The
disputes
between Murād and the
30
C.
30
C.
Cambridge History of India - v3 - Turks and Afghans
At Chaul an army of 150,000 men, under the eye of their king, be-
sieged for nine months a garrison which never exceeded 3000 and
slew considerably more than its own number of the enemy, com:
pelling him to raise the siege. At Goa, besieged by an army more
numerous than that before Chaul, the heroic viceroy, with a force
which at first numbered 1600 and never exceeded 4000, withstood
the enemy for ten months and finally compelled him to retreat after
he had lost 12,000 men, 300 elephants, 4000 horses and 6000 oxen.
These victories were due no less to the skill with which the
Portuguese exploited the corruption and dissensions of their enemies
than to their valour and discipline. At Chaul most of Murtazā's
nobles supplied the Portuguese not only with intelligence, but with
provisions, and, despite the leniency with which such treachery was
ordinarily regarded in the Deccan, even the foolish Murtazā was
constrained to banish the highly respected Inju Sayyids. At Goa
there were instances not only of information being sold to the Portu-
guese, but of a conspiracy headed by Nüri Khān, commanding the
army of Bījāpur, to assassinate 'Ali 'Ādil Shāh.
Through these mists of treachery, venality, and corruption the
valour and steadfastness of Dom Luiz the Viceroy shone undimmed.
He refused, in Goa's sorest straits, to abandon Chaul, and sent aid
not only to that port, but to the southern settlements attacked by
the Zamorin, to the Moluccas, and to Mozambique. He even re.
fused to delay the sailing to Portugal of the annual fleet of merchant-
men, whose crews would have formed a valuable addition to his
## p. 453 (#501) ############################################
XVII)
INVASION OF BERAR
453
garrison, and he carried the war into the enemy's country by a
successful attack on Dābhol, led by Dom Fernando de Vasconcellos.
'Alī, after his defeat, concluded on December 17, 1571, a new
treaty with the Portuguese, and Murtazā, after losing 3000 men
in one day before Chaul, entered into an offensive and defensive
alliance with Dom Sebastião, King of Portugal. Chingiz Khān,
the only officer who had refrained, during the siege of Chaul, from
treasonable correspondence with the Portuguese, became lieutenant
of the Ahmadnagar kingdom, which received a further accession of
strength by the return from Bījāpur of the able and energetic Sayyid
Murtazā of Sabzāvār.
'Ali `Adil Shāh consoled himself for his defeat by capturing
Adoni and annexing many other districts of the former kingdom of
Vijayanagar, and Murtazā, alarmed by the increase of his rival's
power and by an alliance which he had formed with Golconda,
assumed a menacing attitude and advanced towards his frontier.
'Ali marched to meet him, but Chingiz Khān and Shāh Abu-'l-Hasan
averted hostilities and concluded a treaty which permitted Ahmad.
nagar to
annex Berar and Bidar and Bijāpur to annex in the
Carnatic the equivalent of those two kingdoms.
In pursuance of this treaty Murtazā sent an envoy to Tufāl Khăn,
demanding that he should resign his power to Burhān 'Irād Shāh,
who was now of full age. His solicitude for the young king was
rightly estimated by Tufāl Khān, who dismissed the envoy without
an answer and prepared to resist invasion. Murtazā was already at
Pāthrī, on the frontier, when the envoy returned and reported the
failure of his mission.
Tufāl Khān first marched towards Bidar, hoping to secure the
co-operation of ‘Ali Barid Shāh, who was threatened, equally with
himself, by the recent treaty, but 'Ali Barid showed no inclination
to assist him and aſter an indecisive action with Murtazā's advanced
guard he retired rapidly on Māhūr, Murtazā, leaving a force at
Kandhār to oppose an anticipated invasion from Golconda, started
in pursuit of him and after another indecisive action he again re-
treated, and Murtazā, after masking the fortress of Māhūr, advanced
into Berar. He received an unexpected reinforcement. In No-
vember, 1572, Akbar had conquered Gujarāt and captured its king
Muzaffar III, and had subsequently been compelled to attack his
rebellious cousins, 'the Mirzās'. They were defeated, and many of
their followers ensured their safety by entering Murtazā's service.
Tufāl Khān sought an asylum with Muhammad II of Khāndesh,
but was expelled by him and shut himself up, with Burhān 'Imād
## p. 454 (#502) ############################################
4$4
[CH,
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
Shāh, in Narnāla sending his son, Shamshir-ul-Mulk, to hold
Gāwil.
The siege of Narnāla was protracted until the end of April, 1574,
and during its course the troops of Ibrābim Qutb Shāh invaded the
kingdom of Ahmadnagar, but were defeated and expelled on May 11,
1573.
Long before Narnāla ſell the vacillating Murtazā grew weary
of the siege, and proposed to evacuate Berar and return to Ahmad-
nagar. His desire to return was shared, and perhaps prompted, by
a new favourite, a boy named Husain, who had been a hawker of
fowls in the camp and eventually received the title of Sāhib Khān
and rose to a high position in the state, but his pretext was his
longing to see his own infant son, Husain, at Ahmadnagar. Chingiz
Khān was despairing of success in combating his master's resolve
when a stratagem enabled him to bring the protracted siege to a suc-
cessful conclusion. In April, 1574, a merchant from Lahore arrived
in the camp with horses and other merchandise for Turāl Khān, and
was perinitted to enter the fortress on agreeing to take with him
Khvāja Muhammad Lārī, Murtazā's agent. The agent, who was well
supplied with money, did his work so well that many of Tufāl Khān's
officers deserted to the besiegers and the garrison lost heart. At
the same time the artillery of Ahmadnagar was more vigorously
served and a practicable breach encouraged Murtazā to order an
assault. Tufāl Khān displayed great valour, but his men had no
stomach for the fight, the besiegers entered the fortress, and he was
forced to flee. He was pursued and captured, and his son, on learning
his fate, surrendered Gāwil, and the conquest of Berar was com-
plete. Both father and, son, with Burhān 'Imād Shāh and his family,
were imprisoned in a fortress in the kingdom of Ahmadnagar, where
all died shortly afterwards, not without suspicion of violence.
‘Ali Adil Shāh had meanwhile been pursuing a career of con-
quest in the western Carnatic, and on returning to his capital in
1575, after an absence of more than three years, he left Sayyid
Mustafā Ardistāni at Chandraguni as governor of his southern
conquests, which included, besides extensive tracts administered
directly by his officers, the dominions of numerous petty rajas who
enriched his treasury by the payment of tribute. After his return
he besieged Bālkonda, where Venkatādri had established himself.
Venkatādri escaped to Chandragiri, but leſt a garrison to hold the
fortress, and when, after a siege of three months, it was on the point
of surrendering owing to the failure of its supplies, he saved the
place from falling into the hands of the Muslims by bribing 'Ali's
a
## p. 455 (#503) ############################################
XVI)
INVASION OF KHĀNDESH
455
Marāthā troops, 9000 in number, to change sides. The defection of
this large force, which immediately harassed its former comrades by
cutting off their supplies, rendered the maintenance of the siege im.
possible and 'Alī returned to Bījāpur in 1578.
Murtazā's recent conquest aroused the hostility of Ibrāhīm Qutb
Shāh and Muhammad II of Khāndesh, who regarded with appre-
hension the extension of his kingdom northward, its apparenlty
imminent extension eastward, by the absorption of Bidar, and the
immediate proximity of a neighbour so much more powerful than
themselves. A revolt in which the governor recently appointed by
Murtazā lost his life encouraged Muhammad to intervene, and he
sent an army under the command of his minister Zain-ud-din into
Berar to support the cause of a pretender, probably a genuine scion
of the 'Imād Shāhī family, who had taken refuge at his court. Zain-
ud-din besieged Narnāla, and the officers left by Murtazā in Berar
fled to his camp, now at Māhūr. He retraced his steps, and as he
approached the Tapti Muhammad withdrew from Burhānpur to
Asīr, his fortress-capital, whither the army of Ahmadnagar followed
him, and he purchased peace by the payment of an indemnity of
·1,000,000 muzaffaris of Gujarāt, of which 600,000 went into Mur-
tazā's treasury and 400,000 to Chingiz Khān.
Ibrāhim changed his policy at the same time, and with some
reason began to regard 'Ali Ādil Shāh's southern conquests as a
more real and present danger than the menace to Bīdar. Sayyid
Shāh Mirzā, his envoy, was authorized to conclude an alliance with
Murtazā and to offer a subsidy of 20,000 hūns daily for any army
invading the kingdom of Bijāpur, and an agent from Venkatādri
promised a contribution of 900,000 hūns towards the expenses of
a war on 'Alī. Sayyid Shāh Mirzā found Chingiz Khān inaccessible
to a bribe of 200,000 hūns, to be paid for a guarantee that Murtazā
should be restrained from attacking Bidar, and revenged himself
by compassing his destruction. He found a willing confederate in
Husain, the king's vile favourite, whom the minister had severely
punished for some insolence, and who warned his master that
Chingiz Khān was scheming to establish his independence in Berar,
and, when the king scouted the malicious accusation, appealed for
corroboration to Sayyid Shāh Mirzā. The envoy, by ingeniously
marshalling some specious evidence, persuaded the king of his
minister's guilt, and Murtazā caused his faithful servant to be
poisoned. He died in 1575, leaving a letter protesting his innocence
and commending to his ungrateful master the foreigners in his ser-
vice. His innocence was established after his death, and his master,
## p. 456 (#504) ############################################
456
( ch.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
overcome with grief and shame, expelled the envoy from his court
and withdrew from affairs, on the ground that God had withheld
from him the faculty of discriminating between truth and false-
hood, and of executing righteous judgment, but his infatuation
for the worthless Husain remained unchanged. The administration
of the kingdom fell into the hands of Salābat Khān the Circassian
and Sayyid Murtazā of Sabzavār.
Another pretender, styling himself Firūz 'Imad Shāh, arose in
Berar, but was captured and put to death by Sayyid Murtazā, who
was appointed to the government of the province. The Deccan
was, however, almost immediately disturbed by Akbar's move.
ments, which appeared to menace it. He left Āgra in 1576 on his
annual pilgrimage to Ajmer, and in February, 1577, sent a force
into Khāndesh to punish Raja ‘Ali Khān, who, having succeeded
his brother, Muhammad II, had withheld payment of tribute.
Murtazā took the field and Berar was placed in a state of defence,
one of the officers employed there being Akbar's rebellious kinsman,
Muzaffar Husain Mirzā, but Raja 'Ali Khān paid the tribute, the
imperial troops were withdrawn, and the danger passed. The rest- .
less and turbulent Muzaffar Husain Mirzā turned against those
who had befriended him and attempted to make himself master of
Berar, but Sayyid Murtazā defeated him at Anjangāon and he fled
into Khāndesh, where Raja 'Ali Khān seized him and surrendered
him to Akbar.
The favourite Husain, who received the title of Sāhib Khān,
became involved in a bitter quarrel with Husain Khān Turshizi,
one of the Foreign nobles in Berar, and shortly afterwards aroused
the wrath of the whole of the Foreign party by his treatment of
Mir Mahdi, a Sayyid of the family to which the Shāhs of Persia
belonged. After an unsuccessful attempt to abduct his daughter
he attacked and captured his house and slew him. Dreading the
vengeance of the Foreigners, he persuaded the king that they were
conspiring to depose him, and to raise to the throne his son Husain,
and many of the party, perceiving that they were suspected, left
Ahmadnagar and retired to Golconda or Bījāpur, or to Berar, where
they entered the service of Sayyid Murtazā Sabzavārī. A massacre
of those who remained took place at Ahmadnagar, and the favourite
endeavoured to persuade the king to order a general massacre
throughout the kingdom, and especially in Berar, the Foreigners'
stronghold, but even Murtazā was able to understand that such a
measure was beyond his power, and that if it were possible it would
1 In 21° 9' N. and 77° 21' E.
## p. 457 (#505) ############################################
XVII ]
REBELLION OF BURHAN
457
destroy the military strength of his kingdom, and Sāhib Khān,
resenting his master's refusal to comply with his wishes, fled by
night, with 3000 horse, towards Parenda. He was pursued and
overtaken, but the infatuated king refused to punish him, and he
sulked, and would not be reconciled until his master promised to
capture Bidar and appoint him to its government, and to cause
Sayyid Murtazā and the Foreigners of Berar to be massacred when
they joined the royal army.
Murtazā, by some means, persuaded Ibrāhim Qutb Shah to aid
him in his design against Bidar, and to send a contingent to join
the small army of 20,000 horse destined for the enterprise, but Ali
Barid Shäh succeeded in obtaining, on humiliating conditions, the
assistance of ‘Ali Ādil Shāh. He was the owner of two handsome
eunuchs, the possession of whom 'Ali `Ādil Shāh had long coveted
in vain, but their surrender was now made a condition of assistance,
and he was obliged to comply. The assistance given by 'Ali to
Bidar was a violation of the treaty between Bījāpur and Ahmad.
nagar, but Murtazā was compelled to raise the siege and endeavour-
ed in vain to allay his favourite's resentment of the failure to fulfil
the promise made to him. Sāhib Khān left the royal army during
its retreat and retired to his fief, plundering and slaying his master's
subjects on his way. He issued decrees in the regal manner, but
Murtazā, in his infatuation, would take no steps against him, and
mourned, in seclusion, his estrangement, until it began to be
rumoured that the king was dead.
Burhān-ud-din, Murtazā's brother, had been confined in the
fortress of Lohogarh, where he had married the daughter of his
gaoler, Jūjār Khān, who released him and led him towards Ahmad-
nagar, with a view to placing him on the throne. The capital
became the goal of a race, which was won by the king, who, on his
arrival, mounted an elephant and rode through the streets to con-
vince his subjects that he still lived, but his brother was no more
than three leagues distant when he entered the city, and on June 7,
1579, he marched out and defeated him, and Burhān fled to
Bījāpur.
Murtazā would not take the field against his rebellious favourite,
but ordered Sayyid Murtazā of Subzavār to take him alive or expel
him from the kingdom. The foreign officers joyfully accepted the
task and, having induced Sāhib Khān to receive them stabbed him
to death and reported to the king that he had attacked them and
had been slain in the combat that ensued. Murtazā mourned his
favourite, while his subjects rejoiced at his death,
## p. 458 (#506) ############################################
458 THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN (ch.
Ali Ādil Shāh was engaged, after the failure of his attempt to
capture Bālkonda, in hostilities with the Marāthā officers who had
played him false, and were now settled in the neighbourhood of
Vijayanagar. Military operations against them were unsuccessful,
and the king, not without difficulty, persuaded them to visit him at
Bījāpur, where he blinded one of their leaders and put the rest to
death with torture.
In November, 1579, 'Ali `Ādil Shāh, who was childless, made
Ibrāhim, the son of his brother Tahmāsp, his heir, and on April 9,
1580, met his death. The two eunuchs from Bidar ſelt their dis-
honour deeply, and the unfortunate creature first selected for
presentation resented, with a spirit which demands respect, the
proposals made to him, and, drawing a dagger which he had con-
cealed about his person, inflicted on the king a mortal wound. He
and his fellow were, of course, murdered, and the monster who had
so richly deserved his fate is bewailed by Muslim historians as a
martyr.
'Ali Barid Shāh died in 1579, immediately after the raising of
the siege of Bidar, and was succeeded by his son, Ibrāhim Barīd
Shāh.
Ibrāhīm "Ādil Shāh II was but nine years of age when he
succeeded to the throne, and his education became the charge of
Chānd Bībi, the widow of 'Ali I and sister of Murtazā Nizam Shāh,
but the regency was assumed by Kāmil Khăn the Deccani, who
slighted her and treated her with disrespect. Chānd Bībi, a high-
spirited woman had recourse to another Deccani, Hāji Kishvar
Khān, son of that Kamal Khān who had perished in Ismāʻil's reign.
Kishvar Khān compelled Kāmil Khān to flee from the citadel, and
in attempting to make his escape from Bijāpur he was intercepted
and beheaded.
Bījāpur's troubles were Ahmadnagar's opportunity, and Salābat
Khān sent an army to besiege Naldrug and induced Ibrāhīm Qutb
Shāh to supply a contingent of 8000 horse, but committed a serious
error in giving the command of the expedition to Bihzād-ul-Mulk,
an inexperienced countryman of his own, to whom the veteran,
Sayyid Murtazā, commanding the army of Berar, found himself
subordinate. The interests of his king were of course, sacrificed to
his private resentment, and he not only connived at the discomfiture
of the army of Ahmadnagar, but cherished ever after the bitterest
animosity against Salābat Khān.
Hāji Kishvar Khān sent from Bijāpur a force which intercepted
and put to flight the contingent coming from Golconda and 'Ain-ul-
## p. 459 (#507) ############################################
XVII)
TROUBLES IN BIJAPUR
459
con-
Mulk Kan'āni, commanding the army sent to Naldrug, fell on the
enemy near Dhārāseol just before dawn, when Bihzād-ul-Mulk
-
was still drinking. He and his boon companions displayed personal
courage,
but the army was routed and fled towards the camp of
Sayyid Murtazā, who rejoiced in his rival's discomfiture and ordered
a retreat.
The success bred strife among the victors. Kishvar Khān
demanded the 150 elephants taken, and the officers in the field
resolved to compel him to relinquish the regency, but the Foreigners
and the Africans quarrelled over the reversion of the post, the
former demanding the reinstatement of Sayyid Mustafā Ardistāni
and the latter the appointment of one of their own number. They
parted in anger, 'Ain-ul-Mulk and the Foreigners returning to their
fiefs and the Africans marching to Bijāpur.
Kishvar Khān removed Sayyid Mustafā by assassination and
rendered himself odious to all parties in the state; and Salābat
Khān again sent an army from Ahmadnagar to besiege Naldrug,
but entrusted the command on this occasion to Sayyid Murtazā
Sabzavārī, to whose assistance Muhammad Quli Qutb Shāh, who
had succeeded his father in Golconda on June 6, 1580, led a
tingent of 20,000 horse.
No relief could be sent to Naldrug, but the fortress was strong
and its garrison faithful, and the besiegers suffered heavy losses.
The officer in command resisted all attempts to sap his fidelity and
rejected with scorn offers of wealth and high rank at Ahmadnagar.
Matters were going from bad to worse at Bijāpur.
None re-
sented more than Chānd Bībi the murder of the faithful Sayyid,
and Kishvar Khān attempted to carry things with a high hand,
and deported her to the fortress of Satāra, but his unpopularity
increased daily, and curses and abuse followed him as he rode
through the streets. The African nobles, Ikhlās Khān, Dilāvar
Khān, and Hamid Khān assumed a menacing attitude and he leſt
the city with the young king on the pretext of a hunting tour, but
permitted him to return to the city and fled to Ahmadnagar,
whence, being ill-received there, he continued his flight to Gol.
conda, where he was slain by a native of Ardistān in revenge for
his murder of Sayyid Mustafa.
Ikhlās Khān assumed the regency, but Chānd Bibi returned
from Satāra, dismissed him, and appointed Afzal Khān Shīrāzī in
his place. The Africans were, however, too strong for her, slew
Afzal Khān, and expelled the leading Foreigners from the city.
1 Now Osmanābād, in 18° 11' N. and 76° 3' E.
## p. 460 (#508) ############################################
460
(CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
Ikhlās Khān summoned 'Ain-ul-Mulk from his fief with the object
of imprisoning or removing him, but he brought his whole con-
tingent to the capital, seized the African nobles when they came
out to meet him, and led them as prisoners through the streets, but
was stricken with sudden panic by a rumour that the royal guards
were about to rise on their behalf, and fled with his troops to
Belgaum, leaving his prisoners, who were released and restored to
power.
These disorders encouraged the army besieging Naldrug to
advance on Bijāpur, and when it appeared before the walls no
more than two or three thousand troops could be assembled for
the defence of the city, but within a few days the Foreign nobles
arrived from their fiefs with 600,000 men. Even in this extremity
they would not make common cause with the Africans, but remained
without the city, while "Ain-ul-Mulk Kan'āni and Ankas Khân
joined Sayyid Murtazā Sabzavāri. This was not treachery accord-
ing to the code of the Deccan, but merely a justifiable precaution
on the part of the leaders to ensure the ascendency of their party.
Their apparent defection convinced the people that the Africans
could not save the city, and the Africans furnished the only
example of self-denying patriotism to be found in the history of
this strife of factions by tendering their resignation to Chānd Bībi.
The Foreigners of Bijāpur had, for the moment, gained their end.
Marāthā and Canarese troops, skilled in the guerrilla warfare of the
Deccan, were summoned to the aid of the beleaguered city, and
‘Ain-ul-Mulk easily persuaded the Foreigners of Ahmadnagar and
Golconda to retire before their armies were starved. The army
of
Golconda, which occupied Gulbarga during its retreat, was pursued
and defeated, but that of Ahmadnagar retired unmolested.
The retirement of the enemy revived the striſe of factions.
Ikhlās Khān attacked Dilāvar Khān, the leader of the moderate
party among the Africans, in the citadel, but was deserted by all
his officers and captured and blinded by his rival, who became
supreme in the state. Shāh Abu-'l-Hasan was blinded and shortly
afterwards put to death, and the Shiah religion was suppressed and
persecuted.
Dilāvar Khān remained in power from 1582 to 1590, and though
he established the Sunni religion in Bījāpur he sought peace with
the Shiah kingdoms, and endeavoured to secure it by means of
matrimonial alliances. Ibrāhim II married a princess of Golconda,
and his sister Khadīja was given in marriage to Husain, son and
heir of Murtazā Nizām Shāh, but this alliance bred nothing but
## p. 461 (#509) ############################################
XVII]
RETURN OF BURHĀN
461
strife, and the princess of Bījāpur was neglected until her brother,
by invading Ahmadnagar and besieging the fortress of Ausa, com-
pelied Murtazā to celebrate her marriage with Husain.
Murtazā, whose behaviour had always given indications of
insanity, entirely lost his reason. He attempted the life of his son
Husain by setting fire to his bedclothes, but the prince escaped,
and shortly afterwards, on June 14, 1588, put his father to death
by suffocating him in a heated bath. Ibrāhim II, who was still before
Ausa, upbraided the parricide, but retired to his own dominions in
accordance with the treaty which he had made with Murtazā.
Husain II was a dissolute and bloodthirsty youth who had in-
herited his father's malady, and his deeds of violence and dark
threats so alarmed his nobles that they deposed, imprisoned, and
finally murdered him, and on April 1, 1589, raised to the throne
his cousin Ismāʻil, the younger son of Burhān-ud-din, who had fled
from the wrath of his brother Murtazā and was now in the service
of the emperor Akbar.
During the short reign of Ismā'īl all power in Ahmadnagar was
in the hands of Jamāl Khān, a native Muslim who was followed
by the Deccani party. He belonged to a sect which then, in the
closing years of the tenth century of the era of the Hijra, had
some vogue. These heretics were the Mahdavis, who confidently
expected the manifestation, in the year 1000 of the Islamic era, of
the Mahdī, the twelfth Imām, who was to establish Islam through-
out the world. Jamnāl Khān disestablished the state religion and
persecuted both orthodox Sunnis and heterodox Shiahs.
Ibrāhīm II, moved by these innovations, and by the desire of
liberating his widowed sister, to intervene in Ahmadnagar, sent
Dilāvar Khān to invade that kingdom, and Jamāl Khān purchased
peace by the surrender of Khadīja and the payment of 70,000 hūns.
The advancement of Ismāʻīl to the throne aroused his father,
Burhān, to the assertion of his rights, and he sought and obtained
Akbar's permission to make an attempt to gain his throne. Akbar
indeed pressed upon him, to serve his own ends, the co-operation of
an imperial army, but Burhān wisely declined assistance which
would render him odious in the eyes of his subjects and of the
other kings in the Deccan and would involve him in humiliating
obligations. He believed that his subjects longed for his return,
and that he had only to appear in order to be acclaimed, but a
premature invasion of Berar with an insufficient force ended in his
defeat and his flight into Khāndesh. Here Raja 'Ali Khān assembled
his army to assist him, and secured the co-operation of Ibrāhīm II,
## p. 462 (#510) ############################################
462
(CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
who sent an army under Dilāvar Khān to invade Ahmadnagar from
the south. Jamāl Khān first faced this danger and, having inflicted
a crushing defeat on Dilāvar Khān at Dhārāseo, turned northward
to meet Raja 'Ali Khān and Burhān, who had invaded the kingdom
from the north.
The armies met on May 7, 1591, at Rohankhed", and Jamāl
Khān, who had exhausted his troops by a long forced march
through the burning heat, was defeated and slain. The young
Ismā'il was captured, and Burhān marched on to Ahmadnagar and
took possession of his kingdom under the title of Burhān Nizām
Shāh II. He re-established the Shiah religion and recalled the
Foreigners, who had been ruthlessly expelled.
Dilāvar Khān's defeat had led to his downfall, and he fled from
Bījāpur and entered the service of Burhān II. Ibrāhīm II protested
against his employment by Burhān and demanded the restitution of
300 elephants taken at Dhārāseo. Burhan's reply was a declaration
of war, and on March 15, 1592, he invaded the kingdom of Bījāpur
and restored the old Hindu fort to the south of the Bhima. A force
of Marāthā cavalry sent against him cut off his supplies and com-
pelled him to retire towards his own frontier to revictual his troops,
and the army of Bījāpur followed him and inflicted a severe defeat
on him. Muhammad Quli Shāh and Raja 'Ali Khān exerted them.
selves to restore peace, and Ibrāhīm accepted their conditions,
which obliged Burhān to superintend in person the demolition of
his works at Mangalvedha.
Burhãn in spite of his brother's treaty with the Portuguese,
assembled, in April, 1592, an army which attacked the weakly
garrisoned fortress of Chaul. The Portuguese were hard pressed,
but defended themselves with great vigour until reinforcements
arrived from their other settlements on the coast, when they
assumed the offensive and carried, with a loss of only twenty-nine
men, a fortress held by the Muslims on the opposite bank of the
creek, slaying ten or twelve thousand of Burhān's army. Farhād
Khān, who commanded the Muslims, was captured, with his wife
and daughter. His wife was ransomed, but he and his daughter
were converted to Christianity and went to Portugal.
This disastrous defeat was attributed in great measure to the
treachery of the officers, who, having learned that Burhān was
engaged in intrigues with their wives and daughters at Ahmad-
nagar, betrayed their trust. They belonged to the Deccani faction
and their master rejoiced in their defeat.
1 In 20° 37' N. and 76° 11 E,
## p. 463 (#511) ############################################
XVII
CIVIL WAR IN AHMADNAGAR
463
In 1594 Ismā'il, the elder brother of Ibrāhīm II, rose in rebellion,
and Burhān, who had assembled an army of Foreigners to attack
the Portuguese, marched to his aid, but Ismāʻīl was defeated and
slain before Burhān had advanced beyond Parenda, and the army
of Bījāpur, freed from its preoccupation with the rebel, attacked
him and once more defeated him. He was in weak health, and this
fresh disaster threw him into a state of nervous irritability. He
designated as his heir his elder son, Ibrāhīm. whose mother had
been an African, on which account his younger brother, Ismā'il,
had been preferred to him. Ismā'il was still attached to the Mahdavi
faith and the Deccani faction, and when his father put him to death
for these offences the Deccanis with the army in the field suspected
the Foreigners of complicity in the crime, and began to devise a
fresh massacre of their opponents, but the Foreigners left the army
and joined the king, who had already reached Ahmadnagar. Ikhlās
Khān led the Deccanis back to the capital with the object of de-
throning Burhān, but the king attacked him and drove him back
to Parenda. The exertion and the heat were too much for a frame
enfeebled by excess, disease, and mental anxiety, and on April 28,
1595, Burhān died.
Miyān Manjhū the Deccani, who became minister on the acces-
sion of Ibrāhīm Nizām Shāh, granted an amnesty to Ikhlās Khān
and his faction, and Ikhlās Khān returned to the city and, although
he was a member of the Deccani party and was under an obligation
to the minister, arrayed himself against him. He persuaded the
dissolute young king to declare war on Bījāpur, and, despite Miyān
Manjhū's efforts to avoid actual hostilities, the armies met and
Ibrāhīm was slain. His death was the signal for anarchy in the
kingdom. Chārd Bibi, who had returned to the home of her youth,
stood forth as the champion of order and supported Ibrāhīm's
infant son, Bahādur, but Ikhlās Khān produced a man named
Ahmad, whom he put forward as the son of the sixth son of
Burhān Nizām Shāh I, Khudābanda, who had taken refuge in
Bengal, and on August 16, 1595, proclaimed him king under the
title of Ahmad Nizām Shāh II. Inquiries proved him to be an
impostor, but he was supported by Miyān Manjhū, and civil war
broke out.
The Africans and Deccanis who supported Ahmad soon quar-
relled, and the former proclaimed as king, under the title of Moti
Shāh, a child of unknown origin, and Miyān Manjhū appealed for
help to Sultān Murād, Akbar's second son, who was now governor
of Gujarāt.
## p. 464 (#512) ############################################
464
(CH.
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
?
Akbar, resenting the refusal of Burhān II to swear fealty to him,
had already decided to attack the kingdom of Ahmadnagar, and
the Khăn Khānān in Mālwa as well as the prince in Gujarāt had
been preparing for a campaign in the Deccan, and on receiving
Miyān Manjhū's appeal both set their armies in motion.
Fighting continued at Ahmadnagar and Miyān Manjhū, having
gained a success over the Africans, repented too late of his appeal
to the prince, who, with the Khān Khānān, arrived before the city
on December 26.
There were now four parties in the kingdom. (1) Miyān Manjhū
and the Deccanis, acknowledging the pretender Ahmad II, were on
Bījāpur frontier, seeking help from Ibrāhīm Il; (2) Āhang
Khān' and Habashi Khān, the Africans, acknowledging the third
son of Burhān Nizām Shāh I, the old prince 'Alī, whom they had
summoned from Bījāpur, were also on the southern frontier, with
the same object ; (3) Ikhlās Khān, at the head of another African
faction, acknowledging the child Moti Shāh, was in the neighbour-
hood of Daulatābād ; and (4) Chānd Bibi with the infant king
Bahādur was in Ahmadnagar. All sent envoys to Ibrāhīm II who,
perturbed by a peril which menaced the whole of the Deccan,
begged them to sink their differences and to present a united front
to the invader, and assembled, under the command of the eunuch,
Suhail Khān, an army of 25,000 horse, besides a contingent of 6000
horse contributed by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shāh.
Raja 'Ali Khān of Khāndesh had been obliged to join the
imperial army, but his sympathies lay with the kingdoms of the
Deccan, and his secret messages to the defenders of Ahmadnagar
encouraged them in their resistance.
For this reason, and also owing to the jealousy and the disputes
of Sultān Murād and the Khān Khānān, the siege progressed but
slowly. Ikhlās Khān marched from Daulatābād with 10,000 horse
to relieve the city, but was defeated at Paithan, on the Godāvari.
Āhang Khān then marched from the southern frontier with 7,000
horse, accompanied by Prince 'Ali and his son, Prince Murtazā,
but was so stoutly opposed by the Khān Khānān's troops that he
and the younger prince led no more than 400 horsemen into the
city, after cutting their way through the enemy. The rest of his
force, with the aged Prince 'Ali, fled back to the frontier.
Sultān Murād was much perturbed by the menace of the armies
of Bījāpur and Golconda, which had reached Naldrug, and en-
deavoured to hasten the fall of the city by mining the defences,
1 Also described as Abhang Khān.
## p. 465 (#513) ############################################
XVII)
CESSION OF BERAR
465
but treachery was at work, and secret information enabled the
defenders to remove the charges by countermining, and render the
mines harmless. One, however, remained intact and this, when
exploded, killed many of the garrison and destroyed fifty yards of
the curtain between two bastions, but the breach was so gallantly
defended by Chānd Bībi in person that the assailants were repulsed
and night permitted the defenders to repair the damage.
When Suhail Khān, responding to the urgent appeals of Chānd
Bibi and encouraged by a treacherous message from the Khān
Khānān, whose chief concern was to deprive the prince of the
credit of capturing the city, was within thirty miles Sultān Murad
sent an envoy to Chānd Bībi, offering to raise the siege in return
for the cession of Berar. The garrison was suffering from famine,
but it was with difficulty that the noble queen could be induced
to save the capital by the surrender of the province. After some
hesitation, she consented, and early in April the imperial army
withdrew to take possession of its new conquest.
On the retirement of the besiegers Bahādur Shāh was proclaimed
king Miyān Manjhū attempted to renew the civil war, but was
summoned, with Ahmad II, to Bījāpur by Ibrāhim, who took them
both into the service.
The arrogance and oppressive behaviour of the new minister,
Muhammad Khān, so alienated the nobles and enfeebled the state
that Chānd Bībi was obliged to appeal for assistance to Ibrāhim II,
who sent a force under Suhail Khān, instructing him to place him-
self entirely at her disposal. Muhammad Khān, after being besieged
for four months in Ahmadnagar, sent a message to the Khān Khānān,
begging him to come to his aid, but the garrison on discovering
this act of treason, arrested him and delivered him to Chand Bibi,
who appointed Ahang Khān lieutenant of the kingdom in his place.
War soon broke out again between the empire and Ahmadnagar.
There were complaints on both sides. Gāwil and Narnāla, the great
fortresses of Berar, were still held by officers of Ahmadnagar. On
the other hand the imperial troops had occupied the Pāthri district,
which, they plausibly contended, was part of Berar.
Āhang Khān again appealed to Bījāpur, and Suhail Khān was
sent to his aid, but the armies of Bījāpur and Golconda were
utterly routed by the Khān Khānān in the neighbourhood of Sonpet,
on the Godāvarī, after a battle lasting for two days, on February 9,
1597.
Ahang Khăn quarrelled with Chānd Bībi and besieged her in
the ſort of Ahmadnagar.
The disputes between Murād and the
30
C. H. I. III.
## p. 466 (#514) ############################################
466
[ CH. XVII
THE FIVE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN
Khăn Khānān continued until the latter was summoned to court
and the former died of drink at Shahpur, near Bālāpur in Berar.
Shaikh Abu-'l. Fazl was sent to the Deccan, but could effect little,
and Āhang Khān gained a success over the imperial officer who
held Bir.
In 1999 Akbar's youngest son, Dāniyāl, and Khān Khānān
were appointed to the Deccan, and the emperor followed them and
encamped at Burhānpur while his army besieged Asīt. The prir. ce
and the Khăn Khānān advanced towards Ahmadnagar, and Āhang
Khān, raising the siege, marched to meet them at Jeūr, but the
sight of the imperial army approaching him overcame his resolution,
and he fled in terror to Junnār, leaving Ahmadnagar to its fate.
Chānd Bībī at length lost heart. Summoning Jita Khān, a
eunuch who had been her confidant since Āhang Khān had turned
against her, she sought his advice. He replied it was for her
to take a decision, and she confessed that she could suggest nothing
but a surrender on terms. Jita Khān ran out crying that she had
turned traitress, and wished to surrender the fortress to the Mughul,
and a turbulent mob rushed into the inner apartments of the palace
and slew her.
Dāniyāl and the Khān Khānān appeared before the city, and
the mob who had found courage to murder their queen had little
left for the defence of their homes. The defences were destroyed
by mines and the place was carried by assault. The young king,
Bahādur, was sent as a state prisoner to Gwalior and Ahmadnagar
was garrisoned by a force of imperial troops.
a
## p. 467 (#515) ############################################
CHAPTER XVIII
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA,
1000-1565
INDIA, south of the Vindhyas, always exhibited a tendency
politically to fall into two well-marked divisions, the boundaries
of which varied at different periods of history. About the year
A. D. 1000 this tendency was working itself out by a new shiſting
of the powers under two large political divisions. The kingdom
of the Chālukyas, called for distinction the later Chālukyas or even
the Chālukyas of Kalyāni, had its capital at Kalyāni in the Nizam's
dominions. The Chālukyas may be regarded as a Deccan power
whose original territory comprised the central and southern divi-
sions of the Bombay Presidency and the western half of the
Nizām's dominions. Along the Arabian Sea coast their territory
extended well past Goa and varied from time to time in regard to
its exact southernmost limit. In the north their territory extended
even to Gujārat. But the simultaneous rise to power of the Para-
maras of Mālwa kept them limited on this frontier to the region
south of the Narbada, if not the Vindhya mountains themselves.
The really uncertain and therefore the changing frontier was the
eastern and southern. At the best, this frontier stretched so far as
to take into the Chālukyan territory, the modern State of Mysore,
and from there continued along the Tungabhadra till it joins the
Krishna, proceeding north-eastwards through the middle of the
Nizām's dominions across to the east of Nāgpur in the Central
Provinces. The most vulnerable part of this frontier was the part
extending along the Krishna from its junction with the Tunga-
bhadra almost to its source, so that the region between the rivers
Krishna and Tungabhadra constituted the bone of contention
between the rival powers throughout the eleventh century.
The southern power contemporary with the Chālukyas was the
great dynasty of the Cholas, coming into notice almost a century
earlier than their rivals. They slowly forged their way up despite
the crushing weight of the imperial power of the Răshtrakūtas of
the Deccan. When these were overthrown by the Chālukyas about
the end of the tenth century the Cholas had put themselves on a
footing of some permanence and power. The advent of Rājarāja.
the Great, who was to have succeeded almost at the same time as
the Rāshtrakūtas were overthrown, introduced a new spirit into
the activities of the Cholas. They took advantage of the change of
30-2
## p. 468 (#516) ############################################
468 HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA (CH.
on
dynasties and consequent neglect of the southern frontier to go
forward and occupy the territory of the Gangas by overthrowing
them finally. This gave them southern and by far the greatest
division of the territory of what is now the Mysore State, from
which as a salient, they could carry on their war against the
Chālukyas with advantage. This accession to the Chola territory
took place in A. D. 1000 or 1001.
When the dynasty revolution was developing in the territory
of the Rāshtrakūtas, the Eastern Chālukyas, whose territory in-
cluded the part of the Madras Presidency north of Madras, had
their own domestic troubles, which do not appear to have abated
very much by the success of their cousins in the Deccan. Rājarāja
took advantage of the opportunity and came to terms with them,
supporting Vimalāditya on the throne and scaling the treaty by the
marriage of his own daughter Kundavvai to the Chālukya prince.
This treaty proved of a lasting character, and the Cholas had no
trouble this frontier except when outside powers like the
Chālukyas tried to make a diversion. When Rājarāja's rule came
to an end in about A. D. 1016 his frontier extended so far as to take
into his territory the whole of the plain districts of the Mysore
country and outside the State of Mysore, with the Tungabhadra
marking the frontier. His son who ascended the throne nominally
in A. D. 1011 and actually in 1016 had alrcady seen considerable
service under his father. He proceeded from this base to beat the
Chālukyas back beyond the line of the Krishna, taking Banavāsi,
Mālkhed and Kollippākkai, which were the key to the possession
of the debatable land of the tract between the Krishna and the
Tungabhadra. That done he could feel that he had reached a
definitive frontier between the two powers and marched thence to
invade the territory of Kalinga, extending from the mouths of the
Ganges southwest and southwards along the coast to not far from
the mouth of the Godāvarī. This invasion seems to have been
undertaken with a view to bringing the Kalingas to such a sense of
subordination to him that they might refrain from molesting him
in his eastward expedition across the seas to the Malaya peninsula
and the island of Sumatra, where he had to fight against the rising
imperial power of Sri Bhoja in behalf of the various Tamil settle-
ments in the island and along the coast of the peninsula opposite?
The wars of his successors had no further object in view than to
maintain this frontier. They sometimes carried raids into the
"Overseas Conquests of Dājendra Chola” : The Madras Christian College
Magazine for April 1921.
1
## p. 469 (#517) ############################################
XVII ]
CHOLAS AND CHĀLUKYAS
469
a
interior of the Chālukya territory even as far as Kolhāpur itself,
where one of the Cholas claims to have planted a pillar of victory,
Notwithstanding these occasional raids the frontier remained where
Rajendra the Gangaikonda Chola had actually fixed it.
These powerful dynasties, the Cholas and the Chālukyas, were
well matched in resources both material and personal ; each had a
succession of capable rulers, and used its resources with a view to
the attainment of a frontier which would put an end to perpetual
wars. Further wars therefore resolved themselves into a fight for
the possession of the Doāb and the State of Mysore. This war was
ultimately decided in favour of the Chālukyas under their greatest
ruler and his equally great contemporary among the Cholas. These
two rulers were both of them usurpers in a sense, and used the
power that they acquired to get a final settlement of the long-
standing frontier problem. Vikramāditya VI, the second son of
Sõmēsvara Āhavamalla, overthrew his brother, also a Sõmēsvara,
after a short reign and ascended the throne in 1076. His contem-
porary, the Chālukya-Chola Kulottunga, ascended the Chola throne
in 1070. He was a grandson by the daughter of Rājendra, the
Gangaikonda Chola, and was the legitimate ruler of the territory
of the Eastern Chālukyas. He seems to have found this too small a
patrimony, and would succeed to the imperial Chola throne and
not remain content with his own territory. What exactly his title
to this was, except through his mother, is not made clear. He
seems to have bided his time and taken advantage of the machina-
tions of his contemporary Vikramāditya to place himself on the
throne of the Chālukyas. Sõmēsvara the father died in 1069, and
Somēsvara II, the elder son, succeeded. Vikramāditya already
held the position of viceroy of Banavāsi which included in it the
wardenship of the southern marches of the Chālukya territory,
While still viceroy of this province he concluded a treaty with the
contemporary Chola, Vira Rājendra, whose daughter he married.
Vīra Rājendra died and was succeeded by his son, the brother-in-
law of Vikramāditya, and Kulottunga found an opportunity of
over throwing this new ruler and of occupying the Chola throne.
Vikramāditya was baulked in his ambition by this coup of his con-
temporary, and had to wait for yet another five years before he
could put his own plans into execution. Both of them ruled for
about half a century, Kulottunga's reign lasting from 1070 to 1118
at least, and that of Vikramāditya from 1076 to 1128. During the
first decade of their rule Vikramāditya's efforts were so far success-
fuļ that a considerable part of the territory of Mysore passed into
a
>
## p. 470 (#518) ############################################
470
[CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
a
success.
his hands, and this progress continued till Chola rule in Mysore
was put an end to by Av. 1117, about the end of the reign of
Kulottunga Chola'. The chieftain who was responsible for this was
the feudatory of the Chālukya emperor who laid the foundations
of the greatness of the Hoysalas. The eleventh century for south
India may therefore be regarded as the century of struggle for the
fixing of a definitive frontier between the two contending empires.
The recurring frontier wars notwithstanding, this was a period
of very successful administration both in the territory of the
Cholas and that of the Chālukyas. It is the records of these two
dynasties that enable us to see at their best the highly organised
and systematic administration that obtained in the whole region.
The civil administration was carried on largely by local agency, the
central government retaining only oversight and control in cases
of dispute. The ordinary routine of the administration was carried
on by village and town organisations and as far as we can
see from
this distance of time, this administration was carried on with great
The main duty of the imperial rulers was to assure to the
people protection from external enemies and internal disturbances.
Except on the fighting frontiers the whole country seems to have
enjoyed this peace and protection in a very large measure. Large
public works were undertaken, and considerable stimulus was given
to learning and religion, in regard to the latter of which it was a
period of great ferment. In spite of the financial enthusiasm of
some of the religious leaders the movements were kept well under
control and proceeded smoothly to work themselves out. With the
passing away of these two rulers at the end of the first quarter of
the twelfth century, the usual process of disintegration sets in.
The kingdom of the Chālukyas underwent a dismemberment before
the end of the century, and that of the Cholas continued almost
intact until about the middle of the next century when it was
overthrown by the revival of the Pāndyan state of Madura, which
had been early reduced to subjection by the Cholas. At the period
of the Muhammadan invasions of south India therefore, the politi-
cal division of the country was very different from what it was in
the eleventh century. In the working out of this transformation
the feudatory dynasties of the Chālukyas played a very important
part, and among these the chief distinction must be given to the
Hoysalas of Dvārasamudra.
In the recesses of the Western Ghāts there is a small village,
called Angadi since the days of Achyutarāya of Vijayanagar, in
1 Ancient India, Ch. vi.
2 Ep. Car. VI, p. 14 and v, Bl. 197.
## p. 471 (#519) ############################################
XVII ]
THE HOYSALAS
471
over the
.
the Mudegare taluk of the modern district of Kadur in Mysore.
It apparently derived its importance from its situation at the point
where the two roads from the Mysore State meet the road
Ghāts from Mangalore. These two roads are of considerable im-
portance from the point of view of the coffee planting industry
now, and they seem to have enjoyed the same degree of import-
ance even in those earlier days when the trade was in other com-
modities for which the region has always been famous. Before the
days of the Vijayanagar king Achyuta, the place seems to have
been generally known as Vāsantikāpura, apparently from the temple
of the village goddess now popularly called Vāsantamma, or more
formally Vāsantikādēvi. It had the alternative name Sasakapura
(hare-town) with it modern equivalent Sosevur, and it was here
that the Hoysalas had their origin.
The Hoysalas were a family of petty hill chiefs of the Western
Ghāts, and each ruler, even in the days of their highest prosperity
styled himself, “the man among the hill chiefs” (Malaparol-Ganda).
The first reference to the Hoysalas in inscriptions is found in a
Chola record of A. D. 1007. The first member of the family of any
note was Nripakāma, who is mentioned in . 1022. The highest
achievement of this chief was the assistance that he rendered to
the chief of Banavāsi against his enemies, who are described by
name. The origin of his epithet, 'the Base,' has not been traced,
but it probably explains the omission of his name from the later
genealogies. In a record of 1026 he is said to have been defeated
by the Kongālva feudatory of the Cholas, Rajendra Chola Prithvi
Kongālva. He is himself given the title Rājamalla Perumānadi'i
in another record, a clear indication that he was a Ganga feudatory,
who bore his overlord's title. His son was Vinayāditya’ the first
important member of the family to figure in the records of the
suzerain power, ihat of the Chālukyas. The period of Nripakāma
and his son
a period of wars between the Cholas and the
Chālukyas for the possession of Mysore. It was by distinguished
service in these wars that these chieftains rose to importance.
Vināyaditya's full style is Tribhuvana Hoysala, and later genealo-
gies generally begin with his name. His headquarters were yet at
Sasakapura, while in the days of his grandson, his successor, the
capital was shiſted to Belūrs. In the records of the great Chālukya
ruler Sömēsvara Āhavamalla 1044 - 1069, Vinayāditya's name occurs
as the Mahāmandalēsvara of Gangavādi, 96,000. This vast province,
1 Ep. Car. vi, Mg. 19.
2 Ibid. v, Ag. 141.
3 Ibid. vi, Cm. 160 and iv, Ng. 32.
was
## p. 472 (#520) ############################################
472
[ CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
which included almost the whole of the modern districts of Mysore,
Bangalore and Kolar, was a province of the Cholas at the time, and
was divided by them into three districts. The appointment of a
Chālukya governor over this province at the time, with a capital
far removed from the region itself, means that the governorship
was the wardenship of the southern marches, where there would be
ample opportunity for achieving distinction in war. It was from
this struggle for the possession of what now constitutes the plateau
of Mysore that the Hoysalas emerged into importance and suc-
ceeded ultimately in carving out for themselves from the
membered Chālukya kingdom a state which became the most
influential power in the succeeding period of South Indian
history.
Reverting to the history of this struggle between the kingdoms,
the Cholas had the upper hand to begin with, and carried all before
them in the days of Rājarāja and his son, leaving to the Chālukyas
the possession of only Banavāsi, one of the three divisions of what
is now the State of Mysore. It has already been stated that Rājendra
held possession of important fortresses on this frontier which are
oſten described as "the key to the south,' or 'the bolt against the
south. ' He seems to have inflicted a defeat upon his contemporary
Chālukya Jayasimha, but does not appear to have pressed the enemy
farther. When he died, in the forty fourth year of his reign, he was
succeeded by three of his sons, one after another. His immediate
successor carried the war into his enemy's country, as far north
as Kolhāpur itself. By this time the Chālukya territories were
under the rule of Somēsvara Āhavamalla (or 'the Great in War').
Sõmēsvara was able to hold up the Chola army at Koppa on the
Krishna, a few miles south east of Kolhāpur, and after a strenuous
fight the day went against the Cholas, Rājādhirāja falling in battle.
His younger brother, who brought up reinforcements, retrieved the
fortunes of the day, and claims to have set up a pillar of victory in
Kolhāpur itself. The war continued between Sõmēsvara and the
next Chola brother who succeeded these two with varying fortunes.
In the course of one of the wars Sõmēsvara seems to have entrusted
the southern division of his kingdom, the most vulnerable at the
time, to his second and most talented son, who afterwards ascended
the throne as Vikramāditya. This Prince did his utmost to main-
tain his position in the south and carried the war into the Chola
country itself, but was checked on the banks of the Tungabhadra
by the energetic Chola ruler Vīra Rājēndra. Vikramaditya tried
diplomacy when war failed, and seems to have created a diversion
## p. 473 (#521) ############################################
Vin]
VIKRAMĀDITYA CHĀLUKYA
473
against Vira Rājēndra on
Rājëndra on the eastern Chālukya frontier. He
ultimately succeeded in coming to an understanding with Vira
Rājēndra in regard to the debatable frontier, the treaty being
sealed by the marriage of Prince Vikramāditya with Vira Rājēndra's
daughter. While these negotiations were still in progress, the
Chālukya king Sõmēsvara had an attack of a malignant fever and
died, in obedience to religious advice, by drowning himself in the
Tungabhadra. His eldest son Sõmēsvara succeeded to the throne.
At the same time the other enterprising Chālukya prince Kulot-
tunga attempted to seize the Chola throne. Records bearing on this
affair are laconic, merely stating that Vikramāditya entered the
Chola capital Gangaikonda-Solapuram, a new foundation of Rājēn-
dra, the Gangaikonda Chola, and placed on the throne his brother-
in-law, who, however, was immediately deposed by his subjects.
Whether Kulottunga, the Chālukya, prince, had any share in this
is not known; but that he actually occupied the throne and suc-
ceeded to the kingdom is undoubted. His father died seven years
before this at Rājahmundry, his ancestral capital. There is nothing
to show that Kulottunga ever occupied his father's throne at Raja-
mandri. He seems to have remained in the territory of the Cholas
in the region round Kānchi, and let others govern the Eastern
Chālukya territory, perhaps in his name. Kulottunga occupied the
Chola throne from 1070 to 1118 at least, and his contemporary
Vikramāditya ascended the throne six years later and continued
to rule till 1128.
In all these transactions between the Cholas and the Chālukyas,
both diplomatic and warlike, the Governors of Gangavādi and
Nolambavādi have had their share. While inscriptions of Vira
Rājēndra claim for him the credit of having granted to Vikra-
māditya, the Chālukya prince, the Yauvarājya or the position of
heir-apparent to the Chālukya kingdom, Hoysala inscriptions of
1100 claim for Ereyanga the son of Vinayāditya the Hoysala
governor of Gangavādi, that he caused Tribhuvanamalla's (Vikra-
māditya's) eleder brother to sheathe his sword. His father-in-law
Irukkapāla similarly lays claim to having defeated Bhuvanaikamalla
(the Chālukya king Sõmēsvara), and gave the kingdom to Vikra-
māditya whose right-hand Ereyanga, the Hoysala prince, is described
to have been. It becomes thus clear that, not withstanding the
statements in Bilhana's Vikramāoka-dēvacharitam, Vikramāditya
planned and carried out the usurpation, and, in this enterprise, he
had the assistance of the southern chiefs. Ereyanga seems to have
taken part in the distant northern expeditions of the Chālukyas,
## p. 474 (#522) ############################################
474
[CH.
HINDU STATES IN SOUTHERN INDIA
as he claims a victory at Dhār in Malva, then under the successors
of the great Bhoja. Ereyanga obviously died before his father and
left three sons by his wife Echaladēvi, the daughter of the Nolamba
chief referred to already.
Vinayāditya was succeeded in the governorship of Gangavādi
96,000, by his eldest grandson Ballāla I in 1101. His capital was
at Bēlūr, with which the Hoysala dynasty was throughout the
period of their rule associated, though Dvārasamudra became later
on an alternative capital. The territorry under Ballāla I is given
the same boundaries as that of his grandfather, and he is said to
have paid a visit to the family capital Sosevur. In A. D. 1103 he
made a re-grant of Sindagere to Mariāne Dandanāyaka as wages
for wet-nursing his three daughters whom Ballāla married in the
same pavilion at Bēlür. The next year he led an expedition against
the Changālva chiefs whose territory lay in the Hole-Narasipur
taluk of the Hassan district of Mysore. He conducted a successful
expedition the same year with his younger brother Vishnu into
the neighbouring Pandya dominions of Nolambavādi, and had to
repulse an invader, Jagad-dēva, who had penetrated as far as
Dvārasamudra. An inscription of Ballāla's time is dated in Chālukya.
Vikramāditya's era (K. 55).
Ballāla I was succeeded by his younger brother Bitti-dēva
(Vishnu-dēva), better known by his later titles Vishnuvardhana.
He was the founder of Hoysala greatness, and his titles are carried
down in later inscriptions not only to his successors generally,
some of them posthumously to his predecessors. His name is
found mentioned for the first time in a record of 1100, associated
with that of his brother Ballāla I. Records of Ballāla I do not
go beyond 1105, at which date or soon after Vishnu must have
ascended the throne. His real exploits however begin ten years
later, according to the inscriptions, making it possible that Ballāla
continued his reign even for some time after 1106. Notwithstanding
all previous claims to conquest, Vishnu's signal achievements consist
of the conquest of Gangavādi and the partial conquest of Nolamba-
vādi, which together constitute his claim to greatness, as among one
of the greatest of Vikramāditya's Mahāmandalsēvaras. A number
of generals claim the conquest of Gangavādi, and inscriptions
generally make a great deal of these conquests. Vishnu even
assumes two special titles from this conquest namely, “Vira-
Ganga' and 'Talakādu-gonda' (taker of Talakād). This conquest
of Gangavādi took place before 1117. Vishnu took the province
after overthrowing the Chola generals Adiyama, Dāmõdara and
## p. 475 (#523) ############################################
XVIII ]
CONQUESTS OF THE HOYSALAS
475
Narasimhavarma. This conquest was apparently real, as Vishnu
was able to undertake a tour through the territories of Gangayādi
in the course of which at the Vijayāditya-mangala (mod, Betman-
gala) his niece, the daughter of his brother Udayāditya, died. At
about the same time he carried on a successful expedition against
Nolambavādi and won a victory over the Pāndya ruler of the
country at Dumme, on the borderland between Shimoga and Chittal.
droog districts. By the year 1117, therefore, Vishnu had become
master of Gangavādi 96,000, and had made himself felt in Nolamba-
vādi also. Inscriptions of Vishnu mark the year as an epoch in the
history of the Hoysala power. A number of inscriptions chiefly
the one at Bēlür, inscribed on the occasion of the dedication of the
temple after Vishnu had adopted the teachings of Rāmānuja, the
Vaishnava apostle, give an elaborate history of his conquests and
sum up his achievements previous to the date by giving his territory
the boundaries of the lower Ghāt of Nangali on the east, Kongu,
Chēram and Ānaimalai in the south, Bārakanūr and other Ghāts
of Konkana on the west, and Sāvimalai in the north. Of these
Nangali is the pass through the Eastern Ghāts six miles east of
Mulhagal on the Madras-Bangalore road. Kongu and Chēram are
the well-known divisions in the middle across to the west coast,
and Ānaimalai is a hill in the Coimbatore district belonging to the
Western Ghāts. Bārakanūr is the Bārkālūr Ghāt in the Western
Ghāts.
