Ahmad Shah’s siege of Vijayanagara

01The invasion

Firishta describes Ahmad Shah’s campaign as one of the most destructive of the wars. The Bahmani army crossed the river, defeated the Vijayanagara field army, and spread through the country killing and taking captives, which Firishta reports with grim figures that historians discount. The raya, out hunting with a small party, was surprised and escaped only by hiding in a field of sugarcane. He then withdrew into the fortified city.

02Peace and reform

The Bahmanis could not storm the great walls of the capital, but they blockaded it until the raya agreed to pay the tribute owed. The lesson was not lost. Deva Raya II, who ruled from about 1424 to 1446, reorganised his army, recruited mounted archers including Muslim Turks, and gave them land and a mosque in the capital, so that Vijayanagara could match the Bahmani cavalry in the next war.

Dynasty · 1336–1646 CEVijayanagara Empire (Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva, Aravidu)Founded in 1336 on the Tungabhadra by the brothers Harihara and Bukka, Vijayanagara held the south for Sanatan Dharma for more than two centuries. Four dynasties ruled it; its city at Hampi was among the largest in the world before its fall in 1565.Read →