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It will be remembered how Muhammad Taghlaq of Delhi raised, according to Firishtah, an army of 370,000 men for the conquest of Persia, and when he wanted to destroy the inhabitants of a certain tract of country, he "ordered out his army as if he were going hunting," surrounded the tract, and then, pressing inwards towards the centre, slaughtered all the inhabitants therein.

Civil war and rebellion amongst the Muhammadans helped Harihara and Bukka in their enterprise. Sick of the tyranny and excesses of Muhammad Taghlaq, the Dakhan revolted in 1347, and the independent kingdom of the Bahmanis was for a time firmly established. The chronicle of Nuniz opens with the following sentence:

He defeated him, captured him, flayed him alive, and causing his skin to be stuffed with straw ordered it to be paraded through the provinces of the empire as a warning to ambitious governors. With reference to Gujarat, Nuniz has been led into a slight error. Muhammad Taghlaq certainly did go there, but only in 1347. What he did do was to conquer the Dakhan. He also held Gujarat firmly.

To conclusively establish the fact that this account can only refer to Muhammad Taghlaq of Delhi, who reigned from 1325 to 1351, it is necessary that we should look into the known character of that monarch and the events of his reign. Nuniz states that his "Togao Mamede" conquered Gujarat, was at war with Bengal, and had trouble with the Turkomans on the borders of Sheik Ismail, I.E. Persia.

To take these in reverse order. Early in the reign of Muhammad Taghlaq vast hordes of Moghuls invaded the Panjab and advanced almost unopposed to Delhi, where the king bought them off by payment of immense sums of money. Next as to Bengal. Prior to his reign that province had been subdued, had given trouble, and had again been reduced.

This account may or may not be accurate in all details, but it at least tallies fairly with the epigraphical and other records of the time. According to him, Muhammad Taghlaq of Delhi, having reduced Gujarat, marched southwards through the Dakhan Balaghat, or high lands above the western ghats, and a little previous to the year 1336 seized the town and fortress of Anegundi.

And the same is the case with his successor, Bukka, in two inscriptions, one of which is dated in 1353. Already in 1340 Harihara is said to have been possessed of very large territories, and he was the acknowledged overlord of villages as far north as the Kaladgi district, north of the Malprabha, a country that had been overrun by Muhammad Taghlaq.

South of the Krishna the whole country was still under Hindu domination, but the supremacy of the old dynasties was shaken to its base by the rapidly advancing terror from the north. With the accession in 1325 of Muhammad Taghlaq of Delhi things became worse still.

This implies that he took, when merely hunting, immense numbers of men with him. Shahab-ud-Din, indeed, declared that Muhammad Taghlaq had an army of 900,000 horse; and Nuniz, on the opening page of his chronicle, says that this Sultan invaded the Balaghat with 800,000 horse. This estimate was, of course, only according to the tradition extant in 1535.

His "Togao Mamede" can be none other than Muhammad Taghlaq. Henceforward this will be assumed. Muhammad's capture of Kampli and Anegundi Death of his nephew Baha-ud-din Malik Naib made governor of Anegundi Disturbances Harihara Deva Raya raised to be king of Anegundi Madhavacharya Vidyaranya The city of Vijayanagar founded Legends as to the origin of the new kingdom.