第15章

"On the 14th of Zeekaud (A.H.767,or Thursday,July 23,A.D.1366),the armies of light and darkness met.From the dawn till four in the afternoon,like the waves of the ocean,they continued in warm conflict with each other,and great numbers were slain on both sides.Mooseh Khan and Eeseh Khan,who commanded the right and left wings of Khan Mahummud's line,drank the sherbet of martyrdom,and their troops broke;which misfortune had nearly given a blow to the army of Islaam.At this instant Mahummud Shaw appeared with three thousand fresh horse.This restored the spirits of Khan Mahummud as also of the disordered troops,who rallied and joined him.Mukkrib Khan,advancing with the artillery,was not wanting in execution,greatly disordering the enemy's horse and foot.He asked leave to charge and complete the rout.Khan Mahummud upon this,detached a number of the nobility to support him,and permitted him to advance;which he did with such rapidity that the infidels had not time to use fireworks (I.E.cannon),but cane to short weapons such as swords and daggers.At this time an elephant,named Sheer Shikar,[54]belonging to Khan Mahummud,refused the guidance of his driver,and rushed into the center of the enemy's line,where he was stopped by the elephants of Hoje Mul Roy,and his driver was killed.Khan Mahummud with five hundred horse followed,and the elephant becoming unruly,turned upon the enemy,throwing their ranks into confusion.Hoje Mul Roy,after receiving a mortal wound,fled,and his followers no longer made resistance.The infidels,seeing their center broke,fled on all sides.The scymetars of the faithful were not yet sheathed from slaughter when the royal umbrella appeared.The sultan gave orders to renew the massacre of the unbelievers.They were executed with such strictness that pregnant women,and even children at the breast,did not escape the sword.

"Mahummud Shaw halted a week on the field,and dispatched accounts of his victory to his own dominions.In performance of his vow of massacre he next marched towards the camp of Kishen Roy,who,thinking himself unable to oppose notwithstanding his numerous force,fled to the woods and mountains for shelter.The sultan followed him from place to place for three months,putting to death all who came in his way,without distinction.At length Kishen Roy took the road of Beejanuggur,his capital.The sultan,pursuing,soon arrived with his army near the city."To make a long story short,the Sultan besieged Vijayanagar in vain for a month,and then retreated across the Tungabhadra,harassed at every step by masses of the Hindus from the city.He halted at last in an open plain,and the king also pitched his camp at no great distance.Muhammad's retreat had been deliberately carried out in order to draw on his enemy,and cause him by over-confidence to neglect proper precautions.The ruse was successful.The Muhammadans made a sudden and unexpected night-attack.Bukka (called,as before,"Kishen")was off his guard,having indulged in wine and the amusements provided by a band of dancing-women.The slaughter was terrible,and the Raya fled to Vijayanagar,ten thousand of his troops being slain;--"But this did not satisfy the rage of the sultan,who commanded the inhabitants of every place round Beejanuggur to be massacred without mercy."Then Bukka tried to make peace,but the Sultan refused.

"At this time a favourite remarked to the sultan that he had only sworn to slaughter one hundred thousand Hindoos,and not totally to destroy their race The sultan replied that though twice the number of his vow might have been slain,yet till the roy should submit,and satisfy the musicians,he would not pardon him or spare the lives of his subjects.To this the ambassadors,who had full powers,agreed,and the money was paid at the instant.Mahummud Shaw then said,'Praise be to God that what I ordered has been performed.I would not let a light word be recorded of me in the pages of time!'"The ambassadors then pleaded that no religion ordained that the innocent,and particularly helpless women and children,should suffer for the guilty:--"If Kishen Roy had been faulty,the poor and wretched had not been partakers in his crimes.Mahummud Shaw replied that the decrees of providence had so ordered,and that he had no power to alter them."The ambassadors finally urged that as the two nations were neighbours,it were surely best to avoid unnecessary cruelty,which would only embitter their relations with one another;and this argument had effect.

"Mahummud Shaw was struck by their remarks,and took an oath that he would not in future put to death a single enemy after victory,and would bind his successors to observe the same lenity."For some years,no doubt,the promise was fulfilled,but we read of wholesale massacres perpetrated by sovereigns of later date.As to Muhammad,Firishtah glories in the statement that he had slaughtered 500,000Hindus,and so wasted the districts of the Carnatic that for several decades they did not recover their natural population.

Thus ended the war,and for some years there was peace between Vijayanagar and Kulbarga.

Muhammad Shah died on 21st April A.D.1375,[55]and was succeeded by his son Mujahid,then nineteen years old.Shortly after his accession Mujahid wrote to Bukka Raya (still called "Kishen Roy"by Firishtah[56]),"that as some forts and districts between the Kistnah and Tummedra (Tungabhadra)rivers were held by them in participation,which occasioned constant disagreements,he must for the future limit his confines to the Tummedra,and give up all on the eastern side to him,with the fort of Beekapore and some other places."This "Beekapore"is the important fortress of Bankapur,south of Dharwar.The Dakhani sovereigns always looked on it with covetous eyes,as it lay on the direct route from Vijayanagar to the sea,and its possession would paralyse Hindu trade.