History of South India: Encyclopedia II - History of South India - Medieval history

History of South India - Medieval history

History of South India - The Grand Struggle

The early medieval period saw the rise of Muslim power in South India. The defeat of the Kakatiya Empire of Warangal by Tughlaq forces of the Delhi Sultanate in 1323 heralded a new chapter in South Indian history. The grand struggle of the period was between the Bahmani Sultanate based in Gulbarga (and later, Bidar) and the Vijayanagara Empire with its capital in Vijayanagara in modern Hampi. By the early sixteenth century, the Bahmani empire fragmented into five different kingdoms based in Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda, together called the Deccan Sultanates. The Vijayanagara Empire, founded in the early 14th century with the express intention of stemming the tide of Muslim power overrunning South India, lasted for almost 200 years. It was visited and recorded by the Persian scholar Abdur Razzaq. The capital was at Vijayanagara on the banks of Tungabhadra river. The empire reached the zenith of its power and prosperity during the reign of Tuluva king, Krishnadevaraya. Krishnadevaraya was a great patron of art and literature and an accomplished poet himself in Telugu. The empire maintained active trade relations with the Portuguese. Domingo Paes, the Portuguese trader who lived in the capital in the 1520s wrote of prosperity, splendor and bazaars full of with precious stones. Vijayanagara was conquered by the combined forces of the Deccan sultanates in 1565 in the Battle of Tallikota. The Hampi ruins are scattered today over an area of fourteen square miles.

History of South India - The Aftermath of the Struggle

With the fall of Vijayanagara and the breakup of the Bahmani sultanate, the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda and Hyderabad became the dominant power in the region. Qutb Shahi dominance of the region continued until the middle of the 17th century, when the Mughals under Aurangzeb made determined inroads into the Deccan. Golconda was conquered in 1687. The rise of Maratha military power under Shivaji and his heirs in the immediate north of what is today considered South India had a profound influence on the political situation of South India, with Maratha control quickly extending as far west as Ganjam and as far south as Thanjavur. Following the death of Aurangzeb, Mughal power withered, and South Indian rulers gained autonomy from Delhi. The Wodeyar kingdom of Mysore, which was originally in tribute to Vijayanagara and gained in strength over the next few decades, subsequently emerging as the dominant power in the southern part of South India. The Asaf Jahis of Hyderabad controlled the territory north and east of Mysore, while the Marathas controlled portions of what is today Karnataka. By the close of the "medieval" period, most of South India was either ruled directly from, or under tribute to Mysore, Hyderabad or Pune.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Medieval history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki