Battle of Talikota

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Battle of Talikota
Part of Deccan Sultanates–Vijayanagara conflicts
Talikota in present-day Karnataka[1]
Result
Deccan Sultanates
alliance victory
Belligerents

Deccan sultanates

Vijayanagara EmpireCommanders and leaders
Rama Raya Executed
Venkatadri †
Tirumala Deva Raya

Achutappa Nayak

The Battle of Talikota, also known as that of Rakkasagi–Tangadagi, (23 January 1565) was a watershed battle fought between the

Rama Raya, the de facto ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire, which led to the immediate collapse of the Vijayanagara polity and reconfigured South Indian and Deccan politics.[2]

The specific details of the battle and its immediate aftermath are notoriously difficult to reconstruct in light of the distinctly contrarian narratives present across primary sources.

clash of civilizations between Hindus and Muslims;[2][3] Contemporary scholars reject such characterizations as flawed.[5][6]

Background

Rama Raya, after his installation of a patrimonial state and emerging as the ruler, adopted a political strategy of benefiting from the internecine warfare among the multiple successors of the Bahmani Sultanate, and it worked well for about twenty years of his reign.[2][7][8]

However, after a series of aggressive efforts to maintain hold over Kalyan[9][a] and diplomatic dealings with the Sultanates laden with insulting gestures by the Sultanates, the four Muslim Sultanates – Hussain Nizam Shah I and Ali Adil Shah I of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur to the west, Ali Barid Shah I of Bidar in the center, and Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali of Golkonda to the east – united in the wake of shrewd marital diplomacy and convened to attack Rama Raya, in late January 1565.[2][3]

Battle

Battle of Talikota.

Sources

There exist multiple contemporary chronicles (literary as well as historical) documenting the war:[3][10]

  • Burhan-i Maasir by Sayyid Ali Bin Abdullah Tabataba, the court historian of Ahmadnagar Sultanate.
  • Gulshan-i Ibrahimi by Ferishta, the court historian of Bijapur Sultanate.
  • Taḏkerat al-molūk by Rafi-ud-Din Shirazi, another court historian of Bijapur Sultanate.
  • Décadas da Ásia by official Portuguese record-keeper Diogo do Couto.
  • Letters by Goa governor Dom Antão de Noronha.
  • Fath-Nama-i Nizam Shah by Hasan Shauqi, a
    Dakhni
    poet.
  • Tarif-i Husayn Shah by Aftabi, a poet at Ahmadnagar court.

The details of the battle and immediate aftermath are often distinctly contrarian and even accounting for biases, reconstruction is difficult, if not impossible.[11][3][12]

Description

The exact venue of clash has been variously mentioned as Talikota, Rakkasagi-Tangadigi and Bannihatti, all on the banks of river Krishna.[3][13][b] There exists debate as to the precise dates.[3][14] Span-lengths vary from hours to days; descriptions of battle formations and maneuvers vary too.[3]

Outcome

Rama Raya was eventually beheaded either by Sultan Nizam Hussain himself or by someone else acting on his behest despite Adil Shah, who had friendly relations with Raya, intending against.[3] In the resultant confusion and havoc, Raya's brother Tirumala deserted with the entire army; he did try to regroup in Vijaynagara but failed and moved to the outskirts.[2][8] His other brother Venkatadri was blinded and likely, killed in action.[2]

Analysis of defeat

Vijayanagara side was winning the war, state Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund in a survey of Indian history, until two Muslim generals of the Vijayanagara army switched sides.[7][15][3][11][4][6]

Aftermath

Bijapur Sultanate
)

The Sultanates' armies went on to plunder Vijayanagara, unopposed.[2] Popular accounts and older scholarship describe Vijayanagara falling to ruins, in light of the widespread desecration of sacred topography; however, this view has been contested.[17] Contemporary historians and archaeologists warn against conflating the state with the town as little evidence exists about any damage inflicted beyond the Royal Center; they further emphasize about the politically strategic nature of destruction and arson, since sites associated with sovereignty, royal power, and authority were subject to more wanton means.[17]

Nonetheless, the battle caused a political rupture for the state of Vijayanagara and permanently reconfigured Deccan politics.[2] Patronage of monuments and temples ceased, the Vaishnava cult perished from the city of Vijayanagara due to the cessation of royal patronage, and the Royal Center was never rebuilt.[2][18] The Bijapur Sultanate reaped maximum gains but their alliance with the other Deccan sultanates did not last long.[8][19] Tirumala went on to establish the Aravidu dynasty, which held sway over fragments of the erstwhile empire and even operated out of Vijayanagara for two years, before shifting to Pengonda.[8][19] But faced with successional disputes, rebellions by multiple local chieftains—primarily Telugu Nayak houses—who did not wish for the reemergence of any central authority,[c] and continuous conflicts with the Bijapur Sultanate—who might have been invited by Rama Raya's son—, it moved southwards before disintegrating in the late 1640s.[2][8][3][21]

Legacy

Historiography

Colonial era historiography (e.g. the work of

Clash of civilizations" metanarrative. In this account, the battle pitted, on the one hand, Hindu civilization, represented by the "Rama-rajya" of Vijayanagara, against Islamic civilization on the other hand, represented by the alliance of Deccan sultanates. The result of the battle, according to this view, was the fall of the last "Hindu bastion" of South India to "Mohammed" zealotry and expansionism. In the modern post-colonial era, a number of South Indian nationalist historians (Aluru Venkata Rao, B. A. Saletore, S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri) have continued to endorse this view or one like it.[25] This view has been associated with the far-right Hindutva ideology.[11]

However, in recent decades, a number of historians have criticized or rejected this view. For example, Richard M. Eaton denies any religious motives behind the battle and describes the clash of civilizations hypothesis as emblematic of flawed

Berar Sultanate did not join the battle, the fact the Sultanate-alliance dissipated soon after the battle,[29] and the existence of harmonious Hindu-Muslim relations in the Vijayanagara Empire, which extended to the placement of Muslims in high positions in the royal court of Vijaynagara.[32]

Popular culture

The battle has been adopted into a play by Girish Karnad titled "Rakkasa Tangadi" (English title: "Crossing to Talikota"). Karnad based it on Eaton's analysis.[33][34]

See also

Notes

  1. Chalukyas
    . Rama Raya sought to control the territory in his bid to gain popular legitimacy by establishing himself as the true heir to Chalukya sovereignty and glory. Other examples included retrofitting of decayed Chalukya complexes and bringing back Chalukya festivals.
  2. ^ James Campbell had reported traces of the Vijayanagara defensive fortifications along the southern bank of Krishna in these regions as late as 1884.
  3. ^ Stein notes of these independent estates to have been consolidating power since the zenith of Rama Raya's rule. He considers the entire span of Vijayanagara Empire to be a weakly-centralised polity, whose most important territories were regarded by local chiefs as independent "in every respect save that they could not claim to be fully-fledged kingdoms". Noboru Karashima disagrees with Stein's broad characterization but agrees that the final period of the Vijayanagar empire (Aravidus) was indeed marked by the growing power of the Nayakas as local feudal lords.[20]

References

  1. ^ Sastri, K A Nilakanta, ed. (6 January 2024), "The battle of Rakkasagi-Tangadagi", Further Sources of Vijayanagara History Vol 1, pp. 263–264
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780521254847
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780674067363
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780520325128
    .
  5. ^ a b Ramachandran, Nandini. "Histories that challenge the reductionist popular understanding of Islam in India". The Caravan. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Ahmed Sayeed, Vikhar (18 January 2019). "Battle of Talikota: Beyond the Hindu-Muslim binary". Frontline. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9781317242130
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 9781139055611
    .
  9. S2CID 219697794
    .
  10. ^
    S2CID 164169912
    .
  11. ^
    JSTOR 44145480
    .
  12. JSTOR 43919254
    .
  13. ProQuest 1301919684
    .
  14. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath (1960). Military History of India. M. C. SARKAR AND SONS PRIVATE LTD. KOLKATA. p. 91.
  15. ISBN 0195606868
  16. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bijapur" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 927.
  17. ^
    JSTOR 43303558
    .
  18. S2CID 162319660
    .
  19. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-947769-2.[page needed
    ]
  20. ProQuest 1040866864
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  21. ISBN 0195136616
    .
  22. JSTOR 4404683
    .
  23. ^ a b Archambault, Hannah Lord (2018). Geographies of Influence: Two Afghan Military Households in 17th and 18th Century South India (Thesis).
  24. ^ a b Shekhar, Shashank (25 October 2019). "Hampi: Ruins of splendour". Frontline. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  25. ^ [2][22][3][23][24][6][17]
  26. S2CID 219698039
    .
  27. ISBN 9781139084116
    .
  28. S2CID 163090404
    .
  29. ^ [8][11][26][10][23][27][5][24][28]
  30. JSTOR 44145855
    .
  31. ISBN 978-81-7304-086-3
    .
  32. ^ [30][11][3][17][31]
  33. ^ "History vs 'Crossing to talikota' play by Girish Karnad". Firstpost. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  34. S2CID 145476823
    .
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