RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND MILITARY FEUDALISMindependent from the sultanate of Delhi arose in Central and South India
after Muhammad Tughluq relinquished Daulatabad and returned to Delhi.
The most important states of this kind were the Hindu kingdom of Orissa,
which survived all Muslim onslaughts until 1568, the Bahmani sultanate of
Central India, and the Vijayanagar empire of South India.
The Bahmani sultanate of the DeccanSoon after Muhammad Tughluq left Daulatabad, the city was conquered by
Zafar Khan in 1345. Independence from Delhi was immediately declared
and Khan established a sultanate of his own. Zafar Khan, a Turkish or
Afghan officer of unknown descent, had earlier participated in a mutiny of
troops in Gujarat. He probably did not feel too safe in Daulatabad, so he
shifted his capital two years later to Gulbarga (Karnataka). This town is
located in a fertile basin surrounded by hills. The mighty citadel of the sultan
exists to this today. Not far from this place was the capital of the
Rashtrakutas, Malkhed or Manyakheta, which shows that this area was
ideally suited as a nuclear region of a great realm.
Zafar Khan, also known as Bahman Shah, became the founder of an
important dynasty which ruled the Deccan for nearly two centuries. He had
to fight various remnants of Muhammad Tughluq’s troops, as well as the
Hindu rulers of Orissa and Warangal who had also expanded their spheres
of influence as soon as Muhammad had left the Deccan. The rajas of
Vijayanagar had established their empire almost at the same time as Bahman
Shah had founded his sultanate; they now emerged as his most formidable
enemies. The Bahmani sultans were as cruel and ferocious as the Delhi
sultans, at least according to contemporary chronicles. Bahman Shah’s
successor, Muhammad Shah (1358–73), killed about half a million people in
his incessant campaigns until he and his adversaries came to some agreement
to spare prisoners-of-war as well as the civilian population.
Despite their many wars, Sultan Muhammad Shah and his successors
could not expand the sultanate very much: they just about managed to
maintain the status quo. Around 1400 the rulers of Vijayanagar, in good
old Rajamandala style, even established an alliance with the Bahmani
sultans’ northern neighbours—the sultans of Gujarat and Malwa—so as to
check his expansionist policy. But in 1425 the Bahmani sultan subjected
Warangal and thus reached the east coast. However, only a few years later
the new Suryavamsha dynasty of Orissa challenged the sultanate and
contributed to its downfall.
In the fifteenth century the capital of the Bahmani sultanate was moved
from Gulbarga to Bidar. The new capital, Bidar, was at a much higher level
(about 3,000 feet) than Gulbarga and had a better climate in the rainy
season, but it was also nearly 100 miles further to the northeast and thus
much closer to Warangal. Bidar soon was as impressive a capital as