第16章

The Raya replied by a counter-demand that the Sultan should evacuate the whole of the Doab,since Raichur and Mudkal had always belonged to the Anegundi family.Bukka declared the Krishna river to be the true boundary,and asked that the elephants taken by Sultan Muhammad should be restored.

The Sultan's answer was a declaration of war.He advanced in person,crossed both the rivers,and arrived before Adoni.On hearing that the Raya was encamped on the bank of the Tungabhadra,he left one force to besiege the fortress,sent another to advance towards Vijayanagar,and himself marched,probably in a north-westerly direction,towards the river,"by slow marches and with great caution."The Hindu prince at first prepared to receive his attack,but for some reason[57]

lost heart and retired to the forests on the hills of Sandur,south of his capital.

Firishtah here pays a tribute to the interest felt by the inhabitants of this part of India in the new city,then only forty years old,but evidently growing in grandeur year by year.

"Mujahid Shaw,having heard great praises of the beauty of the city,advanced to Beejanuggur;but thinking it too strong to besiege at present,he moved in pursuit of the enemy in the field."Now follows a passage on which it is difficult to place full reliance,but which only echoes common tradition.It runs to the effect that,on the advance of the Sultan,the Raya "fled through the woods and hills towards Seet Bunder Ramessar followed by the sultan,who cut passages for his cavalry;through forests before inaccessible.In this manner the roy fled from place to place for six months,but never dared to appear without the woods.It was in vain that the favourites of the sultan represented the pursuit as fruitless and destructive to the troops.He would not desist.At last his good fortune prevailed.The health of Kishen Roy and his family became affected by the noxious air of the woods,and they were warned to quit them by the physicians....Driven by necessity,he retired by secret paths to his capital of Beejanuggur.The sultan despatched an army after him,while he himself,with the ameer al amra Bahadur Khan and five thousand men,went to amuse himself with the sight of Seet Bunda Ramessar.

"The sultan at this place repaired a mosque which had been built by the officers of Sultan Alla ad Dien Khiljee.He broke down many temples of the idolaters,and laid waste their country after which he hastened with all expedition to Beejanuggur."It is a fact that a mosque is declared to have been erected by Malik Kafur on the sea-coast in 1310,but apparently not at Ramesvaram,which lies in the extreme south of India,on the eastern coast opposite the island of Ceylon.Moreover,it is extremely improbable that a Muhammadan sovereign could,in the fourteenth century A.D.,have penetrated so far south with such a handful of men.They would have been harassed at every step by myriads of Hindus,who,though doubtless trembling at the sight of a Muhammadan,would,we may be sure,never have permitted 5000men to traverse in peace 1000miles of forest and mountain;for Ramesvaram is fully 500miles from Vijayanagar.Malik Kafur's expedition is said to have taken place after the conquest by him of the Ballala Rajah of Dvarasamudra in Maisur,when he erected a mosque on the SEA-COAST OFMALABAR,and therefore nowhere near Ramesvaram.Colonel Briggs has observed this difficulty,[58]and thinks that the place alluded to must be Sadasivaghur,on the western coast,)south of Goa,adding,"The spot ...is called Cape Ramas on our maps."[59]He believes,however,that the remains of an old mosque do exist at Ramesvaram,and its date should be settled.Leaving it to others better informed to throw light on this point,I return to Bukka Raya and his doings.

Firishtah says that there were two roads to Vijayanagar:

"one fit for the passage of armies,the other narrow and difficult.As the former was lined with ambushes,he chose the latter,through which he marched with a select-body of troops,and appeared suddenly in the suburbs of the city."If Mujahid came up from the Malabar coast,the former of these two roads would perhaps be the usual route adopted by travellers,which leads through open undulating plains.Avoiding this route,the Sultan may have turned the Sandur hills by a flank movement to his right,and approached either along the valley of Sandur or along the valley which now carries the main road from Bellary to Vijayanagar,between the Sandur hills and the hills that surround the latter city.