第23章

"Sultan Feroze Shaw was enraged at his not going with him to his camp,and said to Meer Fuzzul Oollah that he would one day have his revenge for the affront offered him by such neglect.This declaration being told to Dewul Roy,he made some insolent remarks,so that,notwithstanding the connection of family,their hatred was not calmed."Firuz returned after this to his capital and sent for the lovely Pertal,and on her arrival,finding that her beauty surpassed all report,he gave her in marriage to his eldest son,Hasan Khan,when "the knot was tied amid great rejoicings and princely magnificence."The lady's husband is described by Firishtah as being "a weak and dissipated prince."He was heir to the throne,but was easily ousted by the valiant Ahmad "Khankhanan,"and lived privately at Firuzabad,"entirely devoted to redolence and pleasure."The last we hear of him is that his usurping uncle,Ahmad Shah I.,treated him kindly,"gave him the palace of Firozeabad for his residence,with an ample jaghire (estate),and permission to hunt or take his pleasure within eight miles round his palace,without restriction to time or form."Hasan "was more satisfied with this power of indulging his appetites than with the charge of empire.While his uncle lived he enjoyed his ease,and no difference ever happened between them;but he was afterwards blinded and kept confined to the palace of Firozeabad."This must have been after A.D.1434.

Deva Raya I.lived till at least 1412A.D.,and was succeeded by his son Vira-Vijaya,whom Nuniz calls "Visaya,"and who,he says,reigned six years.The last extant inion of Deva Raya I.is dated in A.D.1412--13,the first of his successor Vijaya in 1413--14.Vijaya's last known inion is one of 1416--17,and the first yet known of his successor,his eldest son,Deva Raya II.,is dated Monday,June 26,1424--25.Nuniz gives Deva Raya II.a reign of twenty-five years.

I am inclined to think that Deva Raya II.began to reign in 1419,for the following reason.The informants of Nuniz stated that during Vijaya's reign he "did nothing worth relating,"and the chronicle records that during the reign which followed,namely that of Deva Raya II.,there was "constant warfare."Now we have it from Firishtah that in 1417Firuz,Sultan of Kulbarga,commenced a war of aggression against the Hindus of Telingana He besieged the fortress of Pangul,[100]seventy miles north-east of Adoni,for a period of two years,but the attempt to reduce it ended in failure owing to a pestilence breaking out amongst both men and horses.

"Many of the first nobility deserted the camp and tied with their followers to their jaghires.At this crisis Dewul Roy collected his army,and having obtained aid from the surrounding princes,even to the Raja of Telingana (Warangal),marched against the sultan with a vast host of horse and foot."This then took place in 1419A.D.,and since this energetic action was not consonant with the character of Vijaya,the FAINEANT sovereign,"who did nothing worth recording"in all his career,we must suppose that it took place as soon as Deva Raya,his successor,was crowned;when the nobles surrounding him (he was,I believe,quite young when he began to reign)[101]filled with zeal and ambition,roused the Hindu troops and in the king's name plunged into war against their country's hereditary foe.

If this be correct,the reign of Deva Raya II.,granting that it lasted as stated by Nuniz for twenty-five years,ended in A.D.1444.Now the chronicle tells us a story of how this Deva Raya's son and successor,"Pina Rao,"[102]was attacked by his nephew with a poisoned dagger,and died from the effects of his wounds after a lapse of six months.Abdur Razzak,more reliable because he was not only a contemporary but was at Vijayanagar at the time,relates the same anecdote of Deva Raya II.himself,making the would-be assassin the king's brother,and definitely fixing the date beyond a shadow of a doubt.The event occurred on some day between November 1442and April 1443--the outside limits of Razzak's visit to Calicut --during his stay at which place he says it happened.Abdur Razzak does not mention the king's death,and this therefore had not supervened up to the time of the traveller leaving the capital in December 1443.On the assumption that we need not be too particular about Nuniz's "six months,"we may conclude that the attack was made about the month of April 1443,and that Deva Raya II.died early in 1444A.D.There is still,however,a difficulty,as will be noticed below,inions giving us the name of a Deva Raya as late as 1449A.D.,but it is just possible that this was another king of the same name.

Putting together the facts given above,we find that the twenty-five years of the reign of Deva Raya II.lay between 1419and 1444A.D.