第20章

"As is the custom of Dekkan,many sets of loolies[88]and dancing-girls were ordered to perform at the same time,and having finished their parts,the roy's son called for the players and mummers.The dancing-girl now obtained leave for the cauzi and one of his companions to show their feats.Having assumed the dress of women,they entered ogling and smiling,and so well imitated the mummers in playing on the mundal,dancing,and mimicry,that the roy's son was charmed with their performances.At length they each drew a dagger,and,like the dancers of Dekkan,continued to flourish them for some time,making a thousand antic postures in advancing,retreating,and turning round.At last,suddenly rushing upon the roy's son,they plunged both the daggers into his breast,afterwards attacking his companions.Their remaining friends,who were watching without the tent,on hearing an alarm,ripped up the curtain,and entered to assist them.Many of the company,being much intoxicated,were easily put to death.The cauzi with his friends extinguished all the lights,and,making their escape through the rent,mingled with the crowd.The outcry soon became general round the tents.Great confusion ensued,and various reports and alarms took place.Some said that the sultan had crossed the river and surprised the camp,others that one of his chiefs,with twelve thousand men,had cut off both the roy and his son.The night was uncommonly dark,and the camp extended near ten miles,so that circumstances were variously reported,and the different chiefs,ignorant of the real cause of the alarm,contended themselves with waiting in their several quarters;under arms.About four thousand of the sultan's troops,in this interim,crossed the river in boats and rafts which had been prepared for the purpose.The enemy's foot,stationed to oppose the passage,terrified by the alarm in camp and the approach of the sultan's forces,fled in confusion without waiting to be attacked.Before the morning Feroze Shaw had crossed the river with his whole army,and at dawn assaulted the enemy's camp with great fury.Dewul Roy grieved by the death of his son and panic struck at the bravery of the assailants,made but a faint resistance.Before sunrise,having taken up his son's corpse,he fled with his army.The sultan gained immense plunder in the camp,and pursued him to the vicinity of Beejanuggur.Several actions happened on the way,all of which were fortunate to the sultan,and the roads were heaped up with the bodies of the slaughtered Hindoos."Bukka reached Vijayanagar in safety and took refuge behind its fortifications,while the Sultan sent his brother Ahmad (afterwards Sultan),whom he had honoured with the title of "Khankhanan,"to ravage the rich districts south of the city.Ahmad fulfilled his instructions and returned with numberless prisoners,and amongst them many Brahmans.The relatives of these in the city begged the aged Raya (Harihara II.,still alive)to offer ransom,and after much negotiation the Sultan accepted "ten lakhs of oons"[89]and agreed to the execution of a treaty.

According to this treaty,which was entered into a few months before the close of the Hijra year 801,I.E.a few months before 3rd September A.D.1399,the boundaries of the two kingdoms were to be the same as before the war,and each party agreed to refrain from molesting the subjects of the other.This does not look as though the Sultan had gained any very material advantage in the campaign,since the true boundary was always a subject of dispute.I obtain the date above given from Firishtah's sentence:"In a few months after the conclusion of this campaign,and the beginning of the year 802,the sultan marched to punish Nersing,"a chief who had raised disturbances on the borders of Berar.

The BURHAN-I MAASIR passes over this war with great brevity.It states that the Sultan began it,and that at its close he accepted a large indemnity and promise of payment of annual tribute.The date given is identical.

Not long after this war,but certainly not before October 15,A.D.1399,Harihara II,died,and was succeeded by Bukka,his son.

We have little to guide us as to the events of Bukka's reign,but Firishtah states that he ceased to pay tribute to Firuz Shah,partly owing to instigation from Gujarat,Malwa,and Khandeish.In Hijra 808(June 1405to June 1406A.D.)four years'tribute was owing,but the Sultan took no notice,and waited for a more convenient time.

Bukka was followed on the throne of Vijayanagar by his brother Deva Raya I.,the date of whose coronation is fixed by an inion at Hasan in Mysore as November 5,1406.[90]The last inion of Bukka Raya at present known bears a date corresponding to April 30th in that year --in Hindu reckoning the 12th day of the first half of the month Vaisakha,in the (expired)Saka year 1328,the name of the cyclic year being "Vyaya."[91]