Battle of Raichur

01Nuniz’s account

The fullest account comes from Fernão Nunes, a Portuguese horse-trader who lived at Vijayanagara and wrote within a generation. He describes an army of vast size crossing to Raichur, the Bijapur Sultan coming to its relief across the Krishna, and a day in which the Vijayanagara line first gave way and was then rallied by the king himself, who rode forward with his reserve. The Adil Shahi army broke and fled across the river.

02The fort taken

The siege of Raichur fort went on after the battle. Nuniz says a few Portuguese musketeers in Vijayanagara service picked off defenders on the walls, and the garrison soon surrendered. Krishnadevaraya entered the fort in triumph. The victory left him supreme in the Deccan, and envoys from the sultanates came to his court. Nuniz says the king demanded that Ismail Adil Shah come and kiss his foot as the price of peace; the Sultan never came, and the bitterness lasted into the next generation.

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 →