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had helped to throw off the yoke of Delhi only to CHAPTER IL. strengthen the enemy at their gates. In their extremity they sent messengers to Delhi; they besought Fírúz Shah to deliver them from the yoke of Muhammad Shah. But they were too late. Fírúz Shah could do nothing. Muhammad Shah ravaged Telinga with fire and sword; he captured the great fortress of Golkonda. Then the Raja of Telinga bent to his destiny. He paid up his tribute. He presented Muhammad with a throne of gold which he had prepared for presentation to the Sultan of Delhi.15

Rai of Vijayana

Hindú sove

Meanwhile the Raja or Rai of Vijayanagar had Rise of Krishna grown into a great power. A new sovereign sat gar: a type of upon the throne, named Krishna Rai. The rise of reignty Krishna Rai is a mystery.16 He appears abruptly in Mussulman annals, like a Pharaoh or Sennacherib in Old Testament history. He was descended from an offshoot of the royal family of Telinga; but his history is singularly obscure. He belonged to a different type from the old Hindú Rajas. Porus appears in Greek history as the model of a Rajpoot sovereign; proud and majestic, but courtly, selfrestrained, and staunch in his friendship. Asoka and Siláditya were moulded by Buddhism; they were grave, pious, and conciliatory. But Krishna Rai is a later type than either of the three; the type of a sovereign moulded by Brahmanism. He resembles Southey's conception of Kehama the de

15 This throne was kept for a hundred years, and became famous throughout the Dekhan. It was made of gold and ebony, and was covered either entirely or in part with blue enamel; every Sultan in succession decorated it with fresh jewels. It was nine feet long and three feet broad; when finally broken up it was valued at four millions sterling.

16 The history of the Hindú kingdoms of the Dekhan and Peninsula will be brought under review hereafter.

CHAPTER III. stroyer; his successors appear in a similar character until they were tamed down by the defeats they received from their Mussulman neighbours. Krishna Rai was the haughtiest of Rajas; he had conquered Peninsular India from Malabar to Coromandel.17

Krishna Rai affronted by

Shah massacre at Mudkul.

One day Muhammad Shah was drinking wine Muhammad in his palace at Kulbarga. Musicians were playing before him; they were singing the songs of Amír Khuzru in praise of kings. He was puffed up with pride; he resolved to cast an affront on Krishna Rai. Instead of rewarding the musicians with money, he gave them an order on the treasury of Vijayanagar. A messenger was sent with the order; in due course it was shown to Krishna Rai. The Hindú sovereign was exasperated beyond all measure. The messenger was set on an ass, and led through the streets of Vijayanagar; he was then dismissed to his master with the utmost contumely. Krishna Rai resolved to be revenged upon the Sultan. He collected a host of horse, foot, and elephants; he crossed the river Tumbadra to capture the frontier fortresses of Mudkul and Raichor.18 He took Mudkul and slaughtered all the garrison; only one man escaped to tell the story to Muhammad Shah.

17 It is dubious whether Krishna Rai had conquered the whole of Peninsular India; it seems certain that he had become a paramount power in the South. 18 Frontier fortresses were often a cause of war between oriental sovereigns. The power which held them maintained an ascendancy over the other, which sometimes led to the exaction of tribute, and other exercise of sovereignty. The frontier fortress on the side of Telinga was Golkonda, near the modern city of Hyderabad; Muhammad had already captured it in order to overawe Telinga. The frontier fortresses on the side of Vijayanagar were Mudkul and Raichor. They were situated in the region between the river Krishna and the river Tumbadra, which is known as the Raichor Doab. Accordingly the Raichor Doab, with its two fortresses of Mudkul and Raichor, was a debatable territory between the Bahmani Sultans and the Hindú Rais of Vijayanagar.

Massacre of

Muhammad

The Sultan was now as exasperated as exasperated as the CHAPTER III. Raja; his ferocity was intensified by his religious Mind by zeal. He entered the mosque at Kulbarga; he Shah. swore upon the Koran that he would not sheath his sword until he had put a hundred thousand idolaters to the sword. He crossed the river Krishna; he reached the camp of the Rai by dawn of day. An Asiatic battle is rarely more than a brute fight. Muhammad Shah fell upon the Hindú army with a body of horse; he gained an easy victory; he committed a horrible slaughter. The Hindú army comprised not only the soldiers; it included their wives, children, and camp followers. The Mussulmans cared for nothing but murder. During the battle and the pursuit they are said to have slain seventy thousand men, women, and children. Muhammad Shah crossed the river Tumbadra towards the south; he gained another bloody victory; but he could not take the city of Vijayanagar. Indeed the city was impregnable. Three of its sides were fortified by huge granite boulders, united by bastions and curtains.19 On the fourth side was the river Tumbadra; the river was impassable because of its rapids. The Hindús mocked the Mussulmans from the walls; Muhammad Shah was forced to raise the siege. Another battle followed; it was another massacre of Hindús. At last the Brahmans declared that Krishna Rai had offended the gods; they forced him to make peace.

19 The city of Vijayanagar was circular. It was fortified by seven concentric walls, one within the other. The one described in the text was the outer line of fortifications. Beyond the circuit of this outer wall was an esplanade extending for about fifty yards, in which great stones were half buried, but rose above the earth about the height of a man. See Travels of Abdur Razzák in Elliot's History of India, vol. iv.

CHAPTER III. He sued for terms; the Sultan told him that he must pay the musicians. The Raja was compelled to obey.20 Mussulmans and Hindús were by this time horror-stricken at the massacres. They agreed together that for the future no one should be slain excepting the soldiers that were fighting in the field.2!

Slaughter of highwaymen.

Sultans of the
Dekhan types of
Oriental life.

There was now peace. Muhammad Shah began to rid his kingdom of highwaymen. He ordered the governors of provinces to kill every robber, and send his head to Kulbarga. At the end of seven months not a bandit remained; eight thousand heads were piled up near the city of Kulbarga.22 Muhammad Shah died in 1374.

The chronicles of the Sultans who succeeded Muhammad Shah can scarcely be called history. They comprise the annals of good and wicked sovereigns; of wars between Mussulmans and Hindús; of intermittent conflicts between Shíahs and

20 When Muhammad Shah heard that the money had been paid according to the order which he had given upon the treasury at Vijayanagar, he is said to have exclaimed :-" Praise be to Allah, that what I ordered has been performed, and that no light word can be recorded against me." This anecdote furnishes a striking illustration of Asiatic sentiment. The Sultan forgot the thousands who had been slain in order to carry out his insolent whim; he only exulted in the fact that the money had been paid.

21 It is a significant fact that the protest against the needless slaughter came from the Hindús. The Hindú envoys are said to have addressed Muhammad Shah in the following language :—“ O Sultan, Krishna Rai may have committed sins, but it is not good for you to kill the innocent. The bestower of kingdoms has given the Dekhan to you and the Kanarese country to Krishna Rai. There may yet be many wars between the two kingdoms. Let therefore a treaty be made that henceforth none shall be slain excepting the soldiers who are fighting in the field." See Ferishta.

22 This sweeping measure of Muhammad Shah exemplifies the course of Asiatic justice. When a war is over, the disbanded troops disperse in all directions; the country soon swarms with robbers. A reward is offered for their heads; the villains begin to murder one another for the sake of the reward; the innocent are often beheaded with the guilty. At last the bandits are scared away through fear of their fellows; the villagers recover heart, and are once more able to defend themselves.

Sunnís. But the names awaken no associations; CHAPTER III. the chronology furnishes no clue to the development of political or religious ideas. Islam was gravitating slowly towards Hinduism; otherwise the civilization was the same in the sixteenth century as it was in the fourteenth. Still many of the Sultans may be regarded as types of character; the story of their reigns serves to illustrate oriental life and

manners.

anagar.

strong with bull

1375-1378.

Mujahid, who succeeded Muhammad Shah, was Mujáhid: heada typical sovereign. When a boy of fourteen he dog courage. killed his father's betel-bearer. When he became Sultan he displayed the same strength, violence, and audacity. He warred against the Rai of VijayIn one campaign he slew a man-eating tiger single-handed; the Hindús were so alarmed that they refused to give him battle. In another campaign he penetrated the suburbs of Vijayanagar, climbed a hill and plundered a temple in the face of the Hindú army. He could not capture the city; he was obliged to return to Kulbarga. He observed the compact which his father had made with Krishna Rai. Instead of slaughtering the inhabitants he enslaved them; he carried away sixty thousand captives, most of whom were women.

Krishna Rai of

The current of events in Vijayanagar involves Greatness of a contradiction. Ferishta 23 records the successes of Vijayanagar. Mujahid against the Hindús; yet he extols the Rai of Vijayanagar as the greatest sovereign in all India. Krishna Rai possessed all Peninsular India to the south of the Krishna river. The people

23 Ferishta, translated by Briggs. The history of the Sultans of the Dekhan had been previously translated by Jonathan Scott. Ferishta is almost the sole authority for the history of the Dekhan.

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