South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Two more expeditions came during the time of the Tughluqs, who succeeded the Khaljīs on the throne of Delhi. Both were dispatched by Sultān Ghiyās-ud-dīn Tughluq Shāh (1320-25 A. D.), under the command of his son Ulugh Khān (the later Maḥammad bin Tughluq) in 1323 A. D. The first of these ended in disaster. Ulugh Khān suffered defeat, partly due to dissensions in his camp and the treachery of his officers, under the walls of Warangal, and was compelled to retreat at first to Dēvagiri and thence to Delhi. He returned, however, within four months at the head of a fresh and powerful army, and succeeded after a siege of six or seven months in capturing not only Warangal but also Pratāparudra, whom he sent Delhi as a prisoner of war.

The Muslim historians thus enumerate five expeditions between 1303 and 1323 against Tiling, of which three were successful and the rest abortive. The Hindu records on the other hand refer to several Muslim expeditions─ eight according to the present grant─ of which all, excepting the very last, ended in the defeat of the Muslim armies and their expulsion from Tiling. Although these are said to have taken place in the reign of Pratāparudra, the exact time of their arrival and the circumstances in which they suffered defeat are not known. There is reason to believe that the Kākatīyas came into conflict with the Mussalmans long before ‘Alā-ud-Dīn Khaljī’s attack on Dēvagiri in 1296 A. D. An epigraph in the temple of Chhāyā-Sōmanātha at Pānugallu in the Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh dated 1267 A. D. describes the victories of Prince Śārṅgapāṇidēva, the son of the Sēuṇa king Singhaṇa and a subordinate of Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Manuma-Rudradēva-mahārāja, i. e. the Kākatīya queen Rudrāmbā or Rudramadēvī. Among his exploits enumerated in the inscription, his victory over the Mussalmans deserves particular mention Śārṅgapāṇidēva is spoken of the this record as the Primeval Boar who rescued the earth from the Turushka clemitt.^[1]

The Mussalmans also seem to have descended upon the Deccan a little later from another quarter. In an epigraph at the Kallēśvaradēva temple at Haḷuvāgilu in the Bellary District dated Ś. 1204, Chitrabhānu (1282 A. D.), the Yādava king Rāmachandra, that is, Rāmadēva, the adversary of ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī, is described as a rescuer of earth from the depredation of Turushkas.^[2]

The circumstances in which these Turuskha invasions took place are not on record. Some of the expeditions sent by Balban against the Central Indian Hindu kingdoms probably penetrated into the Deccan, but being worsted in the fight by the Kākatīyas and the Yādavas they were compelled to retreat homewards.

The Muslim invasions of Tiling began in right earnest after Pratāparudra’s accession in 1296 A.D. According to the present grant, which was issued within a decade of the Muslim conquest, the Muslims attacked Tiling no less than eight times. Pratāparudra is said to have defeated the Sultān of Delhi seven times, but was vanquished, owing to the misfortune of the earth; on the last occasion by that Turushka sovereign, and while being carried away as a prisoner to Delhi, died by the decree of Providence on the bank of the Sōmōdbhavā (Narmadā) river. This is not the only record that refers to the defeat of the Muhammadans. An inscription, noticed by the Mackenzie Surveyors in the fort of Warangal, refers to a victory of Manaraṅgodarirāju and Layiṅgayadēva over the Turakas in Saṁvat 1362 (1304-05 A.D.).^[3] The proximity of the

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^[1] Corp. Inscr. Tel. Dist., p. 98, No. 34. As most of the chiefs mentioned in this inscription figure in Singhaṇa’s inscriptions as the foes conquered by him (Bomb, Gaz., Vol. I, ii. pp. 239-43), Śārṅgapāṇidēva seems to have participated in his father’s wars and took credit for his victories before he accepted service under the Kākatīyas. Although the Turushkas, among the peoples of many other countries, are said, in very general terms, to have obeyed his comands, the Turushka invasion is not mentioned in any of his inscriptions. It is not therefore unlikely that the invasion took place after Śārṅgapāṇidēva had entered the service of the Kākatīyas.
^[2] A. R. Ep., No. 224 of 1918 ; SII, Vol. IX, Part I, No. 380.
^[3] Mack. Mss., 15-3-20, p. 101.