Battle of Talikota

The Battle of Talikota, also known as that of Rakkasagi–Tangadagi, (23 January 1565) was a watershed battle fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and an alliance of the Deccan sultanates. Despite the Vijayanagara army being larger, they were comprehensively defeated. The battle resulted in the defeat and death of 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.

When at last they retired, Vijayanagar was as completely ruined as if an earthquake had visited it and had left not a stone upon a stone. It was a destruction ferocious and absolute, typifying that terrible Moslem conquest of India which had begun a thousand years before, and was now complete. - Will Durant

Quotes

• In one day all this power and luxury were destroyed. Slowly the conquering Moslems had made their way south; now the sultans of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golkonda and Bidar united their forces to reduce this last stronghold of the native Hindu kings. Their combined armies met Rama Raja's half-million men at Talikota; the superior numbers of the attackers prevailed; Rama Raja was captured and beheaded in the sight of his followers, and these, losing courage, fled. Nearly a hundred thousand of them were slain in the retreat, until all the streams were colored with their blood. The conquering troops plundered the wealthy capital, and found the booty so abundant "that every private man in the allied army became rich in gold, jewels, effects, tents, arms, horses and slaves." For five months the plunder continued: the victors slaughtered the helpless inhabitants in indiscriminate butchery, emptied the stores and shops, smashed the temples and palaces, and labored at great pains to destroy all the statuary and painting in the city; then they went through the streets with flaming torches, and set fire to all that would burn. When at last they retired, Vijayanagar was as completely ruined as if an earthquake had visited it and had left not a stone upon a stone. It was a destruction ferocious and absolute, typifying that terrible Moslem conquest of India which had begun a thousand years before, and was now complete.
  • Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Book I, Our Oriental Heritage (1935) (V. THE ZENITH OF THE SOUTH)

• 'The battle took place on Tuesday, 23 January, 1565. The Vijayanagara army commenced attack in right earnest and the right and left wings of the confederate army were thrown into such disorder that their commanders were almost prepared to retreat when the position was saved by Hussain who opposed the enemy with great valour. The fighting was then continued and the loss of life on both sides was heavy. But it did not last long and its fate was determined by the desertion of two Muhammadan commanders under Ramraja. Caesar Frederick, who visited Vijayanagara in 1567, said that each of these commanders had under him seventy to eighty thousand men and the defeat of Vijayanagara was due to their desertion. Ramaraja fell into enemy's hands and was beheaded on the order of Hussain.'120
  • R.C. Majumdar (ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume VII, The Mughal Empire, Bombay, 1973, p. 425. Quoted in S.R.Goel, The Calcutta Quran Petition (1999) ISBN 9788185990583

• At first the Hindus fought with success and nearly won the battle; but the issue was decided by the desertion of two Muslim commanders of Rama Raya's army, each in charge of seventy to eighty thousand men.
  • About the watershed battle of Talikota on 23 January 1565 which broke the back of the Vijayanagara Empire
  • Nilakantha Shastri: History of South India, pp.94-5, quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2014). Decolonizing the Hindu mind: Ideological development of Hindu revivalism. New Delhi: Rupa. p.344

• In the yeer of our Lord 1567 [in the original it is 1566], I went from Goa to Bezeneger, the chiefe Citie of the Kingdom of Narsinga eight dayes journey from Goa, within the Land, in the companie of two other Merchants which carried with them three hundred Arabian Horses to that King… Bezeneger Idalcan, Xamalucco &c. A most unkind and wicked treason against their Prince; this they have for giving credite to strangers, rather than to their owne native people.
  The citie of Bezeneger was sacked in the yeere 1565 by foure Kings of the Moores, which were of great power and might: the names of these foure Kings were these following: the first was called Dialcan [Ali Adil Shah of Bijapur], the second Zamaluc [Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda], the third Cotamaluc [Husain Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar] and the fourth Viridy.
  And yet these foure Kings were not able to overcome this Citie and the King of Bezeneger, but by treason. This King of Bezeneger was a Gentile, and had, amongst all other of his Captaines, two which were notable, and they were Moores: and these two Captaines had either of them in charge threescore and ten or fourscore thousand men. These two Captaines being of one Religion with the foure Kings which were Moores, wrought means with them to betray their owne King into their hands. The King of Benzeneger esteemed not the force of the foure Kings his enemies, but went out of his Cities to wage battell with them in the fields; and when the Armies were joyned, the battell lasted but a while, not the space of four houres, because the two traiterous Captaines, in the chiefest of the fight, with their campanies turned their faces against their King, and made such disorder in his Armie, that as astonied they set themselves to flight. Thirty yeeres was this Kingdome governed by three brethren which were Tyrants, the which keeping the rightful King in prison, it was their use every yeere once to shew him to the people, and they at their pleasures ruled as they listed. These brethren were three Captaines belonging to the father of the king they kept in prison, which when he died, left his sonne very young, and then they took the government to themselves. The chiefest of these three was called Ramaragio, and sate in the Royall Throne, and was called the King: the second was called Temiragio and he took the government on him: the third was called Bengatre [the three brothers were: Ramaraya, Timmaraya and Venkatadri], and he was Captaine generall of the Armie. These three brethern were in this battell, in which the chiefest and the last were never heard of quicke nor dead. Only Temiragio fled in the battell, having lost one of his eyes. When the newes came to the Citie of the overthrowe in the battell, the wives and children of these three Tyrants with their lawful King (kept prisoner) fled away, spoyled as they were, and the foure Kings of the Moores entered the Citie Bezeneger with great triumph, and there they remained sixe moneths, searching under houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden, and then they departed to their owne Kingdomes, because they were not able to maintayne such a Kingdome as that was, so farre distant from their owne countrie.
  When the kings were departed from Bezeneger, this Temiragio returned to the Citie, and then beganne for to repopulate it, and sent word to Goa to the Merchants, if they had any Horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them, and for this cause the aforesaid two Merchants that I went in companie withall, carried those Horses that they had to Bezeneger. Also this Tyrant made an order or law, that if any Merchant had any of the Horses that were taken in the aforesaid battell or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would give as much for them as they would and beside he gave generally safe conduct to all that should bring them. When by this meanes hee saw that there were great store of Horses brought thither unto him, he gave the Merchants faire words, untill such time as he saw they could bring no more. Then hee licenced the Merchants to depart, without giving them any thing for their Horses, which when the poore men saw, they were desparate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe…
  In the yeere of our Lord God 1567 [in the year 1567, he is mentioning what happened after the battle of Talikota and the sack of the city of Vijayanagar] for the ill successe that the people of Bezeneger had, in that their Citie was sacked by the foure Kings, the King with his Court went to dwell in a Castle eight dayes journey up in the land from Bezeneger, called Penegonde. Also sixe dayes journey from Bezeneger, is the place where they get Diamants: I was there but it was told me that it is a great place, compassed with a wall, and that they sell the earth within the wall, for so much a squadron, and the limits are set how deepe or how low they shall digge. Those Diamants that are of a ceraine size and bigger then that size are all for the King, it is many yeeres agone, since they got any there, for the troubles that they have beene in that Kingdome.
  • (b) Battle of Talikota, 1565, Cesare Federici , in Filliozat, Vasundhara ed., Vijayanagar, National Book Trust, 2001. 318-326 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 12