第72章

In 1580Ali Adil was murdered.Firishtah in his history of the Qutb Shahs gives the date as Thursday,23rd Safar,A.H.987,but the true day appears to have been Monday,24th Safar,A.H.988,corresponding to Monday,April 11,A.D.1580.This at least is the date given by an eye-witness,one Rafi-ud-Din Shirazi,who held an important position at the court at the time.(The question is discussed by Major King in the INDIAN ANTIQUARY,vol.xvii.p.221.)Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golkonda also died in 1580and was succeeded by Muhammad Quli,his third son,who in 1589founded the city of Haidarabad,originally carted Bhagnagar.He carried on successful wars in the present Kurnool and Cuddapah districts,capturing Kurnool,Nandial,Dole,and Gandikota,following up these successes by inroads into the eastern districts of Nellore.

King Tirumala of Vijayanagar was in 1575followed apparently by his second son,Ranga II.,whose successor was his brother Venkata I.[348]

(1586).The latter reigned for at least twenty-eight years,and died an old man in 1614.At his death there were widespread revolts,disturbances,and civil warfare,as we shall presently see from the account of Barradas given in the next chapter.An important inion of his reign,dated in A.D.1601--2,and recorded on copper-plates,has been published by Dr.Hultzsch.[349]

In 1593the Bijapur Sultan,Ibrahim Adil,invaded Mysore,which then belonged to the Raya,and reduced the place after a three months'siege.In the same year this Sultan's brother,Ismail,who had been kept prisoner at Belgaum,rose against his sovereign and declared himself independent king of the place.He was besieged there by the royal troops'but owing to treachery in the camp they failed to take the place,and the territories in the neighbourhood were for some time a prey to insurrections and disturbances.Eventually they were reduced to submission and the rebel was killed.Contemporaneously with these events,the Hindus again tried to obtain possession of Adoni,but without success;[350]and a war broke out between the rival kingdoms of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar.

With this period ends abruptly the narrative of Firishtah relating to the Sultans of Bijapur.The Golkonda history[351]appears to differ widely from it,but I have not thought it necessary here to compare the two stories.

The history of the seventeenth century in Southern India is one of confusion and disturbance.The different governors became independent.The kings of the decadent empire wasted their wealth and lost their territories,so that at length they held a mere nominal sovereignty,and nothing remained but the shadow of the once great name --the prestige of family.And yet,even so late as the years 1792and 1793,I find a loyal Reddi in the south,in recording on copper-plates some grants of land to temples,declaring that he did so by permission of "Venkatapati Maharaya of Vijayanagar;"[352]while Iknow of eight other grants similarly recognising the old Hindu royal family,which were engraved in the eighteenth century.[353]

The Ikkeri or Bednur chiefs styled themselves under-lords of Vijayanagar till 1650.[354]A Vijayanagar viceroy ruled over Mysore till 1610,after which the descendants of the former viceroys became Rajahs in their own right.In Madura and Tanjore the Nayakkas became independent in 1602.

All the Muhammadan dynasties in the Dakhan fell under the power of the Mogul emperors of Delhi towards the close of the seventeenth century,and the whole of the south of India soon became practically theirs.But meanwhile another great power had arisen,and at one time threatened to conquer all India.This was the sovereignty of the Mahrattas.Sivaji conquered all the Konkan country by 1673,and four years later he had overthrown the last shreds of Vijayanagar authority in Kurnool,Gingi,and Vellore;while his brother Ekoji had already,in 1674,captured Tanjore,and established a dynasty there which lasted for a century.But with this exception the Mahrattas established no real domination in the extreme south.

Mysore remained independent under its line of Hindu kings till the throne was usurped by Haidar Ali and his son and successor,"Tippoo,"who together ruled for about forty years.After the latter's defeat and death at Seringapatam in 1799,the country was restored by the English to the Hindu line.

The site on which stands Fort St.George at Madras was granted to Mr.Francis Day,chief factor of the English there,by Sri Ranga Raya VI.in March 1639,the king being then resident in Chandragiri.

The first English factory at Madras had been established in 1620.