第38章

"Melikh Tuchar took two Indian Towns whose ships pirated on the Indian Sea,captured seven princes with their treasures....The town had been besieged for two years by an army of two hundred thousand men,a hundred elephants,and three hundred camels.[164]...

"Myza Mylk,Mek-Khan,and Farat Khan took three large cities,and captured an immense quantity of precious stones,the whole of which was brought to Melik Tuchar....They came to Beder on the day of the Ascension."The Sultan's brother "when in a campaign is followed by his mother and sister,and 2000women on horseback or on golden beds;[165]at the head of his train are 300ordinary horses in gold equipment.""Melik Tuchar moved from Beder with his army,50,000strong,against the Indians....The Sultan sent 50,000of his own army....With this force Melik Tuchar went to fight against the great Indian dominion of CHENUDAR.But the king of BINEDAR[166]possessed 300elephants,100,000men of his own troops,and 50,000horse."The writer then gives details as to the rest of the Sultan's forces,and the total comes to the enormous amount of over 900,000foot,190,000horse,and 575elephants.

"The Sultan moved out with his army ...to join Melich Tuchar at Kalbarga.But their campaign was not successful,for they took only one Indian town,and that at the loss of many people and treasures.[167]

"The Hindu Sultan Kadam is a very powerful prince.He possesses a numerous army and resides on a mountain at BICHENEGHER.This vast city is surrounded by three forts and intersected by a river,bordering on one side on a dreadful jungle,and on the other on a dale;a wonderful place and to any purpose convenient.On one side it is quite inaccessible;a road gives right through the town,and as the mountain rises high with a ravine below,the town is impregnable.

"The enemy besieged it for a month and lost many people,owing to the walls of water and food.Plenty of water was in sight but could not be got at.

"This Indian stronghold was ultimately taken by Melikh Khan Khoda,who stormed it,and fought day and night to reduce it.The army that made the siege with heavy guns had neither eaten nor drunk for twenty days.He lost 5000of his best soldiers.On the capture of the town 20,000inhabitants men and women,had their heads cut off,20,000young and old were made prisoners and sold....The treasury,however,having been found empty,the town was abandoned."It is impossible to decide to what this refers,as we have no other information of any capture of Vijayanagar by the Sultan's forces at this period.But the traveller may have confused the place with Rajahmundry or one of the eastern cities of Telingana.

In 1482A.D.,as before stated,Mahmud Shah II.succeeded to the throne of Kulbarga,being then a boy of twelve,but his sovereignty was only nominal.Constant disturbances took place;the nobles in many tracts rose against the sovereign,and amongst others the governor of Goa attempted to assert his independence,seizing many important places on the coast;civil war raged at the capital;and before long the great chiefs threw off all semblance of obedience to the authority of the Bahmanis,and at length divided the kingdom amongst themselves.

At Vijayanagar,too,there seems to have been chaos,and about the time when the Dakhani nobles finally revolted,Narasimha Raya had placed himself on the throne and established a new and powerful dynasty.

The five separate kingdoms which arose in the Dakhan were those of the Adil Shahs of Bijapur,with whom we have most to do;the Barid Shahs of Bidr or Ahmadabad;the Imad Shahs of Birar;the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar;and the Qutb Shahs of Golkonda.

Adil Shah was the first of his line at Bijapur,and he proclaimed his independence in A.D.1489.The unhappy king Mahmud II.lived in inglorious seclusion till December 18,A.D.1517,and was nominally succeeded by his eldest son,Ahmad.Ahmad died after two years'reign,and was followed in rapid succession by his two brothers,Ala-ud-din III.(deposed)and Wali (murdered),after whom Kalim Ullah,son of Ahmad II.,was nominally placed on the throne but was kept a close prisoner,and with his death the Bahmani dynasty fell for ever.