remained in touch with the remaining three
powers, and had to maintain their frontier against all three. While
therefore they have had occasionally to go to war against their
northern neighbours, more often against the Yādavas than against
the Kākatīyas, they had to be considerably more active and con.
stantly vigilant along the total length of their southern and eastern
frontier. The position of these four powers was such and their
interests so divided that when the first Muhammadan invasions
deluged the territory of the Yādavas of Deogir there was no
common motive or interest among the four powers to adopt a con-
certed policy, or take common action.
Such common action was hardly called for from the character
of the first invasions under 'Alā-ud-din Khalji. The first invasion
was no more than a plundering raid ; and the next one under him
was little more. It was the advent of Malik Kāfür with more defi.
nite instructions from his master to reduce the southern Hindu
states to the position of tributaries that aroused these states to the
real danger of the Muhammadan invasions. Even then the four
kingdoms were so divided and separate in interests that the mis-
fortune which befell one kingdom hardly evoked any active inter-
vention on the part of the others. The Muhammadan conquests at
first introduced hardly any sensible change in the political condi-
tion of the kingdoms, involving no more than nominal subordination
and the payment of tribute annually if it could be enforced. Hence


## p. 487 (#537) ############################################

XVIII)
ÈÅRLI MUSLIM INVASIONS
487
Deogir fell and Warangal ſell after two invasions and a raid was
undertaken against the Hoysala capital of Dvarasamudra. The
kings of the three kingdoms were treated almost similarly by 'Alā-
ud-din. They were regarded as feudatories of high rank in the
empire liable to tribute and subjected to occasional extortion when
they gave cause by failure to send tribute. As often happened in
Southern India, a pretext for intervention in the affairs of the
Pāndya kingdom presented itself to the Muslims. Vīra and Sundara,
the sons of the great Pāndya, Māravarman Kulasēkhara, contended
for their father's throne, and Sundara, being worsted, appealed to
'Alā-ud-dīn Khalji for help. Malik Kālūr, then occupied with the
-
Hoysalas, invaded the Tamil kingdom, placed Sundara Pandya on
the throne, and took advantage of the occasion to march through
the Chola and Pāndya country as far south as Rāmēsvaram, his
chief object being to secure the treasure accumulated in the temples
of Southern India and gain possession of the elephants in the
stables of the South Indian monarchs. Malik Kāſūr returned to the
north after his magnificent march across peninsular India, carrying
elephant loads of treasure unheard of before. This success confirmed
his position at court. 'Alā-ud-din's illness and Malik Kāſūr's in-
trigues gave the south respite from foreign aggression, and enabled
a Malabar ruler to descend from his mountains and carry his arms
successfully across the whole of the Pāndya and Chola territory as
far as Nellore. This was Ravivarman Kulasēkhara, who, starting
from the Travancore country, defeated the Pandya, and marched
northwards occupying Tiruvadi in South Arcot, then Kānchi and
then Poonamalle, going as far north as Nellore itself. He left in-
scriptions in all these places and was anointed in Tiruvadi and
Kānchi, and, on his return journey, in Srirangam. He was however
expelled by the officers of Pratāparudra II, who penetrated as far
south as Jambukēsvaram in the island of Srirangam, where one of
them left an inscription. Thus the four states of Southern India
were leſt to themselves, and their tribute naturally ſell into arrears.
When Mubārak ascended the throne he had virtually to re-
conquer India south of the Vindhyas. He showed great energy in
the early years of his reign, marched to Deogir and, having extin-
guished the ruling dynasty, made Deogir the first Muhammadan
province in the south, and planted along its southern frontier a
number of Muhammadan garrisons in salient points. This seems to
have given the first warning to the Hoysala monarch, who adopted
the policy of the Indian reed, bending down when the flood runs
high, and standing up again when it has passed. The Hoysala


## p. 488 (#538) ############################################

488
ch.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
replied to this menace by planting garrisons along his northern fron-
tier, but so unobtrusively that his Muhammadan neighbours failed
to notice it. Muhammadan invasions under the Tughluqs continued
as before. The overthrow of the Kakatiyas and the accession of Mu-
hammad Tughluq heralded a more aggressive policy in the Deccan.
Muhammad's activities in the south have been related in Chapter VI.
By 1328 he had occupied both Madura and its outer salient
Kannanūr, the Hoysala capital in the Chola country north of the
island of Srirangam, and the Hoysala Vira Ballāla replied by begin-
ning the fortification of Hampi as a substitute for Kampli, which
had been destroyed during the rebellion of Bahā-ud-din Gurshāsp.
He further strengthened the garrisons along the northern frontier,
and moved southwards to occupy Tīruvannāmalai as a more suitable
centre from which to watch Muhammadan garrisons in the south
and Muhammadan movements from the north. This active move-
ment of the Hoysala disconcerted the Muhammadan governor of
Ma'bar, and Muhammad had to send further contingents and other
governors. Jalāl-ud-din Ahsan Shāh, the last officer sent by him
ruled in the name of his master for about five years, and proclaimed
his independence in 1331. This rebellion was followed by others in
the north, so that the south was left entirely to itself, and Jalāl-ud-
din could enjoy a short period of independence. This interval of
difficulty to Muhammad the Hoysala took advantage of to the full
and gradually extended his authority southwards into the Chola
country, and was even prepared, about 1340, to plan and carry
out a sweeping movement as far south as Rāmēs varam itself! . As a
provision against contingencies in this dangerous enterprise of his
he had his son anointed to the throne in the holy place of Hampi
under the designation of Vira Virūpāksha Ballāla, in honour of the
god Virūpāksha of Hampi, one of the long established holy places
of the Hindus. His movements were so far successful that the
northern garrisons held their positions efficiently and prevented the
Muhammadans from coming into the south, if they ever made an
effort at all. On the south he was able to isolate Madura, and even
separate Kannanūr from it, so that in 1342 the garrison of Madura
felt that there was no alternative for them except to make a
desperate sally, as Kannanūr was so closely besieged that the fall
of the place, which was imminent, would mean inevitably the fall of
Madura. In a battle fought at Trichinopoly in 1342 Vīra Ballāla
was taken prisoner at the moment of victory, and put to death. His
son apparently succeeded, and perhaps also fell, like his father, in
1 S. India and her Muhammadan Invaders. p. 172 et seq.
See p. 149.


## p. 489 (#539) ############################################

Xv11)
FOUNDATION OF VIJAYANAGAR
489
.
battle two or three years after his succession to the throne. The
rulers fell, but the officers who had charge of the various garrisons
planted across the northern frontier, continued the good work.
Among these, five brothers had charge of important garrisons along
the northern frontier. The eldest, Harihara or Hariyana Odiyar, had
the southern Marātha territory under his charge with his head-
quarters at Bankāpur or Goa. What was hitherto Banavāsi 12,000
and the coast country over against Mysore on the west were under
his authority. Hampi and Dvārasamudra with an alternative at
Penukonda were in charge of the third brother Bukka. Nellore
and Udayagiri with the dependent territory were in charge of the
second brother Kampa. The two youngest of the five brothers were
subordinate governors, one at Āraga near Tirthalli in Mysore and
the other at Penukonda. Behind all these at Mulbāgal was placed
the young and enterprising son of Bukka, by name Kumāra Kam-
pana. He is described in Indian chronicles as having held the
position of door-keeper to the Hoysala monarch. The five brothers
and this prince were the officers of the Hoysalas who were primarily
responsible for the foundation of Vijayanagar.
Muhammad Tughluq's aggressive policy in the south menaced
the Hindus with the complete destruction of their civilisation and
religion. It was with difficulty that disaffection was suppressed even
in the provinces directly under Muhammadan rule. The Kākatīya
ruler had learned prudence by bitter experience; his young sons
had no reason for the same caution. They seem to have thrown
themselves heart and soul into the movement originated by the
Hoysalas. With the death of the Hoysala monarchs, both father and
son, the mantle of leadership fell upon their officers, and the five
brothers and the son of one of them stood out as leaders of this
movement, possibly with the active assistance of the Brāhman sage
Vidyāranya, whose association with the movement gives a clear in-
dication of its character.
Various stories are related of the foundation of Vijayanagar.
The fortification of the city that afterwards became Vijayanagar
must, however, be regarded as the deliberate work of the last
great Hoysala ruler, Vira Ballāla III. It was founded soon after
the destruction of Kampli by the army of Muhammad and the
immediately following invasion of the Hoysala capital of Dvāra-
samudra. The fortifications were probably completed by about
1336, the traditional date ascribed to its foundation, and the fact
that the Ballāla prince was anointed about the year 1340 in the
holy place of Hampi, confirms this view. From 1335 onwards the


## p. 490 (#540) ############################################

490
CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
(
Hoysala power had to face the Muslim in two directions. The
northern frontier was put into a state of defence and on the south
the Muhammadan kingdom of Madura was attacked. In the early
campaigns of 'Alā-ud-din Bahman Shāh, the founder of the Bahmani
kingdom, figure the names of three chieftains, Harihara, Bukka and
Kampa, disguised as Harib (Hariyappa), Kapras (Bukkapparazu),
and Kampras (Kamparazu). Earlier than this we have the state.
ment of Ibn Batūta that the Muhammadan Sultan of Honowar was
a subordinate of the Hindu chieftain Horaib (Hariyappa). It is
thus clear that the arrangement made by Ballāla III continued
through the reign of his son, and lasted even longer. The last
known date of Hariyappa or Harihara is 1346, the year preceding
that in which Bahman Shāh assumed independence. During the
next five years the Bahmani kingdom was open to attack from
the north, and was not free for aggressive action on its southern
frontier. When Bahman Shāh passed away Bukka was the sole
representative of the Hoysala wardens of the marches, and succeeded
to the kingdom and the responsibilities of the Hoysalas. His son
Kumāra Kampana waged a successful war against the Sambuvarāya
chieftains of the pālār basin and the Sultans of Madura. In the
early years of Muhammad Shāh Bahmani I both the Muhamniadan
and Hindu powers alike had to keep watch on the movements of
Fīruz Shāh Tughluq, as his attitude towards the southern rebels,
Muhammadan and Hindu, had not yet become clear. When Fīrūz
definitely declared that he would not interfere in the affairs of
the south-, the two powers stood face to face, and then began the
great duel which lasted practically all the time that the empire of
Vijayanagar was in existence.
The earlier wars between the lately established kingdoms of
the Deccan and Vijayanagar are described in Chapter xv. Mu-
hammad I died in 1377, and Bukka followed him a year later.
After the destruction of the Muhammadan kingdom of Madura in
13772 Vijayanagar was free to employ its whole strength against its
northern neighbour, and, notwithstanding the victories of Mujāhid
Shāh Bahmni in that year, ventured to describe himself as “emperor
of the south' among other imperial titles; and claimed to be 'one
that established the Vedas, and maintained the four castes and
orders, and as 'the publisher of the commentaries on the Vedas. '
It was in this work of the founders of Vijayanagar that the Brāhmans,
Vidyāranya and his brother Sāyana, had a share. The Hindu king-
a
1 S. India and her Muhammadan Invaders, p. 186, and Elliot, III, p. 339.
2 See p. 150.
>


## p. 491 (#541) ############################################

XVIII)
FIRST DYNASTY OF VIJAI ANAGAR
491
dom of Vijayanagar stood for all that constituted Hindu civilisation
and culture in the south. The five brothers and prince Kampana
continued the policy of the last Hoysalas, and Harihara II reaped
the fruits of their labours. With him, therefore, the kingdom may
be said to begin.
The first dynasty, which lasted up to the year 1487, a little
over a century the formal assumption of the royal title by
Harihara II, counted six rulers. As before in South Indian history
the Rāichūr Doāb, the land between the river Krishna and the
Tungabhadra, formed the bone of contention between the states
to the north and the south of the former river.
With the accession of Harihara's successor, Dēvarāya I, began
a period of wars which lasted for forty years, more or less con-
tinuously, and have been already described in Chapter XV. The
accession of Devarāya Il marked the zenith of the prosperity of
Vijayanagar under the first dynasty.
When Devarāya II had been on the throne for about ten years
a change of rulers took place in Orissa to the north of the territory
of Warangal which exercised great influence upon the history of
Vijayanagar during the next century. In 1435, the last year of
the reign of Ahmad I, Bahmani, the enterprising and ambitious
Kapilesvaradeva ascended the throne of Orissa. By that time the
territory of Warangal had been annexed by the Bahmani kingdom,
but the Telingana coast was as yet unconquered, and was open to
the enterprise of rising power of Orissa. The Bahmani kingdom
had been involved in wars with the Sultan of Khāndesh, the Marātha
chieftains on the western and south-western frontier, and the Gond
chieftain, Raja Narsingh Kherla. Kapilēsvara took advantage
of these difficulties to extend his territory gradually along the coast
to the Godāvarī, and extended his raids as far south as Nellore and
Udayagiri. A new danger thus threatened Vijayanagar. In the
years immediately preceding 1440 Vijayanagar took the offensive
and attacked the Bahmani kingdom, but was worsted. An investi-
gation of the causes of the defeat led to the conclusion that the
superiority of the Muhammadan forces lay in their Turkish force
of mounted archers, and Dēvarāya took steps immediately to remove
the defect by enlisting a special force of 2000 Muhammadan archers,
cantoning them in a special quarter of the city where they had a
mosque and a separate slaughter-house, and respecting their senti.
ment so far as to place a copy of the Koran in front of his throne,
so that the obeisance made before the monarch was offered to the
Koran. This force was not the first Muhammadan contingent in


## p. 492 (#542) ############################################

492
(CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
the Vijayanagar armies. The last Hoysala is said to have had a
contingent of 20,000 Muhammadans in the battle at Trichinopoly.
Inscriptions state that Dēvarāya I, a predecessor of Devarāya II,
employed a force of Muhammadan cavalry. Devarāya employed
these troops to train other archers, so that in the course of the
next few years he had a body of 60,000 archers ready to take the
field'. With this reformed army he sent an expedition into the
Bahmani kingdom in 1443 which achieved considerable success
against the Bahmani forces. During the absence of the army an
abortive attempt on Dēvarāya's life was made by one of his relatives.
It was soon after this incident that 'Abd-ur-Razzāq, the ambassador
of Shāh Rukh from Samarqand, who had been for some time in
Calicut, came to Vijayanagar and stayed a few months in the capital.
From his account it appears that by 1442 the fortifications, temples,
palaces, and public buildings of Vijayanagar had been completed.
The city occupied a space of about sixty-four square miles, and had
the seven enclosures - the accepted numbers of circuits for a first-
class city. The three outermost enclosures contained only fields
intended for cultivation, with the huts of those engaged on the land.
The four inner enclosures were occupied by houses, the innermost
containing the palace and its precincts. A number of channels
had baen led into the city from the Tungabhadra; one of them yet
goes by the name Rāya channel They were intended partly for
the purpose of cultivation and partly for the water-supply of the
city. Even allowing for exaggeration in Abd-ur-Razzāq's account,
Vijayanagar under Dévarāya II must have been a splendid city,
and exceedingly well fortified. Dēvarāya II lived for six years
after this date and died in February 1449, a brother of the same
name having predeceased him by three years. Dēvarāya II, by
far the greatest ruler of the first dynasty, was excelled only perhaps
by Krishnadevarāya of all the kings of Vijayanagar. Under him
the kingdom as a whole had been well knit together and brought
under an ordered administration, chiefly through the genius of the
great Danayak' of 'Abd-ur-Razzaq, the Brāhman minister Lakkana
or Lakshmi-dhara. Lakkana and his brother Madana were governors
of important divisions in the south and passed from province to
province by way of official promotion. There were other governors
besides, each in his own province, and all of them were kept well
in hand by the ruler and his chief ministers. The only frontier
that caused anxiety was the northern frontier, and that through
the activities of the monarch of Orissa.
When Dēvarāya II died,
1 See p. 406.


## p. 493 (#543) ############################################

XVII ]
SĀLUVA NARASIMHA
493
а
therefore, the kingdom was in the most satisfactory condition and
passed on without dispute to his eldest living son, Mallikārjuna.
Dēvarāya II had lost in the course of his lifetime one or two of
his
grown up sons in the wars against the Muslims. It is also said
that in the massacre which ended in the attempt upon his life, one
of his grown up sons was killed. It seems probable therefore that
Mallikārjuna succeeded to the throne comparatively young. The
accession of this new ruler was taken advantage of by the two
northern powers, the Bahmani kingdom and the Hindu state of
Orissa. They made a combined attack and laid siege to the capital.
Young Mallikārjuna succeeded in repulsing them about the year
1450, and ruled for nearly ten years in peace. About the end of
this period we hear of him in residence in Penugonda with his
minister Timma 'on business connected with the administration of
the kingdom of Narasimha. ' This could only mean that he moved
eastward from the capital and was for some time on the frontiers
of the territory of the rising chieftain Sāluva Narasimha either to
protect his own dominions, or, as is more likely, to be prepared
to support Narasimha against the ruler of Orissa and his Muslim
allies. Neither inscriptions nor other sources of information avail-
able to us so far tell us any more about him than that he continued
to rule till 1467 or 1468. The kingdom appears to have continued
intact during the whole of his reign.
It was during his reign that the Sāluva chieſtain, whose ances-
tral territory lay around Chandragiri or Nārāyanavanām in the
modern district of Chittūr, and whose ancestors for a few genera-
tions had been working loyally in behalf of the kingdom, comes
into prominent notice. Mangū or Mangirāja of this family bore an
honourable share in the southern campaigns of prince Kampana,
and his successors, several of them held important positions in the
state, and one of them had married into the royal family. Narasimha
or Narasingha found an opportunity for signal achievement in the
aggressive activities of the monarchs of Orissa who had penetrated
certainly as far as Nellore, and either at this time or a little later,
as far south as the South Arcot district. He developed his resources
early and gradually extended his influence in the neighbouring
provinces of the kingdom of Vijayanagar so as to be able to offer
effective resistance to these aggressions. He was so far successful
that his control was more or less acknowledged over the greater
Gangadasapratapavilasam, India Office Catalogue of MSS, by Julius Eggeling,
No. 1610. 'Alā-ud-din Ahmad Bahmani was in no position to supply a large
contingent for the prosecution of this campaign.
1


## p. 494 (#544) ############################################

494
[CH
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
part of the kingdom. Having thus consolidated his position he
marched into the southern possessions of Orissa and gradually
pushed the invaders back so that when the attention of Muhammad
Shāh Bahmani III was drawn to the political condition of the
Telingāna coast about 1476, he found Sāluva Narasimha posted in
great strength on the banks of the Godāvari at Rājahmundry.
Muhammad's efforts to dislodge him do not appear to have been
attended with success, and he had to content himself merely by
carrying a raid across his territory as far south as Kānchi'. While
Narasimha was opposing the Bahmani king, a change had taken
place in the kingdom of Vijayanagar ; either Mallikārjuna died, or
was put to death by a younger brother, by name Virūpāksha. This
latter, whether guilty of his brother's death or no, put to death all
who could dispute his possession of the throne, and carried on the
administration so inefficiently and oppressively that the eastern
and southern provinces transferred their allegiance to Narasimha.
On the west coast his maladministration caused the Arab horse-
traders who had settlements on the west coast to transfer their
places of business from the ports of the kingdom to those beyond
the Vijayanagar frontier. Sāluva Narasimha decided that the only
way of saving the kingdom was to depose Virūpāksha and seize the
throne for himself, and in 1487 Narasa, who commanded his troops,
deposed the tyrant and assumed the government of the kingdom
on behalf of his master. This was the first usurpation in the king-
dom, and Narasimha found his justification in the perils which
menaced it. Virūpāksha's reign corresponded with the reign of
Purushottama Gajapati of Orissa. Purushottama's records assert
that he penetrated as far south as Kānchi, carried off a princess of
Kānchi, and married her in peculiarly romantic circumstances. .
Narasimha ruled as king for six years, during which period he
recovered most of the revolted provinces, but failed to conquer the
Rāichūr Doāb, which was retained by the Bahmani kingdom, or to
recover Udayagiri, which remained in the possession of the raja
of Orissa. On his death-bed he entrusted the kingdom and his two
sons to Narasa, begging him to carry on the administration, to
enthrone whichever of his two sons should prove the fitter for rule,
and to recover Rāichūr, Umagal, and Udayagiri. Narasa placed
one of Narasimha's young sons on the throne, but this prince died
as the result of wounds that he received in an expedition into the
Rāichūr Doāb. Narasa circumvented court intrigues, placed the
second son of Narasimha upon the throne, and carried on the
1 Şee pp. 417. 419,


## p. 495 (#545) ############################################

xvu)
KRISHNADEVARAYA
495
administration as before. He died in 1505, and it was his son, Vira
Narasimha, that deposed the Sāluva ruler Narasimha II.
This second usurpation caused widespread rebellion and Nara-
simha was engaged during the four or five years of his reign in
attempting to recover the revolted provinces. He was successful
on the whole, but the enterprising Gangarāja Ummattūr remained
in rebellion, in the territory round Kānchi. Vira Narasimha leſt
some infant sons and three grown up brothers, and charged his
faithful minister Säluva Timma, as Nuniz records, to put out the
eyes of the ablest of his grown-up brothers, and place on the throne
one of his sons. The minister proved false to the dying sovereign
and remained true to the interests of the kingdom; and placed
the youngest brother, marked for mutilation, upon the throne in
1509. Thus ascended the throne the great king Krishnadevarāya of
Vijayanagar.
Krishna ascended the throne at a critical moment in the history
of South India. The Portuguese had landed in India eleven years
beſore, and, just as he was settling himself on the throne at Vija-
yanagar, had taken possession of Goa, which has remained in their
possession since. The entry of this European nautical power created
an unsettling factor in the commercial relations of the kingdom
with the outer world. The kingdom itself was disturbed, and the
very heart of it was in the hands of a rebellious vassal. Although
the Bahmani kingdom had broken up into five separate states there
was considerable activity on that frontier, chiefly from the direction
of Bījāpur. The rajas of Orissa sill held the east coast as far as
Nellore, and were in possession of the most important fortresses
in the Telugu country, extending north-westward from Udayagiri
in the Nellore District. Krishna came to the throne between May
and Novembr of the year 1509, and his coronation did not take
place until the following January. The delay seems to have been
due to a circumstance recorded by Nuniz. The young king's elder
brother ordered the Brāhman minister, Sāluva Timma, to bind
him, and the minister was inclined to obey the order until his pity
was moved by his master's entreaties. Sāluva Timma remained in
power, treated almost with deference by Krishnadevarāya, who
used to style him Āppāji (ʻreverend father'), and the relations
between the two gave rise to the stories of Rāyar and Āppājī
which are current in Southern India and resemble those related of
Hārūn-ur-Rashid and Ghafür, and of Vikramāditya and Bhatti.
Krishna remained at his capital for a few months after his
accession and there received the Portuguese embassy from Affonso
>


## p. 496 (#546) ############################################

496
[CH
.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
a
de Albuquerque, who desired to enter into a commercial treaty and
sought aid against the Zamorin of Calicut. Krishna detained the
embassy at the capital while he suppressed the rebellion in the
region about Kānchi. Marching from Penukonda he reduced to
obedience all the petty chieftains whose lands lay on his way,
attacked the Raja of Ummattūr, defeated him in the field, and
laid siege to his stronghold, the fortress of Sivasamudram. He
drained off the Kāverī, which flowed round it, and captured it with
all the treasure which it contained. He then marched to Sriran-
gapatam, thence to Ikkēri, and thence to the frontiers of Bijāpur.
These operations were completed by the year 1512. He then
marched along his northern frontier strengthening the garrisons in
the fortresses, particularly in Mudgal, Rāichūr and Adoni.
Resolving wisely, on the advice of Sāluva Timma, to leave the
Muslim Sultans alone for the time, he made preparations for an
invasion of the territories of Orissa with a view to detaching the
Gajapatiking from the alliance with the Muhammadans, and coming
to terms with him if possible. He sent Sāluva Timma to the capital
to make the necessary preparations, and himself went on a visit to
the shrines of Tirupti and Srisailam. When the minister had
completed his preparations Krishna marched to invade the king.
dom of Orissa. He first marched against Udayagiri, the southern-
most fortress in the occupations of the Gaja pati monarch, and
took it after a protracted siege. This war occupied the years 1512
and 1513, and he carried back with him, together with much
treasure and prisoners belonging to the royal family of Orissa, the
image of Bālākrishna which he set up in a temple constructed for
the deity, the ward of Vijayanagar in which the temple was built
being named Krishnāpuram from this temple of Krishnasvāmi.
This was completed in March 1514,
Krishna next attacked the fortress of Kondavidu (Kondavir)
and a number of fortified places of lesser importance held for the
Raja of Orissa in the neighbourhood. These he reduced in spite of
the assistance which they received from the Sultans of Bīdar and
Golconda, and he finally carried the fortress of Kondavidu itself
by storm. Here he took prisoner the Gajapati prince Virabhadra
and a number of Orissa noblemen of high rank. All this took place
in the first half of the year 1515. After a raid into the kingdom of
Golconda he broke up his camp at Bezwada and besieged and took
Kondapalli, capturing the officers who held it for the Raja of Orissa.
He then inarched north-eastwards as far as Simhāchalam in the
Vizaga patam district, taking severa! fortresses on his way. Here


## p. 497 (#547) ############################################

XVIII ]
RECOVERY OF EASTERN PROVINCES
497
he halted and opened negotiations with the raja of Orissa, who
gave him a daughter in marriage and accepted the Krishna as the
boundary between the kingdoms of Orissa and Vijayanagar, the
retrocession of the territory to the south of that river being effected
under the form of bestowing it on the princess as her dowry.
Krishna's achievement was meagre. He had fulfilled only part of
his father's behest, and had but recovered a province which had
formerly belonged to the kingdom which he ruled : yet he was
not ashamed to assume the vainglorious title of Gajapatisaptan-
gaharana, appropriator of (Orissa's) seven elements of royalty.
On his return journey he was on the banks of the Krishna in
July-August, 1516. After his return from this war he made large
grants to temples in southern India for the repair of the damages
which they had suffered in the Muhammadan invasions and built
the small town of Hospet in memory of his mother Nāgalādēvi
giving it the name Nāgalāpura. At some time between the death
of Yusuf 'Ādil Shāh in 1510 and this period Krishna's troops,
profiting by the discussions between the five kingdoms of the Deccan,
had invaded and annexed the Rāichúr Doāb, and in 1520 Ismāʻil
•Ādil Shāh attempted to recover it, but was defeated'. The battle,
which is mentioned in one of Krishna's inscriptions, was fought on
May 19, 1520, at a place named Kembhāvi ("Red Well') and a
Telugu poem exults in the reddening of the well with the blood
of the Yavanas, or Muslims.
The remainder of Krishna's reign was undisturbed by foreign
wars, but in his declining years his kingdom was harassed by rebel-
lion. He appears to have fallen sick in 1525, when his brother
Achyuta, who afterwards succeeded him, acted for a short time as
regent. It was about this time that Tirumala Rāya, another of his
sons, died, and a rising, connected in some unexplained manner
with the death, occurred, but was suppressed. At the end of
Krishnas' reign, in 1528 or 1529, one of his most trusted officials,
Vira Narasimha, who is styled Sellappā, 'the Dear One,' and was
governor of the central districts of the kingdom, rebelled, and,
fearful of the consequences, fled to the kingdom of Tiruvadi, or
Travancore. At the same time Nāgama, an old officer of the king-
dom who was placed in charge of the Madura district refused to
obey the orders which he received from court, and persisted in his
contumacy until his own son, Vishvanāth, who was sent against
him, defeated him, and was appointed to the government of the
district in his father's place. The central districts of the kingdom
See p. 435.
C, H, I, III.
32
1


## p. 498 (#548) ############################################

498
[ ch.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
were still disturbed when Krishna died in 1530, and almost the first
act of his successor, Achyuta, was to lead a punitive expedition
against the fugitive governor. Achyuta had marched as for south
as Srirangam when one of his brothers-in-law, Salakam Tirumala-
rāzu, volunteered to lead the expedition. Achyuta remained in
Srīrangam while his brother-in-law reduced to obedience the ruler
of Tiruvadi, the rebel governor, and their Pāndya allies. Having
concluded a treaty sealed by his own marriage with a Pāndya
princess, Achyuta marched across to Srirangapatam and Ikkēri, and
thence towards the frontier of the Bījāpur kingdom, but effected
nothing, and returned to his capital. Having begun his reign with
so much promise he lapsed immedaitely into a life of luxury and
sloth, and let the administration pass into the hands of his two
brothers-in-law, both named Tirumala. This usurpation aroused
the opposition of a party led by three brothers, Rama, Tirumala
and Venkata of the Āravīti family, the first of whom is described
as the son-in-law of Krishna or of one of his brothers, Narasimha
or Ranga. This party seems to have had the countenance even of
the widows of Krishna. The party of the brothers Tirumala had
the upper hand to begin with, and the three brothers had to flee
from court for safety. When they had gathered together sufficient
force in their own districts and prepared to march upon the capital
Tirumala, the elder of the two brothers, who is described as the
mad Tirumala (Kanarese Hucchu, corrupted into Hoj, Tirumala),
sought the assistance of Ibrāhīm 'Adil Shāh I of Bījāpur. The
intervention of Bījāpur served only to embitter the strife. When
Ibrāhīm retired the three brothers marched upon the capital and
the mad Tirumala destroyed the portable wealth in the treasury,
hamstrang the royal horses, blinded the elephants, and committed
suicide. In the course of these events, which followed the death of
Achyuta, his son Venkata was placed upon the throne. Venkata
was killed by the mad Tirumala and the three brothers now placed
on the throne a nephew of Achyuta and Krishna, by name Sadā-
shiva, son of Ranga, one of the four brothers. The date of the
commencement of Sadāshiva's reign is 1542, and with his accession
begins the de facto rule of the three brothers!
The abortive attempt of Ibrāhīm Ādil Shāh I to add the fortress
and district of Adoni to his dominions has already been described
This fact of aggression aroused the enmity of Sadāshivarāya, who
1 This is the true version of the story which has already been related on pages
439 and 440.
2 Sce p. 440.


## p. 499 (#549) ############################################

xvm)
FALL OF VIJAYANAGAR
499
eagerly embraced opportunity afforded by an invitation from
Burhān Nizām Shāh I of Ahmadnagar of attacking Bījāpur. The
story of the intervention of Sadashivarāya in the quarrels of the
Muslim kings of the Deccan, first as the ally of Ahmadnagar
against Bījāpur, and afterwards as the ally of Bījāpur against
Ahmadnagar, of the gratuitous insults offered to the Muhammadan
religion, of the foolish arrogance which united against him those
by whose differences he night long have continued to prosper, of
his defeat and death at Talikota, and of the destruction of his great
kingdom has been related in Chapter XVII, and little need be
added to that account. The evacuation of the strongly fortified
city of Vijayanagar has not yet been explained.
ed. It was due,
according to Caesar Frederick, who was at Vijayanagar two years
after the battle of Talikota, to the mutiny of two corps of Muham-
madan mercenaries, each of which is said to have been 70,000
strong, employed in the army of Vijayanagar. The attitude of the
Hindus to Islam during the campaigns in the kingdom of Ahmad-
nagar had been such as to exasperate all Muslims, and it is not
surprising that the victory of their co-religionists should have
encouraged these mercenaries to turn their arms against their
former employers and to transfer their allegiance to the con-
querors.
1 See pp. 441–450.
.
32-2


## p. 500 (#550) ############################################

CHAPTER XIX
SIND AND MULTĀN
I. SIND
The history of Sind from the period of the Arab conquest early
in the eighth century to the time when it became a province is
fragmentary and obscure. From the first conquest until A. D. 1010,
when it was conquered by Mahmūd of Ghazni it was ruled by a
governor of governors who pretended to represent the ‘Abbāsid
Caliphs of Baghdād, but were more probably hereditary rulers who
obtained the Cliph's recognition as a matter of form, and in some
cases, doubtless, neglected even this formality. From its conquest
by Mahmūd until 1053, in the reign of Farrukhzād, the tenth of
his line, it was, at least nominally, a province of the empire of
Ghaznī, but in that year, while the empire was still in confusion
owing to the recent usurpation of Tughril 'the Ingrate,' the Sūmras,
a native Rājput tribe of Lower Sind established themselves in that
region, but failed to extend their authority over Upper Sind and
Multān. The province was conquered by Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad
Ghūrī, and was governed by his lieutenant, Nässir-ud-din Qabācha,
who attempted, after his master's death to assert his independence
but was conquered by Shams-ud-din Iltutmish. Of the nature and
extent of the authority exercised by the later Slave king over the
province little is known, but it probably varied with the personal
character of the monarch and of the ruler of Sind. The province
owned the authority of Ghiyās-ud-din and of the Khaljis of Delhi,
whose power preserved it from becoming the prey of the Mughuls,
but retained so much autonomy, even during the reign of Mu-
hammad Tughluq; whose cmpire included the whole of India except
Kashmir and some tracts in the neighbourhood of Cape Comorin
in the extreme south and in Kāthīā wār in the extreme west, as
enabled the Sammās, a Rājput tribe of Cutch and lower Sind, to
oust the Sūmras and to usurp, without the interference of any
central authority, the government of the country. There are many
discrepancies as to the date of this event, and one authority places
it in 1439, which is at least a century too late. From a considera-
tion of all the circumstances it is safe to conclude that it occurred
about 1336.


## p. 501 (#551) ############################################

cit. Xix )
SAMMĂS AND ARGHỮNS
501
The Sammās, of whom Abu-'l-Fazl enumerates, in the Āin. ;-
Akbari sixteen, and Muhammad Ma'sūm, in the Tarikh-i-Sind,
seventeen, had adopted Islam, and propagated that religion in their
dominions. They used, as rulers, the title of Jām, still retained by
the chiefs of Nawanagar in Käthiāwār, which is explained as an
assertion of a claim to descent from Jamshid, and the explanation,
though not convincing, is the only one which has been offered.
The first three princes of this line acknowldged, by the pay-
ment of tribute, the supremacy of Muhammad Tughluq, but the
third, by harbouring and protecting the rebel Taghi, repudiated
his alleginċe to Delhi, and was enabled, by the opportune death
of his suzerain and the defection of his allies, to escape the punish-
ment of rebellion, but his successor, Timāji, was compelled by the
arms of Firüz Tughluq to return to his allegiance, and to signalize
his obedience by a protracted sojourn at the court of Delhi.
The chroniclers of Sind make no mention of the victory of
Shihāb-ud-din of Kashmir (1359—1378)' over the Jām of Sind on
the banks of the Indus, the only authorities for which are the
chronicles of Kashmir, so vague on the point as to be worthless.
The disruption of Muhammad Tughluq's great empire after the
death of Firūz, and the contraction of the kingdom of Delhi, after
the invasion of Tīmūr, to a few districts round the capital absolved
the Jāms of Sind from their allegiance to a central authority, and
they ruled their principality as independent sovereigns until, in
the reign of Jām Nizām-ud-din, commonly known as Nanda, who
succeeded in 1439 and reigned for sixty years, the Mughuls of the
Arghūn clan began to make their influence felt in Lower Sind, and
the Sammās sought to increase their power by a close alliance
with Gujarāt. Daughters were given in marriage to the kings of
that country, and, in one instance, to one of their dependants,
Qaisar Khān Fārūqi, who belonged to the ruling family of Khān.
desh, and whose grandson succeeded to that principality, but in
1521 Shāh Beg Arghūn, driven from Qandahār by Bābur, conquered
Sind and expelled Jām Firūz, the last of the Sammās, who found
an asylum at the court of Gujarāt and gave his daughter in mar-
riage to Sultān Bahādur of that country.
Shāh Beg Arghūn died in 1524, and was succeeded by his son,
Shāh Husain, who in 1528, after a siege of more than a year's
duration, took Multān, then nominally ruled by Sultān Husain
Langāh II, devastated the city, carried the inhabitants between
the ages of seven and seventy into captivity, and appointed Khvāja
1 See Chapter XII.


## p. 502 (#552) ############################################

502
(CH.
SIND AND MULTĀN
Shams-ud-din its governor, with Langar Khān, who had formerly
commanded the army of Multān, as his assistant. Shortly after-
wards Langar Khān, having collected the scattered inhabitants
and restored a measure of prosperity to the city, expelled Shams-
ud-din and governed Multān as an independent ruler.
Shāh Husain Arghūn was reigning in 1541 when Humāyūn,
fleeing from Lahore, took refuge in Sind. Sultān Mahmud of
Bukkur shut himself up in his island fortress and refused to assist
in any way the fallen emperor, nor was Shāh Husain more inclined
to protect the man whose father had expelled him from Qandahār.
Humāyūn attempted to persuade him to join him in an attack on
Gujarāt, but Shāh Husain, having kept his envoys in attendance
for five or six months, dismissed them without a decided answer,
and while Humāyān was besieging Bukkur and Sehwān cut off his
supplies. Humāyūn left sind in May, 1542, and, having vainly
endeavoured to obtain assistance from the rajas, Māldeo of Jodhpur
and Lonkaran of Jaisalmer, returned to the country later in the
year. His son Akbar was born at Umarkot on November 25, 1542,
and Humāyūn fled through Sind towards Persia, crossing the Indus
at Sehwän.
Shāh Husain Arghūn suffered from continued fever, and his
health was so enfeebled that his nobles deserted him and elected
as their sovereign Mirzā Muhammad 'Isā Tarkhān, a member of
the elder branch of the Arghūn clan. Shāh Husain and Sultān
Mahmūd, the governor of Bukkur, were united in their opposition
to 'Isā, but were compelled to sue for peace and to cede to him a
great part of Sind, the whole of which fell into his possession on
the death of Shāh Husain in 1556.
Muhammad 'Īsā Tarkhān died in 1567, and was succeeded by
his son, Mirzā Muhammad Bāqi Tarkhān, who, after crushing the
revolt of his younger brother, reigned peacefully until 1585, when
he committed suicide in a fit of insanity. His son Mirzā Pāyanda
Muhammad Tarkhān, being likewise insane, was excluded from the
succession, which passed to his son, Mirzā Jāni Beg Tarkhān, the
grandson of Muhammad Bāqi.
Akbar, who regarded Sind as a province of his empire, resented
Jāni Beg's failure to appear at his court, and in 1591 sent ‘Abd-ur-
Rahim Khān, Khān Khānān, to invade the country. He defeated
Jāni Beg in two engagements, compelled him to surrender both
Tattah and Sehwān, and carried him to Akbar's court at Lahore.
Here he was well received, and was appointed governor of the
Multān province, and shortly afterwards, owing to the clamours of


## p. 503 (#553) ############################################

XIX )
THE LANGÅHS OF MULTÀN
503
the Arghūn clan for the return of their old ruler, was restored to
Sind as governor of the province. He died at Burhānpur in 1599,
and his son Mirzā Ghāzi Beg Tarkhān was appointed to the govern-
ment of Sind, the history of which was merged thenceforward in
that of the Mughul empire.
II. MULTAN
Multān, regarded by the Arab conquerors as the principal city
of Upper Sind, was the capital of a region which was often closely
connected with Sind, but was ordinarily regarded as a province of
the kingdom or empire of Delhi, whose claim to its obedience
was established early in the thirteenth century by Shams-ud-din
Iltutmish, when he defeated Nāsir-ud-din Qabācha, the governor
who had been appointed by Mu'izz-ud-dīn Muhammad Ghūri, and
was retained, at least nominally, by his successors until the dis-
ruption of the kingdom after the invasion of Tīmūr Lang. The
authority of the Sayyid dynasty, which acquired the throne in
1414, extended no further than the immediate neighbourhood of
Delhi, and Muhammad Shāh, the third king of that line, failed
even to observe the formality of nominating a governor to Multān,
and the people were compelled to provide one for themselves.
Their devotion to the local saint, Bahā-ud-din Zakariyā, who was
born at Karor in 1182 and died at Multān on November 7, 1267,
had always been conspicuous, and in 1438 they chose as their ruler
Shaikh Yūsuf Quraishi, the guardian of the saint's shrine.
The Shaikh had the merits and the defects of one who had chosen
a life of seclusion and devotion. His rule was mild and beneficent,
but he was ill-equipped to combat, either by force or by art, the
enemies of his rule An Afghān chief, Sahra Langāh, of Sibi,
beguiled him by professing devotion for him, gave his daughter
in marriage, and made paternal affection a pretext for visits to
Multān so frequent that they ceased to excite either comment or
suspicion. In 1440 he succeeded by a stratagem in introducing his
troops into the Shailkh's citadel, deposed him, and banished him to
Delhi, where he was well received by Buhlūl Lodi.
Sahra, who assumed the title of Sultān Qutb-ud-din, founded
the Langāh dynasty, which endured almost as long as Multān
maintained her independence of Delhi. He died in 1456 after a
reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by his son, Sultan
Husain I.
Shaikh Yusuf constantly urged Buhlūl Lodī to recover Multān,


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504
[CH.
SIND AND MULTĂN
>
and the Afghān king twice set out from Delhi with this object.
In 1452 he was recalled by the advance of Mahmud Shāh of Jaunpur,
whom some disaffected nobles had invited to Delhi, and once again,
after 1458, the menacing attitude of Husain Shāh of Jaunpur com-
pelled him to retrace his steps.
Husain Langāh I was an energetic ruler, and annexed Shorkot
and Karor. While he was engaged in suppressing the rebellion of
his brother in Karor Buhlūl, moved once again by the importunity
of Shaikh Yusuf, sent his third son, Bārbak Shāh, to attempt to
recover Multān, and ordered Tātār Khān Lodī, governor of the
Punjāb, to support him. The two kinsmen advanced on Multān,
but Husain returned by forced marches and utterly defeated them
before the city, putting their armies to flight.
On the death of Buhlūl Lodi, on July 17, 1489, Husain I sent
letters of condolence and congratulation to his son and successor,
Sikandar Shāh, and the two monarchs concluded a treaty of peace.
Husain I abdicated in his old age, nominating his son Firuz as his
successor, but Fīrūz proved to be a dissolute and worthless ruler.
He conceived unfounded suspicions of Bilāl, son of the minister,
'Imād-ul-Mulk, whom his father had chosen, and caused him to be
assassinated. 'Imād-ul-Mulk avenged Bilal's death by poisoning
Firūz, and Husain, deeply grieved by his son's death, resumed the
reins of power, and designated Mahmūd, the son of Fīrūz, as his
heir. 'Imād-ul-Mulk's past services and the death of his son were
not allowed to atone for his having compassed the death of his
prince, and he was executed. On August 31, 1502, Husain himself
died, after a reign of forty-six years, and was succeeded by his
grandson, Mahmūd, the son of Fīrūz,
Mahmud was a profligate youth, and his tyranny drove his
minister, Jām, Bāyazid, on whom Husain had bestowed the im-
portant fief of Shorkot, into rebellion. War broke out between the
king and his vassal, who summoned to his aid Daulat Khān Lodi,
governor of the Punjab. The combination was too strong for the
king of Multān, who was compelled to relinquish his claims to
sovereignty over the Shorkot district, and to acquiesce in Daulat
Khān's decision that the Rāvi should be regarded as the northern
frontier of the kingdom of Multān'. Shorkot was thus lost to
Multān and became a fief in the province of the Punjab.
1 A strange error is made in the I. G. (xviii. 26), where it is stated that in 1502
the Rāvi was fixed as the boundary between the territories of Delhi and those of
Multān. This is impossible, for both Delhi and Multān lay then, as now, to the
south of the Rāvi. See "The Mihrān of Sind," by Major H. G. Raverty, J. A. S. B. ,
vol.