Allenjacksparrow: quick update

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quick update

45.120.124.29 at 15:11, 28 June 2021

2021-06-28T15:11:44Z

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{{short description|1565 battle in India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of Talikota
| partof = [[Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent]]
| image =
| caption = Execution of [[Aliya Rama Raya]], by the ruler of the [[Hussain Nizam Shah I]]
| date = January 1565
| place = Around [[Talikota]] in present day [[Karnataka]]
| coordinates =
| result = [[Deccan Sultanates]] alliance victory
*Sacking of [[Vijayanagara]]
*Complete decline of the [[Vijayanagara Empire]]
| combatant1 = [[Deccan sultanates]]
* [[File:"Alam" Flag of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.png|23px]] [[Ahmadnagar Sultanate]]
* [[Adil Shahi dynasty|Bijapur Sultanate]]
* [[File:QutbshahiFlag.PNG|22px]] [[Qutb Shahi dynasty|Golkonda Sultanate]]
* [[Bidar Sultanate]]
| combatant2 = [[Vijayanagara Empire]]
| commander1 = *[[File:"Alam" Flag of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.png|23px]] [[Hussain Nizam Shah I]]
* [[Ali Adil Shah I]]
* [[File:QutbshahiFlag.PNG|22px]] [[Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali]]
* [[Ali Barid Shah I]]
| commander2 = *'''[[Aliya Rama Raya]]'''{{Executed}}
* Venkatadri{{KIA}}
* [[Tirumala Deva Raya]]
*Achutappa Nayak
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
| map_type = Karnataka
| map_relief = y
}}
The '''Battle of Talikota''' (23 January 1565) was a watershed battle fought between the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] and an alliance of the [[Deccan sultanates]].<ref name=":0" /> The defeat of [[Aliya Rama Raya]] led to the eventual collapse of the polity and reconfigured Deccan politics.<ref name=":0" />

The specific details of the battle and its immediate aftermath are notoriously difficult to reconstruct in light of the distinctly contrarian narratives present across primary sources.<ref name=":5" /> Defeat is usually blamed on the gap in relative military prowess.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":5" /> Orientalist and nationalist historians asserted of the battle to be a civilization-clash between Hindus and Muslims;<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> this view has since penetrated into the [[Hindutva]] discourse.<ref name=":12" /> Modern scholars unanimously reject such characterizations as fatally flawed.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":12" />

== Background ==
Rama Raya, after his installation of a patrimonial state and emerging as the ruler, adopted a political strategy of benefiting from the internecine warfare among the multiple successors of the [[Bahmani Sultanate]], and it worked well for about twenty years of his reign.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|title=Rama Raya (1484–1565): élite mobility in a Persianized world|date=2005|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-history-of-the-deccan-13001761/rama-raya-14841565-elite-mobility-in-a-persianized-world/EABCC41A5AAFC5E0672C759AB59C053A|work=A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761: Eight Indian Lives|pages=78–104|editor-last=Eaton|editor-first=Richard M.|series=The New Cambridge History of India|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-25484-7|access-date=2020-12-08}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Kulke|first1=Hermann|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315628806|title=A History of India|last2=Rothermund|first2=Dietmar|date=2016-05-27|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-62880-6|pages=145–6|language=en|doi=10.4324/9781315628806}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Citation|title=Imperial collapse and aftermath: 1542–1700|date=1990|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-cambridge-history-of-india/imperial-collapse-and-aftermath-15421700/FED92D618E0134EA9B154C696D64A008|work=The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara|pages=109–139|editor-last=Stein|editor-first=Burton|series=The New Cambridge History of India|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-61925-7|access-date=2020-12-08}}</ref>

However, after a series of aggressive efforts to maintain hold over [[Kalyan]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shobhi|first=Prithvi Datta Chandra|date=2016-01-02|title=Kalyāṇa is Wrecked: The Remaking of a Medieval Capital in Popular Imagination|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2016.1182327|journal=South Asian Studies|volume=32|issue=1|pages=90–98|doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1182327|issn=0266-6030}}</ref>{{Efn|Kalyana was the capital of the [[Chalukyas]]. Rama Raya sought to control the territory in his bid to gain popular legitimacy by establishing himself as the true heir to Chalukya sovereignty and glory. Other examples included retrofitting of decayed Chalukya complexes and bringing back Chalukya festivals.|name=|group=}} and diplomatic dealings with the Sultanates laden with insulting gestures, the four Muslim Sultanates – [[Hussain Nizam Shah I]] and [[Ali Adil Shah I]] of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur to the west, [[Ali Barid Shah I]] of Bidar in the center, and [[Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali]] of Golkonda to the east – united in the wake of shrewd marital diplomacy and convened to attack Aliya Rama Raya, in late January 1565.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" />

==Battle==
[[File:Battle of Talikota complete panorama.png|thumb|left|Battle of Talikota.]]

=== Sources ===
There exists multiple contemporary chronicles (literary as well as historical) documenting the war<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gordon|first=Stewart|date=2016-01-02|title=In the Aura of the King: Trans-Asian, Trans-Regional, and Deccani Royal Symbolism|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429|journal=South Asian Studies|volume=32|issue=1|pages=42–53|doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429|s2cid=164169912|issn=0266-6030}}</ref>:--

* ''Burhan-i Maasir'' by Sayyid Ali Bin Abdullah Tabataba, the court historian of Ahmadnagar Sultanate''.''
* ''Gulshan-i Ibrahimi'' by Ferishta, the court historian of Bijapur Sultanate.
* ''Taḏkerat al-molūk'' by Rafi-ud-Din Shirazi, another court historian of Bijapur Sultanate''.''
* ''Décadas da Ásia'' by official Portuguese record-keeper Diogo do Couto.
* Letters by Goa governor Dom Antão de Noronha.
* ''Fath-Nama-i Nizam Shah'' by Hasan Shauqi, a [[Dakhni]] poet.
*''Tarif-i Husayn Shah'' by Aftabi, a poet at Ahmadnagar court.

Notwithstanding their obvious biases and exaggerations, the details of the battle and immediate aftermath are often distinctly contrarian and reconstruction is difficult, if not impossible.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Subrahmanyam|first=Sanjay|title=Courtly Encounters : Translating Courtliness and Violence in Early Modern Eurasia|date=2012-04-12|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-06736-3|language=en|chapter=Courtly Insults|pages=34–102|doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674067363.c2|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/hup/view/book/9780674067363/10.4159/harvard.9780674067363.c2.xml}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Guha|first=Sumit|date=2015-07-09|title=Rethinking the Economy of Mughal India: Lateral Perspectives|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/58/4/article-p532_4.xml|journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient|language=en|volume=58|issue=4|pages=546|doi=10.1163/15685209-12341382|issn=1568-5209|jstor=43919254}}</ref> Error-ridden translations remain an issue, as well.<ref name=":5" />

=== Description ===
The exact venue of clash has been variously mentioned as Talikota, Rakkasagi-Tangadigi and Bannihatti -- all on the banks of river Krishna.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Site of the so-called Battle of Talikota – ProQuest|url=https://search.proquest.com/openview/017fb95b0be40063172b96baac51d822|access-date=2020-12-09|website=search.proquest.com|language=en}}</ref>{{Efn|James Campbell had reported traces of the Vijayanagara defensive fortifications along the southern bank of Krishna in these regions as late as 1884.|name=|group=}} There exists debate as to the precise dates.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Sarkar|first=Jadunath|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.21517|title=Military History of India|date=1960|publisher=M. C. SARKAR AND SONS PRIVATE LTD. KOLKATA|pages=91}}</ref> Span-lengths vary from hours to days; descriptions of battle formations and maneuvers vary widely, as well.<ref name=":5" />
===Outcome===

Rama Raya was eventually beheaded by Sultan Nizam Hussain himself (or on his behest); Adil Shah who had friendly relations with Rama Raya intended against.<ref name=":5" /> Rama Raya's death created confusion and havoc.<ref name=":0" /> His brother [[Tirumala Deva Raya|Tirumala]] deserted the battlefield with the entire army and tried to temporally regroup in Vijaynagara, before quickly moving on to the outskirts of their empire.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> His other brother was blinded and was probably a battle-casualty.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Malik E Maidan.jpg|thumb|The "Malik-i-Maidan" (''Master of the Field'') cannon, stated to be the largest piece of cast [[bronze]] ordnance in the world,<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Bijapur |volume=3 |page=927}}</ref> was utilized by the [[Deccan Sultanates]] during the Battle of Talikota. It was provided by [[Ali Adil Shah I]] ([[Bijapur Sultanate]])]]

The Sultanates' armies went on to plunder Vijaynagara, unopposed.<ref name=":0" /> Popular accounts (and older scholarship) describes of Vijaynagara being since reduced to rubble, in light of the widespread desecration of sacred topography; however, this view has been contested.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last1=Lycett|first1=Mark T.|last2=Morrison|first2=Kathleen D.|date=2013-01-01|title=The "Fall" of Vijayanagara Reconsidered: Political Destruction and Historical Construction in South Indian History|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/56/3/article-p433_3.xml|journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient|language=en|volume=56|issue=3|pages=433–470|doi=10.1163/15685209-12341314|issn=1568-5209|jstor=43303558}}</ref> Historians and archaeologists warn against conflating the state with the town, in that little evidence exists about any damage beyond the Royal Center of Vijaynagara and further emphasize about the politically strategic nature of destruction and arson, in that specific sites associated with sovereignty, royal power and authority were subject to more wanton destruction.<ref name=":13" />

=== Analysis of defeat ===
Vijayanagara side was winning the war, state [[Hermann Kulke]] and [[Dietmar Rothermund]] in a survey of Indian history, until two Muslim generals of the Vijayanagara army switched sides and turned their loyalty to the Sultanates.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="ReferenceA">[[K. A. Nilakanta Sastri]] (1955), ''[[A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar|A History of South India]]'', Oxford University Press, p. 267, {{ISBN|0195606868}}</ref> <ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10">{{Cite book|last=Eaton|first=Richard M.|title=India in the Persianate Age : 1000–1765|publisher=University of California Press|year=2019|isbn=9780520325128}}</ref><ref name=":12" />

== Legacy ==
The battle caused a political rupture for the state of Vijaynagara and permanently reconfigured Deccan politics.<ref name=":0" /> Patronage of monuments and temples ceased, the Vaishnava cult perished, and Vijaynagara was never rebuilt.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Verghese|first=Anila|date=2004-09-01|title=Deities, cults and kings at Vijayanagara|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1468936042000282726812a|journal=World Archaeology|volume=36|issue=3|pages=416–431|doi=10.1080/1468936042000282726812a|s2cid=162319660|issn=0043-8243}}</ref>

The Bijapur Sultanate reaped maximum gains of the battle but the alliance did not last long.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last1=Eaton|first1=Richard Maxwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INltswEACAAJ|title=Power, Memory, Architecture|last2=Wagoner|first2=Phillip B.|date=2017-09-18|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-947769-2|language=en}}</ref> Tirumala went on to establish the [[Aravidu dynasty]], which held sway over different fragments of the erstwhile empire and even operated out of Vijaynagara for two years, before shifting to Pengonda.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9" /> But faced with internal feuds about succession, multiple local chieftains (primarily Telegu Nayak houses) growing increasingly assertive of their independence who did not wish for the reemergence of a central Vijayanagar authority{{Efn|Stein notes of these independent estates to have been consolidating power since the zenith of Rama Raya's rule. He considers the entire span of Vijayanagara Empire to be a weakly-centralised polity, whose most important territories were regarded by local chiefs as independent "in every respect save that they could not claim to be fully-fledged kingdoms". [[Noboru Karashima]] disagrees with Stein's broad characterization but agrees that the final period of the Vijayanagar empire (Aravidus) was indeed marked by the growing power of the Nayakas as local feudal lords.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=The empire of apostles: Jesuits in Brazil and India, 16th–17th c|url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1040866864|publisher=University of Chicago|date=2012|language=en|first=Ananya|last=Chakravarti}}</ref>|name=|group=}}, and continuous conflicts with the [[Adil Shahi dynasty|Bijapur Sultanate]] (who might have been invited by Rama Raya's son), it moved southwards before disintegrating in the late 1640s.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Talbot|first=Cynthia|title=Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=9780195136616|pages=196|chapter=The Kakatiyas in Telugu Historical Memory|doi=10.1093/0195136616.001.0001|chapter-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195136616.001.0001/acprof-9780195136616-chapter-6}}</ref>

=== Clash of civilizations ===
Colonial era historians ([[Robert Sewell (historian)|Robert Sewell]], [[Jonathan Scott (orientalist)|Jonathan Scott]] et al) drawing from the accounts of [[Firishta]] and later, historians ([[Aluru Venkata Rao]], [[B. A. Saletore]], [[S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar]], [[K. A. Nilakanta Sastri]] et al) lensed the battle as a [[Clash of Civilizations]] wherein the "Ramrajya" of Vijayanagara, a "Hindu bulwark" state fell to "Muhammedan" conquests driven by religious bigotry.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nair|first=Janaki|date=1996|title='Memories of Underdevelopment' Language and Its Identities in Contemporary Karnataka|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4404683|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=31|issue=41/42|pages=2809–2816|jstor=4404683|issn=0012-9976}}</ref><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite thesis|title=Geographies of Influence: Two Afghan Military Households in 17th and 18th Century South India|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/17c0k41d|publisher=UC Berkeley|date=2018|language=en|first=Hannah Lord|last=Archambault}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite web|last=Shekhar|first=Shashank|date=25 October 2019|title=Hampi: Ruins of splendour|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/arts-and-culture/heritage/article29604140.ece|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Frontline|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|last=Ahmed Sayeed|first=Vikhar|date=18 January 2019|title=Battle of Talikota: Beyond the Hindu-Muslim binary|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/arts-and-culture/heritage/article25880107.ece|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Frontline|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":13" />

Richard M. Eaton rejects that there were any religious motives behind the battle and described of the civilization-hypothesis as orientalist scholarship, which ignored the multiple alliances of Rama Raya with different Muslim rulers at different spans of time (in tune to his political strategy), the thorough perfusion of Persian Islamate culture with Vijaynagara Kingdom, as evident from court-sanctioned art, architecture and culture, and strategic alliances of Rama Raya's heirs (Aravidus) with heirs of the Deccan Sultans.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":10" /> [[Romila Thapar]], [[Burton Stein]], [[Sanjay Subrahmanyam]], [[Muzaffar Alam]], [[Stewart N. Gordon]] and other scholars agree on the basis of similar analyses; additional arguments include that the [[Berar Sultanate]] did not join the battle and that the Sultanate-alliance dissipated soon enough.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Ray|first=Aniruddha|title=The Rise and Fall of Vijayanagar – an Alternative Hypothesis to "Hindu Nationalism" Thesis|date=2003|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145480|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=64|pages=420–433|jstor=44145480|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Eaton|first=Richard M.|date=2016-01-02|title=Afterword|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2016.1201895|journal=South Asian Studies|volume=32|issue=1|pages=126–128|doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1201895|s2cid=219698039|issn=0266-6030}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gordon|first=Stewart|date=2016-01-02|title=In the Aura of the King: Trans-Asian, Trans-Regional, and Deccani Royal Symbolism|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429|journal=South Asian Studies|volume=32|issue=1|pages=42–53|doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429|s2cid=164169912|issn=0266-6030}}</ref><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Citation|title=Hindu Militarism under Islamic Rule: 900–1800 ce|date=2012|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hinduism-and-the-ethics-of-warfare-in-south-asia/hindu-militarism-under-islamic-rule/2D9871D67B39CA75FE7BF76F9767B85B|work=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present|pages=161–210|editor-last=Roy|editor-first=Kaushik|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01736-8|access-date=2020-12-09}}</ref><ref name=":14">{{Cite web|last=Ramachandran|first=Nandini|title=Histories that challenge the reductionist popular understanding of Islam in India|url=https://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/islam-histories-challenge-understanding-india|access-date=2020-12-09|website=The Caravan|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":11" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wagoner|first=Phillip B.|date=1996|title="Sultan among Hindu Kings": Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2646526|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|volume=55|issue=4|pages=851–880|doi=10.2307/2646526|jstor=2646526|issn=0021-9118}}</ref> Harmonious Hindu-Muslim relations in the empire has been documented and there were high placed Muslims in Vijaynagara Court.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Shivarudraswamy|first=S.N.|title=Hindu-Muslim Relations Under the Vijayanagara Empire|date=2005|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145855|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=66|pages=394–398|jstor=44145855|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Verghese|first=Anila|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004054378|title=Religious traditions at Vijayanagara, as revealed through its monuments|date=1995|publisher=Manohar : American Institute of Indian Studies|isbn=978-81-7304-086-3|series=Vijayanagara research project monograph series|location=New Delhi}}</ref>

A report in [[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] states that this debunked argument has been weaponized by the [[Hindutva|Hindu right]] in its bid to demonize (and [[Othering|other]]) the Muslim in contemporary India.<ref name=":12" />

=== Popular culture ===
The battle has been adopted into a play by [[Girish Karnad]], who based it on Eaton's analysis.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History vs 'Crossing to talikota' play by Girish Karnad|url=https://www.firstpost.com/living/girish-karnads-last-play-crossing-to-talikota-engrosses-but-stops-short-of-being-politically-audacious-7488841.html|access-date=2019-11-01|website=[[Firstpost]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Guha|first=Sumit|date=2009|title=The Frontiers of Memory: What the Marathas Remembered of Vijayanagara|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20488079|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=43|issue=1|pages=269–288|doi=10.1017/S0026749X07003307|jstor=20488079|issn=0026-749X}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Talikota}}
[[Category:1565 in India]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Vijayanagara Empire]]
[[Category:Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent]]
[[Category:History of Karnataka]]
[[Category:History of Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1565]]
[[Category:Deccan sultanates]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Deccan Sultanates]]

Battle of Talikota - Revision history

Allenjacksparrow: quick update

45.120.124.29 at 15:11, 28 June 2021