A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar by Robert Sewell (read a book TXT) 📖

bought with his own money…. This king has more than a hundred thousand men, both horse and foot, to whom he gives pay….

“When the king dies four or five hundred women burn themselves with him…. The king of Narsinga is frequently at war with the king of Dacani, who has taken from him much of his land; and with another gentile king of the country of Otira (apparently Orissa), which is the country in the interior.”

Barbosa mentions that the lord of Goa, before the Portuguese attack on the place, was “Sabaym Delcani,” meaning the king of the Dakhan, and he alludes to its first capture by Albuquerque on 25th February 1510, and the second on 25th November of the same year.

We learn from other sources that about this time Krishna Deva Raya was engaged with a refractory vassal in the Maisur country, the Ganga Rajah of Ummatur, and was completely successful. He captured the strong fortress of Sivasamudra and the fortress of Srirangapattana, or Seringapatam, reducing the whole country to obedience.

In 1513 A.D. he marched against Udayagiri, in the present district of Nellore, an exceedingly strong hill-fortress then under the king of Orissa,[205] and after the successful termination of the war he brought with him from a temple on the hill a statue of the god Krishna, which he set up at Vijayanagar and endowed with a grant of lands. This is commemorated by a long inscription still in existence at the capital. It was then that the great temple of Krishnasvami was built, which, though now in ruins, is still one of the most interesting objects in the city. This is also attested by a long inscription on stone, still in its place. The king further built the temple of Hazara Ramasvami near, or in, his palace enclosure, at the same time.

Nuniz relates that at Udayagiri Krishna Raya captured an aunt of the king of Orissa and took her prisoner to Vijayanagar. He next proceeded against Kondavid, another very strong hill-fortress also in possession of the king of Orissa, where he met and defeated the king in person in a pitched battle, and captured the citadel after a two months’ siege. He left Saluva Timma here as a governor of the conquered provinces, and went in pursuit of his enemy northwards. Nuniz says that Saluva Timma appointed his own brother captain of Kondavid, but an inscription at that place gives us the name of this man as Nadendla Gopamantri, and calls him a nephew of Timma. Kondavid seems to have been under the kings of Orissa since A.D. 1454; its capture by Krishna Deva took place in 1515.[206] To confirm our chronicler’s account of the king’s northward journey, I find that there is at the town of Meduru, twenty-two miles south-east of Bezvada on the Krishna, an inscription which states that in 1516 a battle took place there between Krishna Deva and some enemy whose name is obliterated, in which the former was victorious.

The king, advanced to Kondapalle, took the place after a three months’ siege, and captured therein a wife and son of the king of Orissa. The unhappy fate of the latter is told in the chronicle. Thence he marched to Rajahmundry and halted six months. Peace was made shortly after, and Krishna Deva married a daughter of the Orissan king.[207] After this marriage King Krishna made an expedition against a place in the east which Nuniz calls “Catuir,” on the Coromandel side, and took it. I have been unable to locate this place.

By these conquests the whole of his eastern dominions were brought into entire subjection to the sovereign.

Nuniz writes as though the attack on Raichur immediately followed the campaign against Udayagiri, Kondavid, and “Catuir,” but, according to the evidence afforded by inscriptions, these expeditions were at an end in 1515, and the battle of Raichur did not take place for at least five years later.

A long account of wars in the south-eastern Dakhan country between Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golkonda and his neighbours, both Mussulman and Hindu, is given in the third volume of Colonel Briggs’ “Firishtah,”[208] translated from a Muhammadan historian — not Firishtah himself; and as this certainly covers the period of at least a portion of Krishna Deva’s reign, it is well to give a summary of it. I cannot, however, as yet determine the exact dates referred to, and the story differs from that acquired from Hindu and Portuguese accounts, the dates of which are confirmed by epigraphical records.

Sultan Quli proclaimed himself an independent sovereign in 1512. The historian referred to states that shortly after this Quli attacked and took Razukonda and Devarakonda, fortresses respectively south-east and south-south-east of Hyderabad in Telingana. After the second of these places had fallen Krishna Raya of Vijayanagar marched against the Sultan with an immense army and invaded his dominions. This must, I think, refer to about the year 1513. The Hindu army encamped at Pangul, in the angle of the Krishna river almost due east of Raichur, and here a battle took place in which the Qutb Shah was victorious The place was then besieged; it capitulated, and the Muhammadans proceeded to Ghanpura, twenty miles to the north. This fort was captured after heavy loss, and the Sultan led his army to Kovilkonda, twenty miles to the north-west, on the borders of the country of Bidar, the territory of Ala-ud-din Imad Shah. This place also fell.

A war with the Imad Shah followed, in which Sultan Quli was again victorious. Shortly afterwards there were disturbances on the east of the Golkonda territories. Sitapati, Rajah of Kambampeta, on the Muniyer river, who possessed extensive territories — including Warangal and Bellamkonda, a fortress south of the Krishna — rose against the Muhammadans, and the Sultan marched against Bellamkonda, which, after a long siege, he captured. Sitapati then fought a pitched battle, was defeated, and fled, Quli returning to Golkonda. The Rajah then stirred up a number of neighbouring chiefs and assembled large forces at Kambampeta. Hearing of this, the Golkonda forces marched to attack them, and met with complete success, Sitapati flying to the protection of “Ramchunder Dew, the son of Gujputty, who held his court at Condapilly,” and was king of Orissa. The Sultan advanced and attacked Kambampeta, where, after his capture of the place, he slew every man, woman, and child in the city, seizing the females of Sitapati’s household for his own seraglio. Meanwhile an immense Hindu host from all the countries about, under command of the king of Orissa, prepared to do battle for their country, and a decisive action took place near the river at Palinchinur, in which the Hindus were completely defeated. Quli then seized Kondapalle, Ellore, and Rajahmundry, and a treaty was made between him and Orissa fixing the Godavari river as the eastern boundary of Golkonda. By this the Sultan added the districts of Ellore and Bezvada to his own dominions.

Krishna Raya then advanced to the rescue and the Sultan marched to Kondavid. He invested the place, but was forced to retreat owing to attacks made on him from Bellamkonda and Vinukonda, the first of which fortresses he succeeded in reducing after heavy loss. After this he retired towards Kondapalle. Krishna Raya now arrived and attacked the Muhammadan garrison in Bellamkonda, upon which the Sultan counter-marched, and suddenly appeared in rear of the Hindu army. In the battle which ensued he was victorious and the siege was raised, after which he returned to Kondavid and took it. On learning of the fall of Kondavid, Krishna Raya detached “his general and son-in-law Seeva Ray”[209] with 100,000 foot and 8000 horse to march against the Muhammadans. The Sultan retreated and encamped on the banks of the Krishna, leaving Kondavid to the Hindus.[210] After settling the place the Vijayanagar forces proceeded in pursuit of the Sultan, were attacked by him, defeated, and retired to Kondavid, which was a second time invested by the army of Golkonda. The Hindus then submitted and agreed to become tributary.

On his return towards his capital the Sultan learned that Ismail Adil Shah of Bijapur was besieging Kovilkonda, “at the instance of the Raja of Beejanuggur.”[211] He marched against him, and a series of actions ensued, the campaign lasting eleven months, at the end of which Ismail died of a fever, and was succeeded by his son Malu. In one of the fights Sultan Quli was wounded severely by a sabre in the face, and disfigured for life.[212]

I have given the whole of this story in this place because it runs as a consecutive series of events in the original Muhammadan account. But it really covers a period of at least twenty-one years; for the narrative begins shortly after the beginning of Quli’s reign (1512), and ends with Ismail’s death (1534). We are left, therefore, entirely in the dark as to the exact years referred to. But there are some points of agreement between our authorities. It is certain that Krishna Deva took Kondavid in A.D. 1515, and fought battles in the neighbourhood in the following year; and though Nuniz asserts that he took Kondavid from the king of Orissa, he also alludes to the presence of armed bodies of Muhammadans in that tract opposed to the Hindus.

With these remarks we return to Vijayanagar history.

From 1516 to 1520 we have no records from Hindu sources to guide us as to events at the capital.

The Portuguese traded on the coast, and there were some fights with the neighbouring Hindu chiefs, but they seem to have affected the capital but little; the foreigners were generally on friendly terms with the suzerain at Vijayanagar, and so far as he was concerned were welcome to consolidate their commerce, since he benefited largely by the import of horses and other requisites. The rest of his dominions were tranquil and the inhabitants obedient to his rule.

The whole country was divided out — so Nuniz tells us, and his account is confirmed by other evidence — into governorships. Each chief was allowed entire independence in the territory allotted to him so long as he maintained the quota of horse, foot, and elephants, the maintenance of which was the price of his possession, in perfect readiness for immediate action, and paid his annual tribute to the sovereign. Failing these he was liable to instant ejection, as the king was lord of all and the nobles held only by his goodwill.

But during this period of peace the king made extensive preparations for a grand attack on the territory between the rivers, the ever-debatable land which for nearly two centuries had been the subject of dispute between his predecessors and their northern neighbours. His objective was the city of Raichur, then under the Muhammadans,[213] and when all was ready he marched to the attack with an immense force.

This event requires a chapter to itself.

CHAPTER 11

The Siege and Battle of Raichur, and Close of Krishna’s Reign (A.D. 1520 to 1530)

The date of the siege — Evidence of Castanheda, Correa, Barros, Faria y Souza, Osorio, Lafitau, Firishtah — Ruy de Mello and the mainlands of Goa — Immense numbers engaged — Firishtah’s story of the fight — Portuguese present — Christovao de Figueiredo — Political effects of the Hindu victory, and the events that followed it — The mainlands of Goa.

I shall ask my readers to turn for an account of the great battle and siege of Raichur to the narrative of Nuniz,[214] whose description is so full and so vivid that it may well be allowed to stand by itself. It is only necessary for me to add a few notes.

The following is a short summary of the story: —

Krishna Deva Raya, having determine to attack the Adil Shah and once for all to capture the disputed fortress of Raichur, collected all his forces, and marched with an immense host from