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"Here resides Asat, Khan of Indian Jooneer, a tributary of Meliktuchar.... He has been fighting the Kofars for twenty years, being sometimes beaten but mostly beating them." By "Meliktuchar" is probably meant the celebrated minister Mahmud Gawan, who in 1457 A.D. received the title "Mallik-al-Tijar," a title which was borne by the chief amongst the nobility at the Bahmani court.
Shortly afterwards there arose to power under the Sultan Muhammad one Yusuf Adil Khan, a slave, who before long grew to such power that he overthrew the Bahmani dynasty, and became himself the first independent sovereign of Bijapur the first "Adil Shah." In 1470, says the BURHAN-I MAASIR, the Sultan took Rajahmundry and Kondavid from the king of Orissa.
This, however, was of short duration, for though the domination of the Sultan of Delhi in that tract was completely destroyed, yet three years later, viz, on Friday the 24th Rabi-al-akhir A.H. 748, according to Firishtah, a date which corresponds to Friday, August 3, A.D. 1347, Ala-ud-din Bahmani was crowned sovereign of the Dakhan at Kulbarga, establishing a new dynasty which lasted for about 140 years.
King Krishna had, in the city of Bijapur, taken prisoner three sons of a former king of the Bahmani dynasty, who had been held captive by the Adil Shahs, and he proclaimed the eldest as king of the Dakhan.
With this in our minds, let us turn to Firishtah's narrative of the reign of Firuz Shah Bahmani, beginning with his accession in November A.D. 1397. And in a later passage we are told that the campaign was at an end a few months before the end of Hijra 801; I.E. a few months before the end of August A.D. 1399.
The wide cotton plains of that tract are only passable during prolonged dry weather, and the prince would certainly not have risked an advance while there was any likelihood of rain falling. Bukka's son accompanied his father, and the objective was the country of the Doab, and particularly the fortresses of Mudkal and Raichur, then in the hands of the Bahmani Sultan.
The trouble had begun which ended only with the extinction of the Bahmani monarchy, and the establishment of five rival Muhammadan kingdoms in the place of one. In the following year Humayun waged war against the country of the Telugus and besieged Devarakonda, which made so stout a resistance that the Dakhani armies were baffled, and retired.
Even so early as 1378 A.D., according to Firishtah, the Raya of Vijayanagar was "in power, wealth, and extent of country" greatly the superior of the Bahmani king of the Dakhan. They were perhaps glad to submit if only the dreaded foreigners could be kept out of the country. And thus by leaps and bounds the petty state grew to be a kingdom, and the kingdom expanded till it became an empire.
The imposing ruins of its capital may still be seen at Hampi on the Tungabhadra and its possessions comprised everything to the south of this, and, at times, also territory to the north, for throughout its existence it was engaged in warfare with the Bahmani dynasty or the five sultanates.
Luis wrote to Albuquerque that the Adil Shah had attacked Bijapur, and had taken it after a siege of two months, while four lords had risen against him "since the latter had carried off the king of Decan as a prisoner." This king was the Bahmani king, while the Adil Shah and the "four lords" were the revolting Muhammadan princes.
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