The Deccan, prosperous as it was, did not come under the radar of the Northern raiders until much later. Initially there were three Hindu kingdoms that ruled the Deccan during this period – the Kakatiyas at Warangal (1163-1323), Hoysalas at Dwarasamudra (1187-1343) and Yadavas at Devagiri (1187-1317). Allauddin Khilji was the one from the Delhi Sultanate who made southward expeditions when he sent his slave general Malik Kafur (who apparently was his lover as well) to capture Devagiri in 1308 which was ruled by the Yadavas who ruled over Maratha lands. (Khilji renamed Devagiri as Daulatabad later.) Then he sent Malik Kafur to deal with the Hoysalas and the Kakatiyas which he did successfully and made them feudatories. In 1323 Mohammed Bin Tughluq of the Tugluq dynasty captured Prataparudra of Kakatiyas and that ended the Kakatiya reign. Then the Hoysalas fell to Tughluq in 1342 and that ended their reign. In 1345 Tughluq made Daulatabad his capital, abandoning Delhi for ten years and went back again. In all this chaos, the southern states were left alone and there rose the Sangama dynasty in 1336 which launched the Vijayanagara kingdom. Sangama’s successors Harihara, Bukka and others grew the kingdom far and wide.
Bahmani Kingdom
In 1347 Hasan Gangu, the chief of a loose coalition of emirs left by the Tughluqs to take care of Deccan formed the Bahmani dynasty (1347-1538) with Gulbarga as its capital. It is believed that Hasan Gangu who was named Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah had Hindu roots as well. Several Muslims had Hindu roots and many converted into Christianity later too bearing Portuguese names. The Bahmani kings honoured the local people, their customs, their language and allowed them to follow their practices be it Hindu, Buddhist, Jain etc it appears. More dramatically the Bahmanis ruled from the magnificent Turquoise throne, a gift from a king, and 18 kings sat on this throne over 170 years. Of the lot the most popular appears to be Muhammad II who was a peace loving and well read king who ruled in 1397 (called Aristotle of Deccan). He was followed by his brother in law Firoz Shah who was a polyglot, a student and teacher, and also one with a large sexual appetite who had in his harem women from Jewish, Christian, Russian, Afghan, Chinese descent and who also married a Vijayanagara princess. Firoz Shah apparently adopted the Shia customs which favoured his marrying many and that is how the Bahmanis came to have Shia and Sunni kings. Firoz Shah built Firozabad near Gulbarga. An important person in the Bahmani story is the wise administrator Mahmud Gawan who advised the rulers well and was adept at administration (but he was executed by Mahmud III, who lived to regret his hasty act, in 1481). The last of the Bahmanis, Kalimulla reached out to Emperor Babur in 1526 for help as it was disintegrating, but Babur was busier.
Vijayanagara
The scene then shifts to the Hindu sultans, or rather the Rayas of Vijayanagara who grew from strength to strength under their new leader, the barefoot Krishnadeva Raya who threatened the neighbouring kingdoms constantly. It is said that this empire came out of the Hoysalas disintegration. Vijayanagara was rich in culture, extremely prosperous and commanded a large army. Under Krishnadeva Raya they chased the Adul Shahs and captured lands, captured the prized Raichur, and expanded their kingdom. But after the death of Krishnadeva Raya came another regent Ramaraya who was at the helm and perhaps the cause for the fall of the mighty Vijayanagara empire in the battle of Talikota in 1565.
The Bahmani kingdom split into five smaller kingdoms with the Adil Shahs ruling from Gulbarga and later from Bijapur, Qutb Shahs ruling from Golconda, Barid Shahs from Bidar, Nizam Shahs from Ahmad Nagar and Imad Shahs from Elichpuri (1510-74). Ramaraya frequently joined with one or the other kingdoms and annexed lands from the other – one famous one being when he joined hands with Adil Shah and captured Nizam Shah lands. The king of Nizam Shah then, Husain Nizam Shah was made to swallow his pride by Ramaraya who was rather mean in his victories and the Nizam Shah king vowed to kill him someday. When Ramaraya’s excesses grew, the five princes came together and challenged the might of Vijayanagara and ended the magnificent kingdom, razed the city to dust making everyone who was part of that campaign incredibly rich. The ruins of Hampi are what remain of that famed kingdom today.
Nizam Shah Dynasty, Adil Shah Dynasty, Chand Bibi, Malik Ambar
Husain Nizam Shah’s daughter Chand Bibi married Adil Shah and after his death, ruled Gulbarga for the Adil Shah before returning to Ahamd Nagar and offering stiff resistance to the Mughals until she was killed by her own men. Her son Ibrahim II of the Adil Shah's was considered the most interesting of the clan and he is named Saraswati’s son in the chapter on him – he apparently venerated the Hindu goddess and had paintings made of her. He had several other wonderful qualities which included experimenting with religion. The Nizam Shah’s lands continued to harass the Mughals with the rise of the Ethiopian warrior king Malik Ambar, a habshi, who grew from being a slave to a king. So adept was he at warfare and administration that Malik Ambar was feared by the Mughal emperors who despised him. He established a city called Khirki which was prosperous in its own time, fended off the Mughals, lost and seized it back. (Khirki is modern day Aurangabad.) Malik Ambar did not die in war and instead died peacefully at the ripe old age of eighty in his palace, revered by his enemies as well. It does appear that the Nizam Shahis seemed to have borne the brunt of Mughal aggression and delayed their entry into the Deccan.
Fall of Bijapur, Qutb Shahs
Aurnagazeb meanwhile had his sighst set on the Deccan and in 1686 conquered Bijapur after a long siege where the inmates of the city starved and the king had to open the gates and surrender. Meanwhile the other great kingdom, belonging to the Qutb Shahis of Golconda, which had bluer blood than the rest of the other claimants, began in (1518 – 1687) with Sultan Quli Qutb al Mulk as its head and he lived till a ripe old age of eighty before being killed by his own son. But the Sultan was more than able and he managed to annex 19 forts from Krishnadeva Raya as well as the Masulipatnam port. He was succeeded by his son Ibrahim whose reign was one of prosperity and progress and he is the one who has built the Purana Pul connecting Golconda to the city of Hyderabad across the Musi, the one who made the man made lake Husain Sagar. He was followed by an abler son Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah who is often quoted as the one who married a courtesan by name of Bhagmati who is said to have been named Hyder Mahal and hence Hyderabad. But Manu Pillai says that actually Hyder was the name of Ali revered by the Shias and hence Hyderabad. A generation after, came the able queen Hayath Baksh Begum who ruled since the successor was too young and she ruled well and kept the Mughals at bay with offerings and treaties. After her death came Abdullah who was not an able ruler and who let his Chief Minister Said take so much control that he exceeded all limits and when finally ousted, went and brought Aurangazeb to depose his master. By then the last of the Qutb Shah’s, a son-in-law named Abul Hasan, was on the throne and he was equally unable and handed over the reigns of the kingdom to a Minister named Madanna who along with his brother Akkanna evaded war, focused on commerce but forgot about their subjects. Their reign is not considered good and they were murdered in an uprising. The king deserted Hyderabad and fled to Golconda which withstood Aurangazeb for a whole year before succumbing only after an insider who was bribed opened the gates to them. This was in 1687 and the last of the Deccan sultans had fallen to Aurangazeb.
Shivaji, Marathas
The book ends with the rise of Shivaji Bhosale of Pune who grew his territory into 50000 square miles in his lifetime and troubled the Mughals no end, raiding Surat at will and taking tributes from the kingdoms around him. Bijapur’s Adil Shah sent Afzal Khan his general to take care of Shivaji and Afzal Khan desecrated temples at Tuljapur, Pandharpur and was finally killed by Shivaji at Pratapgarh fort. Aurangazeb’s Hindu general Jai Singh was the one who cornered Shivaji and Aurangazeb put Shivaji under house arrest in Agra from which the wily chief escaped. After that until his death he tormented the Mughals and grew his lands and revenues. After his death rose the Peshwas and Maratha warlords established kingdoms in Gwalior, Indore, Baroda and Nagpur.
I read and reread the book. Full of intrigue and drama, the way these ambitious men and women, handled such large estates and responsibilities was amazing. The head that wears the crown is definitely uneasy as one can make out and the biggest danger came from your own family and associates as so many kings and queens realised. The modes of punishments were cruel, it was common to have people blinded, trampled by elephants, one even cooked as biryani and so on. What also impressed me was the way they conducted themselves, with refined diplomacy, as seen in the diplomacy between Krishnadeva Raya and the Adil Shah. There were rituals and routines and kings would take offence at anything. The organisation and methods of ruling were refined too with complex tax systems, administrative and welfare measures.The number of women they married or kept harems of, the number of them who fell in love with slaves or eunuchs is also interesting. A few were scholars of great knowledge and interest and many commissioned artists, poets etc. The riches as described are amazing to conceive and one wonders what happened to such a rich country that had so many diamonds (including the Kohi Noor) that they created an artificial scarcity so as not to lower the demand. To think that people came here from every part of the world – Persians, Afghans, Turks, Spaniards, Portuguese, Georgians, Chinese, Africans, Europeans, Russians – fought like mercenaries, made fortunes and left is mindboggling. More than anything, and this is one point which I heard Manu Pillai defend on some TV program, is that there was no divide based on community. It was self interest that guided them more than anything and Hindu kings employed many Muslims and Muslims kings gave their Hindu employees a free reign. All cultures were generally promoted in the Deccan it appears.
Vijayanagara
The scene then shifts to the Hindu sultans, or rather the Rayas of Vijayanagara who grew from strength to strength under their new leader, the barefoot Krishnadeva Raya who threatened the neighbouring kingdoms constantly. It is said that this empire came out of the Hoysalas disintegration. Vijayanagara was rich in culture, extremely prosperous and commanded a large army. Under Krishnadeva Raya they chased the Adul Shahs and captured lands, captured the prized Raichur, and expanded their kingdom. But after the death of Krishnadeva Raya came another regent Ramaraya who was at the helm and perhaps the cause for the fall of the mighty Vijayanagara empire in the battle of Talikota in 1565.
The Bahmani kingdom split into five smaller kingdoms with the Adil Shahs ruling from Gulbarga and later from Bijapur, Qutb Shahs ruling from Golconda, Barid Shahs from Bidar, Nizam Shahs from Ahmad Nagar and Imad Shahs from Elichpuri (1510-74). Ramaraya frequently joined with one or the other kingdoms and annexed lands from the other – one famous one being when he joined hands with Adil Shah and captured Nizam Shah lands. The king of Nizam Shah then, Husain Nizam Shah was made to swallow his pride by Ramaraya who was rather mean in his victories and the Nizam Shah king vowed to kill him someday. When Ramaraya’s excesses grew, the five princes came together and challenged the might of Vijayanagara and ended the magnificent kingdom, razed the city to dust making everyone who was part of that campaign incredibly rich. The ruins of Hampi are what remain of that famed kingdom today.
Nizam Shah Dynasty, Adil Shah Dynasty, Chand Bibi, Malik Ambar
Husain Nizam Shah’s daughter Chand Bibi married Adil Shah and after his death, ruled Gulbarga for the Adil Shah before returning to Ahamd Nagar and offering stiff resistance to the Mughals until she was killed by her own men. Her son Ibrahim II of the Adil Shah's was considered the most interesting of the clan and he is named Saraswati’s son in the chapter on him – he apparently venerated the Hindu goddess and had paintings made of her. He had several other wonderful qualities which included experimenting with religion. The Nizam Shah’s lands continued to harass the Mughals with the rise of the Ethiopian warrior king Malik Ambar, a habshi, who grew from being a slave to a king. So adept was he at warfare and administration that Malik Ambar was feared by the Mughal emperors who despised him. He established a city called Khirki which was prosperous in its own time, fended off the Mughals, lost and seized it back. (Khirki is modern day Aurangabad.) Malik Ambar did not die in war and instead died peacefully at the ripe old age of eighty in his palace, revered by his enemies as well. It does appear that the Nizam Shahis seemed to have borne the brunt of Mughal aggression and delayed their entry into the Deccan.
Fall of Bijapur, Qutb Shahs
Aurnagazeb meanwhile had his sighst set on the Deccan and in 1686 conquered Bijapur after a long siege where the inmates of the city starved and the king had to open the gates and surrender. Meanwhile the other great kingdom, belonging to the Qutb Shahis of Golconda, which had bluer blood than the rest of the other claimants, began in (1518 – 1687) with Sultan Quli Qutb al Mulk as its head and he lived till a ripe old age of eighty before being killed by his own son. But the Sultan was more than able and he managed to annex 19 forts from Krishnadeva Raya as well as the Masulipatnam port. He was succeeded by his son Ibrahim whose reign was one of prosperity and progress and he is the one who has built the Purana Pul connecting Golconda to the city of Hyderabad across the Musi, the one who made the man made lake Husain Sagar. He was followed by an abler son Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah who is often quoted as the one who married a courtesan by name of Bhagmati who is said to have been named Hyder Mahal and hence Hyderabad. But Manu Pillai says that actually Hyder was the name of Ali revered by the Shias and hence Hyderabad. A generation after, came the able queen Hayath Baksh Begum who ruled since the successor was too young and she ruled well and kept the Mughals at bay with offerings and treaties. After her death came Abdullah who was not an able ruler and who let his Chief Minister Said take so much control that he exceeded all limits and when finally ousted, went and brought Aurangazeb to depose his master. By then the last of the Qutb Shah’s, a son-in-law named Abul Hasan, was on the throne and he was equally unable and handed over the reigns of the kingdom to a Minister named Madanna who along with his brother Akkanna evaded war, focused on commerce but forgot about their subjects. Their reign is not considered good and they were murdered in an uprising. The king deserted Hyderabad and fled to Golconda which withstood Aurangazeb for a whole year before succumbing only after an insider who was bribed opened the gates to them. This was in 1687 and the last of the Deccan sultans had fallen to Aurangazeb.
Shivaji, Marathas
The book ends with the rise of Shivaji Bhosale of Pune who grew his territory into 50000 square miles in his lifetime and troubled the Mughals no end, raiding Surat at will and taking tributes from the kingdoms around him. Bijapur’s Adil Shah sent Afzal Khan his general to take care of Shivaji and Afzal Khan desecrated temples at Tuljapur, Pandharpur and was finally killed by Shivaji at Pratapgarh fort. Aurangazeb’s Hindu general Jai Singh was the one who cornered Shivaji and Aurangazeb put Shivaji under house arrest in Agra from which the wily chief escaped. After that until his death he tormented the Mughals and grew his lands and revenues. After his death rose the Peshwas and Maratha warlords established kingdoms in Gwalior, Indore, Baroda and Nagpur.
I read and reread the book. Full of intrigue and drama, the way these ambitious men and women, handled such large estates and responsibilities was amazing. The head that wears the crown is definitely uneasy as one can make out and the biggest danger came from your own family and associates as so many kings and queens realised. The modes of punishments were cruel, it was common to have people blinded, trampled by elephants, one even cooked as biryani and so on. What also impressed me was the way they conducted themselves, with refined diplomacy, as seen in the diplomacy between Krishnadeva Raya and the Adil Shah. There were rituals and routines and kings would take offence at anything. The organisation and methods of ruling were refined too with complex tax systems, administrative and welfare measures.The number of women they married or kept harems of, the number of them who fell in love with slaves or eunuchs is also interesting. A few were scholars of great knowledge and interest and many commissioned artists, poets etc. The riches as described are amazing to conceive and one wonders what happened to such a rich country that had so many diamonds (including the Kohi Noor) that they created an artificial scarcity so as not to lower the demand. To think that people came here from every part of the world – Persians, Afghans, Turks, Spaniards, Portuguese, Georgians, Chinese, Africans, Europeans, Russians – fought like mercenaries, made fortunes and left is mindboggling. More than anything, and this is one point which I heard Manu Pillai defend on some TV program, is that there was no divide based on community. It was self interest that guided them more than anything and Hindu kings employed many Muslims and Muslims kings gave their Hindu employees a free reign. All cultures were generally promoted in the Deccan it appears.
Of the lot I saw Golconda, Warangal, Hampi, Simhagad, Gulbarga, Pratapgarh, Daulatabad, Belur and Halebid and would like to visit Bijapur, Solapur, Ahmadnagar, Raichur with this new understanding. Amazing stuff. And so well written by the young Manu Pillai who at thirty has already achieved a lot with four books to his name and a resume that shows that he has worked with some of the best names in the business like Shashi Tharoor, Karan Billimoria, Sunil Khilnani. Manu studied Economics at Fergusson College in Pune and then in London. If he has achieved so much by thirty, one wonders what he will do in his lifetime. Watch out for Manu. A wonderful start to my book reading this year.
Thanks Prakash for insisting that I read the book and gain some inspiration into drama and intrigue for my own writing.
