Ahmad was succeeded peacefully by his eldest son under the title of Ala-ud-din II. Soon after his accession, ‘Ala-ud-din II suppressed a rebellion headed by his brother Muhammad, who was, however, pardoned and given the government of the Raichur Doab, where he remained faithful during the rest of his life. The Hindu chiefs of the Konkan were next reduced to submission, and the Raja of Sangameshwar gave his beautiful daughter in marriage to the Bahmani Sultan. This was not liked by the SuItan’s Muslim wife Malika-i-Jahan. At her request her father, Nasir Khan the ruler of Khandesh, invaded Berar, but was defeated by Malik–ul-Tujjar Khalaf Hasan, governor of Daulatabad and leader of the foreign nobles. In 1443 Ala-ud-din waged war against Vijayanagar, the Raya of which had to conclude peace by promising regular payment of tribute in future. Ferishta writes that at this time the Raya of Vijayanagar employed Muslim soldiers in his army, admitted some Muslims into his service, and even erected a mosque at the capital city for their worship. Like other SuItans of the dynasty, ‘Ala-ud-din was a zealous champion of Islam and was benevolent towards the followers of his own faith.
‘Ala-ud-din died peacefully in April, 1457, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Humayun, who was so cruel as to get the epithet of ” Zalim or ” the Tyrant “. Examples of his cruelties have been cited by the author of Burhan-i-Ma’asir. Humayun died a natural death, according to some writers, in October, 1461, but the more reliable authorities write that he was murdered by some of his servants when he was in a state of intoxication. His death freed his people”from the talons of his tortures” and the general sense of relief was expressed by the poet Nazir:
“Humayun Shah has passed away from the world,
God Almighty, what a blessing was the death of Humayun!
On the date of his death the world was full of delight,
So, ‘delight of the world’ gave the date of his death.
According to the chroniclers Humayun’s minor son, Nizam Shah, was next raised to the throne. The queen-mother, Makhdumah Jahan, tried to manage the administration of the State with the assistance of Khwaja Jahan and Khwaja Mahmud Gawan. But the rulers of Orissa and Telingana were emboldened, during the rule of the boy king, to attack his kingdom. They were driven back with heavy losses. But soon a more formidable danger appeared for the Bahmanis when Mahmud Khalji I of Malwa led an invasion into their territories and besieged Bidar, which was saved only when Mahmud Begarha, the Sultan of Gujarat, sent a favourable response to the Bahmani Sultan’s appeal for help. Nizam Shah died very suddenly, on the 30th July, 1463, and his brother, aged only nine, ascended the throne under the title of Muhammad III.
Soon after Muhammad’s accession, the old minister Khwaja Jahan, who aimed at a monopoly of power in the State, was put to death through the influence of the queen-mother, and the vacant office was entrusted to Mahmud Gawan, who received the title of Khwaja Jahan. Though possessed of wide powers, Mahmud Gawan never abused his authority. By virtue of his conspicuous ability, he served the Bahmani State with unstinted loyalty; and, by skilful diplomacy and successful military operations, he brought the dominions of the Bahmanis “to an extent never achieved by former sovereigns”.
In 1469 Mahmud Gawan marched with an army to subdue the Hindu Rajas of the Konkan, and when be succeeded in capturing several forts, the Raja of Sangameshwar, overpowered with fear, surrendered the fortress of Khelna to his agents. “This unrivalled minister,” writes the author of Burhan-i-Ma’asir seized many forts and towns and captured immense booty, and valuable goods, such as horses, elephants, maidens, and female slaves, as well as precious jewels and pearls, fell into the minister’s hands.” He also captured Goa, one of the best ports of the Vijayanagar Empire. In the meanwhile, Nizam-ul-mulk Barhi, a commander of the Bahmani kingdom, had seized the forts of Rajamundry and Kondavir. In the year 1474 the Deccan was devastated by a terrible famine due to the failure of rain for two successive years and many succumbed to its rigours. When rain at least fell in the third year, scarcely any farmers remained in the country to cultivate the land.
But the military enterprises of the Sultan continued unabated. In February 1478, Muhammad invaded and devastated Orissa, the Raja of which induced him to withdraw by presenting to him some elephants and other valuable gifts.
The most successful military exploit of his reign was directed,in the course of a war with Vijayanagar, against Kanchi or Conjeeveram (12th March, 148l), a seat of some of old temples which “were the wonder of the age, filled with countless concealed teasures and jewels, and valuable pearls, besides innumerable slave girls”. The besieged soldiers offered a brave resistance but were ultimately vanquished by the Bahmani troops, who captured an immense booty.
The military record o Muhammad Shah III’s reign is indeed one of triumph. But his own voluptuousness, and the selfish intrigues of the nobles of his court, stood in the path of his progress in other respects and ultimately caused his ruin. Being addicted to hard drinking, the Sultan became mentally unbalanced as years rolled on, and took a suicidal step by passing the death sentence on Mahmud Gawan on 5th April, 1481, at the instigation of his enemies, the Deccani nobles, who being jealous of his power and success produced a forged letter to persuade the Sultan to believe in the minister’s treasonable correspondence with the Raya of Vijayanagar. Thus Mahmud Gawan who had served the Bahmani kingdom as minister in three successive reigns with efficiency and honesty, for which he was entitled to the gratitude of his master, fell a prey to a conspiracy organised by a rival baronial clique, blind to the true interests of the State. With the unjust execution of this old minister “departed”, remarks Meadows Taylor rightly, “all the cohesion and power of the Bahmani kingdom”. In many respects, Mahmud Gawan’s character was far superior to that to his contemporaries. Leading a simple and pure life, he was fond of learning and the society of the learned, which led him to maintain a magnificent college and a vast library at Bidar; and his disinterested services as a public officer justly entitle him to our praise. Muhammad II discovered his own folly rather too late, and seized with grief and remorse, he expired within a year on the 22nd March, A.D. 1482.
The Bahmani kingdom was henceforth thrown into utter confusion, leading to its inevitable collapse. Mahmud Shah, the younger son and successor of Muhammad II, had neither the strength of personal character, nor the guidance of an able minister to enable him to maintain the integrity of his kingdom. The feud between the Deccanis and the foreigners continued with unabated fury and rancour. The provincial governors availed themselves of the prevailing confusion to declare their independence. The nominal authority of Mahmud came to be confined within a small area round the capital, and he and his four successors remained mere puppets in the hands of Qasim Barid-ul-Mamalik, a clever noble of Turkish origin, and after his death in 1504, in those of his son ‘Amir ‘Ali Barid, “the fox of the Deccan”. The last ruler, Kalimullah Shah, secretly tried to secure the help of Babur to restore the lost fortunes of his dynasty, but was sadly disappointed. With his death in 1527 the Bahmani dynasty came to an end after about one hundred and eighty years’ rule.
The history of the Bahmani dynasty in the Deccan on the whole offers no pleasant reading. Most of its Sultans employed themselves chiefly in terrible wars, and its internal politics were severely distracted by court intrigues and civil strife. Among the eighteen kings of this dynasty, five were murdered, two died of intemperance, and three were deposed, two of them being blinded. The Bahmani Sultans should, however, be credited with patronage of learning and education according to their lights, erection of fortresses and buildings, and construction of irrigation works in the eastern provinces, which benefited the peasantry while securing more revenues to the State.
We get a glimpse of the condition of the common people in the Bahmani kingdom from certain observations made by the Russian traveller, Althanasius Nikitin, who travelled in this kingdom during the years 1470 to 1474 in the reign of Muhammad Shah III. He writes: “The Sultan is a little man, twenty years old, in the power of the nobles. . . . The Sultan goes out with 300,000 men of his own troops. The land is overstocked with people; but those in the country are very miserable, whilst the nobles are extremely opulent and delight in luxury. They are wont to be carried on their silver beds, preceded by some 20 chargers caparisoned in gold, and followed by 300 men on horseback and by 500 on foot, and by hornmen, ten torch-bearers, and ten musicians.
“The Sultan goes out hunting with his mother and his lady, and a train of 10,000 men on horseback, 50,000 on foot; 200 elephants adorned in gilded armour, and in front 100 horsemen, 100 dancers, and 300 common horses in golden clothing; 100 monkeys and 100 concubines, all foreign.”
Thus the testimony of a foreign traveller tells us that the lot of the common people was hard as compared with the luxurious standard of living of the nobility. But there is no other positive evidence to enable us to form an accurate picture of the condition of the mass of the people during the whole of the Bahmani period. The accounts of the Muslim chroniclers are full of details regarding military campaigns and wars against infidels, without any reference to the history of the people.
