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Updated: September 2, 2025
The narrative of the campaign, in complete contrast to that of the remainder of the history, reads like the account of an eye-witness; especially in the passages describing the fortress of Raichur and the camp where the supplies were so great that "you could find everything that you wanted," where "you saw" the goldsmiths and artisans at work as if in a city, where "you will find" all kinds of precious stones offered for sale, and where "no one who did not understand the meaning of what he saw would ever dream that a war was going on, but would think that he was in a prosperous city."
Nuniz writes as though the attack on Raichur immediately followed the campaign against Udayagiri, Kondavid, and "Catuir," but, according to the evidence afforded by inscriptions, these expeditions were at an end in 1515, and the battle of Raichur did not take place for at least five years later.
Even Firishtah admits that he dealt Ismail a crushing blow at the great battle of Raichur, a full description of which is given by Nuniz. But before dealing with the history of the reign of Krishna Deva Raya it is necessary that we should learn how it came about that these Portuguese Christians who seized Goa came to be living in India, and some of them even resident at the Hindu capital.
The Raya replied by a counter-demand that the Sultan should evacuate the whole of the Doab, since Raichur and Mudkal had always belonged to the Anegundi family. Bukka declared the Krishna river to be the true boundary, and asked that the elephants taken by Sultan Muhammad should be restored. The Sultan's answer was a declaration of war.
This was, it must be borne in mind, long after the Hindu victory at Raichur. Da Cunha sent Christovao de Figueiredo, Krishna Deva's valiant friend, to bear his reply, since the latter was on friendly terms with the lord of Belgaum.
So that this great Hindu victory at Raichur deserved a better fate than to be passed over by the historians as if it had been an event of small importance. The Events that followed the Battle.
As to Firishtah's date, I believe it to be wrong by one year, for the reasons given above. It must be remembered that he wrote many years after the event. Having thus, I hope satisfactorily, established the fact that the date given by Nuniz for the battle of Raichur is wrong by two years, and should be 1520, I turn to examine the day and month.
Raichur and Mudkal were never again subject to Hindu princes. Those who desire to obtain an insight into the character of the new king of Vijayanagar should turn to the chronicle of Nuniz. It will suffice here to say that he alienated his best friends by his violent despotism, and at the same time proved to the whole empire that he was a coward.
His conduct and mode of government ruined the Hindu cause in Southern India and opened the whole country to the invader, though he himself did not live to see the end. After the fall of Raichur and the Doab, Ismail Adil had another fight with his rival at Ahmadnagar and defeated him; after which the two brothers-in-law consolidated a strong alliance.
Nuniz says that Krishna Deva Raya heard of Ismail Adil's arrival on the river-bank while he himself was in camp at Raichur, fifteen miles away; and that he advanced and gave battle nine miles from the river, in the end driving the enemy across.
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