Allenjacksparrow at 09:48, 19 March 2026

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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 the Villages of Rakshāsi and Tengadi near [[Talikota]] in present day [[Karnataka]]<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/K.A.NilakantaSastriBooks/K.%20A.%20Nilakanta%20Sastri/Further%20Source%20Of%20Vijayanagara%20History%20Vol%20I%201946%20/page/n278/mode/1up|pages=263–264|work=Further Sources of Vijayanagara History Vol 1|editor-last=Sastri|editor-first= K A Nilakanta|title=The battle of Rakshasi Tengadi}}</ref>
| coordinates =
| result = [[Deccan Sultanates]] alliance victory
*Sacking of [[Vijayanagara]]
*Complete decline of the [[Vijayanagara Empire]]
| combatant1 = [[Deccan sultanates]]
* [[File:Flag of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.svg|23px]] [[Ahmadnagar Sultanate]]
* [[Adil Shahi dynasty|Bijapur Sultanate]]
* [[File:QutbshahiFlag.PNG|22px]] [[Qutb Shahi dynasty|Golkonda Sultanate]]
* [[Bidar Sultanate]]
* [[Berar Sultanate]]
| combatant2 = [[Vijayanagara Empire]]
| commander1 = *[[File:Flag of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.svg|23px]] [[Hussain Nizam Shah I]]
* [[Ali Adil Shah I]]
* [[File:QutbshahiFlag.PNG|22px]] [[Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali]]
* [[Ali Barid Shah I]]
* [[Burhan Imad Shah]]
| commander2 = *'''[[Aliya Rama Raya]]'''{{Executed}}
* Venkatadri{{KIA}}
* [[Tirumala Deva Raya]]
*Achutappa Nayak
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
| map_type = Karnataka
| map_relief = y
}}
The '''Battle of Talikota''', also known as that of '''Rakshasi–Tangadi''', (23 January 1565) was a watershed battle fought between the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] and an alliance of the [[Deccan sultanates]].<ref name=":0" /> The battle resulted in the defeat of [[Aliya Rama Raya]] which 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">{{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=":5" /> [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] and [[Hindu nationalism|nationalist]] historians asserted of the battle to be a [[clash of civilizations]] between Hindus and Muslims;<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> Contemporary scholars reject such characterizations as 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">{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521254847.006 |chapter=Rama Raya (1484–1565): élite mobility in a Persianized world |title=A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761 |year=2005 |pages=78–104 |isbn=9780521254847 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315628806 |title=A History of India |year=2016 |last1=Kulke |first1=Hermann |last2=Rothermund |first2=Dietmar |isbn=9781317242130 }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521266932.006 |chapter=Imperial collapse and aftermath: 1542–1700 |title=The New Cambridge History of India |year=1990 |pages=109–139 |isbn=9781139055611 }}</ref>

However, after a series of aggressive efforts to maintain hold over [[Kalyan]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chandra Shobhi |first1=Prithvi Datta |title=Kalyāṇa is Wrecked: The Remaking of a Medieval Capital in Popular Imagination |journal=South Asian Studies |date=2 January 2016 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=90–98 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1182327 |s2cid=219697794 }}</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 exist multiple contemporary chronicles (literary as well as historical) documenting the war:<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=Stewart |title=In the Aura of the King: Trans-Asian, Trans-Regional, and Deccani Royal Symbolism |journal=South Asian Studies |date=2 January 2016 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=42–53 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429 |s2cid=164169912 }}</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.

The details of the battle and immediate aftermath are often distinctly contrarian and even accounting for biases, reconstruction is difficult, if not impossible.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{cite book |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674067363.c2 |chapter=1 Courtly Insults |title=Courtly Encounters |year=2012 |pages=34–102 |isbn=9780674067363 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guha |first1=Sumit |title=Rethinking the Economy of Mughal India: Lateral Perspectives |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |date=9 July 2015 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=532–575 |doi=10.1163/15685209-12341382 |jstor=43919254 }}</ref>

=== 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 journal |id={{ProQuest|1301919684}} |last1=Shirwani |first1=H K. |title=The Site of the so-called Battle of Talikota |journal=Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society |volume=5 |issue=3|date=1 July 1957 |pages=151–157 }}</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=https://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 too.<ref name=":5" />
===Outcome===

Rama Raya was eventually beheaded either by Sultan Nizam Hussain himself or by someone else acting on his behest despite Adil Shah, who had friendly relations with Raya, intending against.<ref name=":5" /> In the resultant confusion and havoc, Raya's brother [[Tirumala Deva Raya|Tirumala]] deserted with the entire army; he did try to regroup in Vijaynagara but failed and moved to the outskirts.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> His other brother Venkatadri was blinded and likely, killed in action.<ref name=":0" />

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Malik E Maidan.jpg|thumb|The "Malik-i-Maidan" (''Master of the Battlefield'') 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 Vijayanagara, unopposed.<ref name=":0" /> Popular accounts and older scholarship describe Vijayanagara falling to ruins, 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. |title=The 'Fall' of Vijayanagara Reconsidered: Political Destruction and Historical Construction in South Indian History |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |date=2013 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=433–470 |doi=10.1163/15685209-12341314 |jstor=43303558 }}</ref> Contemporary historians and archaeologists warn against conflating the state with the town as little evidence exists about any damage inflicted beyond the Royal Center; they further emphasize about the politically strategic nature of destruction and arson, since sites associated with sovereignty, royal power, and authority were subject to more wanton means.<ref name=":13" />

Nonetheless, the battle caused a political rupture for the state of Vijayanagara and permanently reconfigured Deccan politics.<ref name=":0" /> Patronage of monuments and temples ceased, the Vaishnava cult perished, and the Royal Center was never rebuilt.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Verghese |first1=Anila |title=Deities, cults and kings at Vijayanagara |journal=World Archaeology |date=September 2004 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=416–431 |doi=10.1080/1468936042000282726812a |s2cid=162319660 }}</ref> The Bijapur Sultanate reaped maximum gains but their alliance did not last long.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9">{{cite book |last1=Eaton |first1=Richard Maxwell |last2=Wagoner |first2=Phillip B. |title=Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India's Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-947769-2 }}{{pn|date=November 2022}}</ref> Tirumala went on to establish the [[Aravidu dynasty]], which held sway over fragments of the erstwhile empire and even operated out of Vijayanagara for two years, before shifting to Pengonda.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":9" /> But faced with successional disputes, rebellions by multiple local chieftains—primarily Telugu Nayak houses—who did not wish for the reemergence of any central 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 |id={{ProQuest|1040866864}} |last1=Chakravarti |first1=Ananya |year=2012 |title=The empire of apostles: Jesuits in Brazil and India, 16th–17th c }}</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 |doi=10.1093/0195136616.001.0001 |title=Precolonial India in Practice |year=2001 |last1=Talbot |first1=Cynthia |isbn=0195136616 }}</ref>

== Legacy ==
=== 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.<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> Many scholars however reject this account of treachery as a post-battle speculation by Venetian merchant Cesare de Federici in ''Viaggi'', which would be taken up by a section of nationalist historians in their quest to identify traitors upon whom the responsibility of any and all Hindu defeats can be entrusted; a gulf of difference in military prowess—primarily stemming from a failure to incorporate gunpowder technology—is instead noted as the primary factor.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /><ref name=":12" />

=== 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, nationalist 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.{{refn|<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nair |first1=Janaki |title='Memories of Underdevelopment' Language and Its Identities in Contemporary Karnataka |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=1996 |volume=31 |issue=41/42 |pages=2809–2816 |jstor=4404683 }}</ref><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7">{{cite thesis |last1=Archambault |first1=Hannah Lord |title=Geographies of Influence: Two Afghan Military Households in 17th and 18th Century South India |date=2018 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/17c0k41d }}</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 }}</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 }}</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.{{refn|<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last1=Ray |first1=Aniruddha |title=THE RISE AND FALL OF VIJAYANAGAR — AN ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS TO 'HINDU NATIONALISM' THESIS |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |date=2003 |volume=64 |pages=420–433 |jstor=44145480 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eaton |first1=Richard M. |title=Afterword |journal=South Asian Studies |date=2 January 2016 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=126–128 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1201895 |s2cid=219698039 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=Stewart |title=In the Aura of the King: Trans-Asian, Trans-Regional, and Deccani Royal Symbolism |journal=South Asian Studies |date=2 January 2016 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=42–53 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2016.1174429 |s2cid=164169912 }}</ref><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139084116.008 |chapter=Hindu Militarism under Islamic Rule |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia |year=2012 |pages=161–210 |isbn=9781139084116 }}</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 }}</ref><ref name=":11" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wagoner |first1=Phillip B. |title='Sultan among Hindu Kings': Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=1996 |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=851–880 |doi=10.2307/2646526 |jstor=2646526 |s2cid=163090404 }}</ref>}} Harmonious Hindu-Muslim relations in the empire has been documented and there were high placed Muslims in Vijaynagara Court.{{refn|<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last1=Shivarudraswamy |first1=S.N. |title=Hindu-Muslim Relations Under the Vijayanagara Empire |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |date=2005 |volume=66 |pages=394–398 |jstor=44145855 }}</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>}}

=== Popular culture ===
The battle has been adopted into a play named 'Crossing to Talikota' 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]]|date=21 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guha |first1=Sumit |title=The Frontiers of Memory: What the Marathas Remembered of Vijayanagara |journal=Modern Asian Studies |date=2009 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=269–288 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X07003307 |jstor=20488079 |s2cid=145476823 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[War of the League of the Indies]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

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

{{authority control}}

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

Battle of Talikota - Revision history

Allenjacksparrow at 09:48, 19 March 2026