第66章

Destruction of Vijayanagar (A.D.1565)

Arrogance of Rama Raya --Ahmadnagar attacked --Muhammadans combine against Vijayanagar --The league of the five kings --Their advance to Talikota --Decisive battle,1565,and total defeat of the Hindus --Death of Rama Raya --Panic at Vijayanagar --Flight of the royal family --Sack of the great city --Its total destruction --Evidence of Federici,1567--Downfall of Portuguese trade,and decay of prosperity at Goa.

Meanwhile affairs were advancing rapidly in the interior.After the Nizam Shah's dominions had been wasted,as already described,by the Adil Shah and Rama Raya,peace was made by the restoration of Kallian to Bijapur;[320]but as soon as the allies had retired,Hussain entered into an alliance with Ibrahim Qutb Shah and again marched to attack Ali Adil.Again Ali called in the aid of Vijayanagar,and again Rama Raya marched to his aid,this time with 50,000horse and an immense force of infantry.The opposing forces met at Kallian,when the Qutb Shah deserted to Ali Adil,and Hussain was compelled to withdraw to Ahmadnagar.Attacked in his own capital,he retreated.

"The three sovereigns laid siege to Ahmednuggur,and despatched detachments various ways to lay waste the country round.The Hindoos of Beejanuggur committed the most outrageous devastations,burning and razing the buildings,putting up their horses in the mosques,and performing their idolatrous worship in the holy places;but,notwithstanding,the siege was pushed with the greatest vigour,the garrison held out with resolution,hoping that at the approach of the rainy season,the enemy would be necessitated to raise the siege.

"when the rains had set in,from the floods,damp,and want of provisions,distress began to prevail in the camp of the allies,and Kootub Shaw also secretly corresponded with the besieged,to whom he privately sent in grain."[321]

The siege was raised,therefore,and before long the allies separated,and the Hindu army returned home.

"In the first expedition on which Ali Adil Shaw,pressed by the behaviour of Houssein Nizam Shaw,had called Ramraaje to his assistance,the Hindoos at Ahmednuggur committed great outrages,and omitted no mark of disrespect to the holy religion of the faithful,singing and performing their superstitious worship in the mosques.The sultan was much hurt at this insult to the faith,but,as he had not the ability to prevent it,he did not seem to observe it.Ramraaje also,at the conclusion of this expedition,looking on the Islaam sultans as of little consequence,refused proper honours to their ambassadors.When he admitted them to his presence,he did not suffer them to sit,and treated them with the most contemptuous reserve and haughtiness.He made them attend when in publick in his train on foot,not allowing them to mount till he gave orders.On the return from the last expedition to Nuldirruk,the officers and soldiers of his army in general,treated the mussulmauns with insolence,scoffing,and contemptuous language;and Ramraaje,after taking leave,casting an eye of avidity on the countries of Koottub Shaw and Adil Shaw,dispatched armies to the frontiers of each."Both the great Shahs,therefore,abandoned certain territories to the Hindus,and from Golkonda Rama obtained Ghanpura and Pangul.It was the last Hindu success.

"Ramraaje daily continuing to encroach on the dominions of the mussulmauns,Adil Shaw at length resolved,if possible,to punish his insolence and curtail his power by a general league of the faithful against him;for which purpose he convened an assembly of his friends and confidential advisers."Some of these urged that the Raya was too wealthy and powerful,by reason of his immense revenues,which were collected from no less than sixty seaports in addition to very large territories and dependencies,and the number of his forces was too vast,for any single Muhammadan monarch to cope with him.They therefore pressed the Sultan to form a federation of all the kings of the Dakhan and wage a joint war.Ali Adil heartily concurred in their opinion,and began by despatching a secret embassy to Ibrahim Qutb Shah.

Ibrahim eagerly accepted,and offered his services as mediator between Ali Adil and his great rival at Ahmadnagar.An envoy was sent to the latter capital,and the sovereign,Hussain Shah,warned beforehand of the important proposals to be made,received him in private audience.The ambassador then laid before the king all the arguments in favour of the Bijapur plan.

"He represented to him that during the times of the Bhamenee princes,when the whole strength of the mussulmaun power was in one hand,the balance between it and the force of the roles of Beejanuggur was nearly equal;that now the mussulmaun authority was divided,policy demanded that all the faithful princes should unite as one,and observe the strictest friendship,that they might continue secure from the attacks of their powerful common enemy,and the authority of the roles of Beejanuggur,who had reduced all the rajas of Carnatic to their yoke,be diminished,and removed far from the countries of Islaam;that the people of their several dominions,who ought to be considered the charge of the Almighty committed to their care,might repose free from the oppressions of the unbelievers,and their mosques and holy places be made no longer the dwellings of infidels."These arguments had their full weight,and it was arranged that Hussain Nizam Shah should give his daughter Chand Bibi in marriage to Ali Adil with the fortress of Sholapur as her DOT,and that his eldest son,Murtiza,should espouse Ali's sister --the two kingdoms coalescing for the conquest and destruction of Vijayanagar.The marriages were celebrated in due course,and the Sultans began their preparations for the holy war.