A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar by Robert Sewell (short story to read TXT) 📕

shift for himself. Dewul Roy ran with his own troops, and about noon came up with some of his nobles, by whom he was recognised and received with great joy. His safety being made known, his army rallied into some order; but as he regarded the late accident as an ill omen, he laid aside all thoughts of engaging in the field, and fled to Beejanuggur.[105]

“Ahmad Shaw not stopping to besiege the city, overran the open country, and wherever he came, put to death men; women, and children, without mercy, contrary to the compact made by his ancestor Mahummud Shaw with the roies of Beejanuggur. Laying aside all humanity, whenever the number of the slain amounted to twenty thousand, he halted three days, and made a festival in celebration of the bloody work. He broke down the idol temples, and destroyed the colleges of the Bramins. During these operations a body of five thousand Hindoos, enraged to desperation at the destruction of their country and the insults of their gods, united in taking an oath to sacrifice their lives in attempting to kill the sultan, as the grand author of all their sufferings. For this purpose they employed spies to observe his motions, that they might seize the first opportunity of action.

“It happened, that the sultan going to hunt, in the eagerness of chase separated from the body of his attendants, and advanced near twelve miles from his camp.[106] The devoted infidels, informed of the circumstance, immediately hastened to intercept him, and arrived in sight when even his personal attendants, about two hundred Moguls, were at some distance from him. The sultan alarmed, galloped on in hopes of gaining a small mud enclosure which stood on the plain as a fold for cattle, but was so hotly pursued, that some broken ground falling in his way, he was not able to cross it before his pursuers came up. Luckily some archers at this instant arrived to his aid, so that the enemy were delayed sufficiently to give the sultan time to reach the enclosure with his friends. The infidels attempted to enter, and a sharp conflict took place; all the faithful repeating the creed of testimony, and swearing to die, rather than submit…. Their little troop being mostly killed and wounded, the assailants advanced close to the wall, which they began to throw down with pickaxes and hatchets, so that the sultan was reduced to the extremity of distress. At this critical juncture arrived Abd-al-Kadir, first armour-bearer to the sultan, and a body of troops, with whom, fearful of some accident having happened to occasion his absence, he had left the camp in search of his master. The infidels had completed a wide breach, and were preparing to enter, when they found their rear suddenly attacked The sultan with his remaining friends joined Abd-al-Kadir in attacking the enemy, who after a long struggle were driven off the field, with a loss of a thousand men, and about five hundred of the mussulmauns attained martyrdom. Thus the sultan, by the almost inspired caution of Abd-al-Kadir, acceded, as it were, a second time, from the depths of danger to the enjoyment of empire.[107] It deserves place among the records of time, as a remarkable event, that two sovereigns at the head of armies, should fall into such danger for want of numbers, and both escape uninjured….

“after this event Ahmed Shaw, having laid waste the whole country, marched to Beejanuggur, which he kept so closely blocked up, that the inhabitants were reduced to the greatest distress; when Dewul Roy, to spare his people, sent ambassadors to the sultan entreating peace, to which he consented, on condition that he would send the tribute of as many years as he had neglected to pay,[108] laden on his best elephants, and conducted by his son, with his drums, trumpets, and all the other insignia of state, to his camp. Dewul Roy, unable to refuse compliance, agreed to the demands, and sent his son with thirty favourite elephants, loaded with treasure and valuable effects. The sultan sent some noblemen to meet him; and after being led in ceremony through the market and great streets of the camp, he was brought to the presence.[109] The sultan, after embracing, permitted him to sit at the foot of his throne, and putting on his shoulders a magnificent robe, and girding him with a sabre set with jewels, gave him twenty beautiful horses of various countries, a male elephant, dogs for the chase, and three hawks, which the Carnatickehs were till then strangers to the use of. He then marched from the environs of Beejanuggur, and on his arrival on the bank of the Kistnah dismissed the roy’s son and returned to Koolburga.”

To form some idea of the date of this cessation of hostilities we must see what follows in Firishtah’s narrative. The historian states that during the year of the Sultan’s return to Kulbarga there was a grievous famine in the Dakhan, and “the next year also, no rain appearing, the people became seditious.” These two years were probably A.H. 826, 827, extending from 15th December A.D. 1422 to 23rd November 1424. He continues, “In the year 828″ the Sultan marched against Warangal. The last campaign began about December A.D. 1422; and since we must allow some months for Ahmad’s blockade of Vijayanagar, which resulted in his reducing the inhabitants to a state of starvation so that the Raya was compelled to capitulate, the date for the end of the war cannot be safely placed earlier than the winter of the year A.D. 1423. During these twelve months, however, there was a famine and failure of rain, so that the Sultan may have been able to traverse the cotton plains lying between Vijayanagar and Kulbarga, plains quite impassable for troops in wet weather, somewhat earlier than would otherwise have been the case.

The Sultan’s next war took place in A.H. 828, when he advanced against Warangal over the undulating plains of the Dakhan, then rich in crop, and was completely successful. The Hindu kingdom was completely and for ever destroyed. The English date usually given for this event is A.D. 1424, but it is quite possible that a mistake has been made owing to the use of imperfect chronological tables by those who have written on the subject, and that Ahmad Shah’s capture of Warangal may have taken place in A.D. 1425. Briggs, for instance, calls A.H. 828 “A.D. 1424,” but the year only began on November 23, 1424. The campaign, however, was very short, and may have been concluded before the end of December of that year.

We hear nothing more from Firishtah regarding the affairs of Vijayanagar till the early part of the reign of Ahmad’s son and successor, Ala-ud-din II., which began on Sunday, February 27, A.D. 1435,[110] the day of Sultan Ahmad’s death.

Ala-ud-din’s first act was to despatch his brother Muhammad Khan with a powerful army against Deva Raya of Vijayanagar —

“who had withheld his tribute for five years and refused to pay the arrears. They laid waste the country in such a manner that the Roy in a short time was glad to procure peace by giving twenty elephants, a great sum of money, and two hundred female slaves skilled in music and dancing, besides a valuable present to Mahummud Khan.”

Flushed with this victory, and in command of a large force, Prince Muhammad rebelled against his brother, and Firishtah states that in doing so he obtained aid from Deva Raya. The prince took Mudkal, Raichur, Sholapur, Bijapur, and Naldirak from the Sultan’s governors, but in a pitched battle with the royal forces was completely defeated and fled. Shortly afterwards, however, he was forgiven by his generous sovereign, and the fortress and territories of Raichur were conferred on him.

About the year 1442 Deva Raya began to consider more seriously his situation in relation to his powerful neighbour at Kulbarga.

“He called111 a general council of his nobility and principal bramins, observing to them that as his country of Carnatic in extent, population, and revenue far exceeded the territories of the house of Bahmenee; land in like manner his army was far more numerous, wished therefore to explore the cause of the mussulmauns’ successes, and his being reduced to pay them tribute. Some said … that the superiority of the mussulmauns arose from two circumstances: one, all their horses being strong, and able to bear more fatigue than the weak, lean animals of Carnatic; the other, a great body of excellent archers always kept up by the sultans of the house of Bahmenee, of whom the roy had but few in his army.

“Deo Roy upon this gave orders for the entertainment of mussulmauns in his service, allotted them jaghires,[112] erected a mosque for their use in the city of Beejanuggur, and commanded that no one should molest them in the exercise of their religion. He also ordered a koraun to be placed before his throne, on a rich desk, that the mussulmauns might perform the ceremony of obeisance in his presence, without sinning against their laws. He also made all the Hindoo soldiers learn the discipline of the bow; in which he and his officers used such exertions, that he had at length two thousand mussulmauns and sixty thousand Hindoos, well skilled in archery, besides eighty thousand horse and two hundred thousand foot, armed in the usual manner with pikes and lances.”

On a day which must have been between November 1442 and April 1443 a desperate attempt was made on the life of King Deva Raya by one of his closest relatives — a brother, according to Abdur Razzak, a nephew, according to Nuniz. Abdur Razzak’s story is without doubt the more reliable of the two, since he is a contemporary witness. The story as told by Nuniz is given in the chronicle at the end of this volume.[113] Abdur Razzak was ambassador from Persia to Calicut and Vijayanagar, and his account is particularly important as it definitely fixes the date.

“During the time that the author of this narrative was still sojourning at Calicut (November 1442 to April 1443) there happened in the city of Bidjanagar an extraordinary and most singular occurrence….

“The king’s brother, who had had a new house built for himself, invited thither the monarch and the principal personages of the empire. Now it is an established usage of the infidels never to eat in presence of each other. The men who were invited were assembled together in one grand hall. At short intervals the prince either came in person or sent some messenger to say that such or such great personage should come and eat his part of the banquet. Care had been taken to bring together all the drums, kettledrums, trumpets, and flutes that could be found in the city, and these instruments playing all at the same time, made a tremendous uproar. As soon as the individual who had been sent for entered the above-mentioned house, two assassins, placed in ambush, sprang out upon him, pierced him with a poignard, and cut him in pieces. After having removed his limbs, or rather the fragments of his body, they sent for another guest, who, once having entered this place of carnage, disappeared…. In consequence of the noise of the drums, the clamour, and the tumult, no one was aware of what was going on. In this manner all those who had any name or rank in the state were slaughtered. The prince leaving his house all reeking with the blood of his victims, betook himself to the king’s palace, and addressing himself to the guards who were stationed in that royal residence, invited them with flattering words to go to his house, and caused them to follow the steps of the other-victims. So that the palace was thus deprived of all its defenders. This villain then