第56章

The Reign of Achyuta Raya Achyuta Raya --Fall of Raichur and Mudkal --Asada Khan and Goa --Disturbances at Bijapur --Ibrahim Shah at the Hindu capital --Firishtah on Vijayanagar affairs --Rise of Rama Raya and his brothers --"Hoje"--Tirumala --Varying legends --Venkatadri defeated by Asada Khan near Adoni --Asada Khan's career --Belgaum and Goa --Asada's duplicity --Portuguese aggressions --Religious grants by,and inions relating to,Achyuta.

Achyuta,according to Nuniz and some other authorities,was a brother of the late king,[263]and,in company with two other brothers and a nephew,had been confined by Krishna Deva in the fortress of Chandragiri,in order to prevent dissensions in the kingdom.The new monarch is said by Nuniz to have been specially selected by Krishna Deva.If so,the choice was singularly unfortunate,for Achyuta was a craven and under him the Hindu empire began to fall to pieces.

His minister was one of the powerful Saluva family,to which also had belonged Timma,the minister of King Krishna.Nuniz calls him "Salvanay."The earliest known date of Achyuta's reign is gathered from an inion bearing a date corresponding to Monday,August 15,A.D.1530.[264]

The beginning of his reign was ominously signalised by the loss of the frontier fortresses Mudkal and Raichur.Firishtah[265]states that the Adil Shah had,some time before the death of Krishna Deva,made preparations to recover possession of these cities,and proceeds:--"The Sultan ...put his army in motion,attended by Ummad Shaw and Ameer Bereed with their forces;and the affairs of Beejanuggur being in confusion owing to the death of Heemraaje,who was newly succeeded by his son Ramraaje,[266]against whom rebellions had arisen by several roles,met with no interruptions to his arms.Roijore and Mudkul were taken,after a siege of three months,by capitulation,after they had been in possession of the infidels for seventeen years."[267]

The relief and delight of the Adil Shah at these successes,and at the death of his mortal enemy Krishna,must have been great;and Firishtah relates that the Sultan,"who had vowed to refrain from wine till the reduction of these fortresses,at the request of his nobility now made a splendid festival,at which he drank wine and gave a full loose to mirth and pleasure."Raichur and Mudkal were never again subject to Hindu princes.

Those who desire to obtain an insight into the character of the new king of Vijayanagar should turn to the chronicle of Nuniz.It will suffice here to say that he alienated his best friends by his violent despotism,and at the same time proved to the whole empire that he was a coward.His conduct and mode of government ruined the Hindu cause in Southern India and opened the whole country to the invader,though he himself did not live to see the end.

After the fall of Raichur and the Doab,Ismail Adil had another fight (1531)with his rival at Ahmadnagar and defeated him;after which the two brothers-in-law consolidated a strong alliance.Three years later Ismail died,having contracted a fever while besieging a fortress belonging to the Qutb Shah of Golkonda.His death occurred on Thursday,August 13,1534,[268]and he was succeeded by his son Malu.Asada Khan was appointed regent of Bijapur,but immediately on his accession the new sovereign so offended his powerful subject that he retired to Belgaum,and Sultan Malu,giving himself up to all kinds of excesses,was deposed after a reign of only six months.Malu was blinded by the orders of his own grandmother,and Ibrahim Adil,his younger brother,was raised to the throne.It was now 1535.

Da Cunha,the Portuguese governor of Goa,took advantage of these events to erect a fortress at Diu,and early in 1536to seize again the mainlands of Goa,which had been for ten years in the possession of Asada Khan.The Khan sent a force to recapture these lands,and in February an engagement took place in which the Portuguese were victorious.A second attack by the Moslems was similarly repulsed.Athird fight took place in July,and again the Muhammadans were beaten;but Asada Khan then assembled a larger army,and the foreigners were compelled to retire after blowing up their fortress.

About this time[269]Quli Qutb Shah is said to have attacked Kondavid on account of its withholding payment of tribute,to have taken it,and built a tower in the middle of the fort in commemoration of its reduction.

Two inions at Conjeeveram,dated respectively in 1532and 1533,[270]imply that at that period King Achyuta reduced the country about Tinnevelly;but apparently he was not present in person,and nothing further is known regarding this expedition.

We now enter upon a period very difficult to deal with satisfactorily,owing to the conflict of evidence in the works of the various writers.

"A year after his accession,"writes Firishtah,[271]"Ibrahim,Adil led his army to Beejanuggur on the requisition of the roy."This would be the year 1536A.D.But what led to such an extraordinary complication of affairs?Can it be true that King Achyuta was so humiliated and hard pressed as to be compelled to summon to his aid the hereditary enemies of his country?