Thread by @_ugra_

Between 1351 to 1506 CE, the Vijayanagara empire fought 13 bloody wars with the bahamani barbarians. Most of these wars were defensive in nature, often resulting in Vijayanagara suffering territorial losses, except the 7th & 13th(last) war that Vijayanagara won decisively(1)

Most of the defeats were as a result of the Vijayanagara rulers simply not going the whole hog. On the occasions that they did i.e. The 7th war under Deva Raya I in 1417 & the final war in 1506 under Narasimha Raya, it resulted in the complete decimation of the bahamanis.

Deva Raya I chased the turushka barbarian feroz shah into his own kingdom & inflicted such mayhem. It resulted in the words of chronicler ferishta:

"The result was that
Deva Raya made a general massacre of the mussalmans &
created a platform with their heads on the battlefield"

"His army
even followed the sultan into his own country with fire and
sword, capturing many places, breaking down mosques and holy
places and slaughtering the people without mercy"

Devaraya I reversed much of the territorial losses & expanded the empire to new heights.

All these gains would go in vain due to the shortsightedness of Devaraya's grandson, Devaraya II. He would bring about changes in the military that would result in recruiting large number of turushkas into the army. He would go out of the way to appease them.

Like building exclusive quarters, places of worship for turushkas. He even had a copy of their holy book placed before his throne. Despite such appeasing, the bahamanis would wage the 10th war in 1443. Like always initial Hindu wins would be reversed due to treachery.

At the battle of Mudgal, where Vijayanagara were on course to win, will result in the killing of Deva Raya II's eldest son. It would send Hindu forces into disarray. Secular Devaraya II would be forced to accept defeat & forced to pay tribute to the bahamanis.

This unfortunate practice of recruiting turushkas into the Vijayanagara army started by Devaraya II would continue till the time of Aliya Rama Raya, who would be betrayed by his own turushka generals, the gilanis, resulting in the irreversible decline of Vijayanagara in 1565.

Everytime Vijayanagara made military advances towards the bahamanis, their sultans often united to wage jehad against the "infidels" of Vijayanagara. They also sought help of other turushka kingdoms to defeat Hindus. One such example is when feroz shah sought the help of...

sultan ahmed, the turushka ruler of Gujarat.When Devaraya I devasted the bahamanis in 1419, feroz shah went crying for help to sultan ahmed, who would gladly lend help. This would also repeat in 1565 when 5 turushkas kingdoms of deccan would unite at Talikota to defeat 'infidels'

While the turushkas often had internal quarrels, they ALWAYS united when it came to fighting the infidels of Vijayanagara.

Tragically the opposite never happened. The only other significant Hindu kingdom in the vicinity of Vijayanagara was the Gajapathi kingdom..

Infact something far worse happened. During the 11th bahamani war in 1449, the Hindu ruler of Gajapathi would walk into an alliance with the turushka bahamanis to defeat Vijayanagara. This combined army would lay siege on Hampi itself.

Turushkas always united under a common flag to defeat Hindus. While Hindus always indulged in dangerous games of one upmanship that would see Hindu kingdoms like Gajapathi fraternizing with turushkas.

This disease ails Hindus even to this day. Let us find a cure to this. /end.