Bidar Sultanate

Bidar Sultanate was one of the Deccan sultanates of late medieval southern India. The sultanate emerged under the rule of Qasim Barid I in 1492 and leadership passed to his sons. Starting from the 1580s, a wave of successions occurred in the rulership of the dynasty which ended in 1609 under the last Sultan Amir Barid III who was eventually defeated in 1619 by the Bijapur sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II. Bidar became annexed into the Bijapur Sultanate.

Quotes

• The rulers and the nobles in the land of India are all Khorassanians. The Hindoos walk all on foot and walk fast. They are all naked and barefooted, and carry a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Some of the servants are armed with straight bows and arrows.
  • Rulers and subjects at Bedar, Athanasius Nikitin in Major, R. H., India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 12

• The land is overstocked with people; but those in the country are very miserable, whilst the nobles are extremely opulent and delight in luxury. They are wont to be carried on their silver beds, preceded by some twenty chargers caparisoned in gold, and followed by 300 men on horseback and 500 on foot, and by horn-men, ten torchbearers and ten musicians.
  • Nobility and condition of people, Athanasius Nikitin in Major, R. H., India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 12

• The sultan goes out hunting with his mother and his lady, and a train of 10,000 men on horseback, 50,000 on foot; 200 elephants adorned in gilded armour, and in front one hundred horn-men, 100 dancers, and 300 common horses in golden clothing, 100 monkeys, and 100 concubines, all foreign (haurikies).
  • Nobility and condition of people, Athanasius Nikitin in Major, R. H., India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 12

• The sultan’s palace has seven gates, and in each gate are seated 100 guards and 100 Mahommedan scribes, who enter the names of all persons going in and out. Foreigners are not admitted into the town. This palace is very wonderful; everything in it is carved or gilded, and, even to the smallest stone, is cut and ornamented with gold most wonderfully. Several courts of justice are within the building.
  • in Major, R. H., India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 12

• The sultan (of Bedar) moved out with his army on the fifteenth day after the Ulu Bairam to join Melich-Tuchar at Kulburga. But their campaign was not successful, for they only took one Indian town, and that at the loss of many people and treasures.
  The Hindoo sultan Kadam is a very powerful prince. He possesses a numerous army, and resides on a mountain at Bichenegher (Bijanagar). This vast city is surrounded by three forts, and intersected by a river, bordering on one side on a dreadful jungel, on the other on a dale; a wonderful place, and to any purpose convenient. On one side it is quite inaccessible; a road goes right through the town, and as the mountain rises high with a ravine below, the town is impregnable.
  The enemy besieged it for a month and lost many people, owing to the want of water and food. Plenty of water was in sight, but could not be got at.
  This Indian stronghold was ultimately taken by Melikh Khan Khoda, who stormed it, having fought day and night to reduce it. The army that made the siege with heavy guns, had neither eaten nor drunk for twenty days. He lost five thousand of his best soldiers. On the capture of the town twenty thousand inhabitants, men and women, had their heads cut off; twenty thousand, young and old, were made prisoners, and sold afterwards at ten tenkas and also at five tenkas a head; the children at two tenkas each. The treasury, however, having been found empty, the town was abandoned.
  • Bedar-Vijayanagar conflict, Athanasius Nikitin in Major, R. H., India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 12