Indian History Quiz: Vijayanagara and Bahmani Kingdoms

The correct answer is B, Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah. In 1347 the centurion nobles of Daulatabad, the Amiran-i-Sadah, rebelled against the Delhi Sultan and raised one of their own, Hasan Gangu, to the throne of the Deccan. He took the regnal name Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah and made Gulbarga, renamed Ahsanabad, his capital, and the dynasty he founded is called Bahmani after him. Option A is wrong because Mahmud Gawan was a Persian merchant who came to the Deccan more than a hundred years later and served as wazir under Muhammad Shah III; he was a minister, never a founder. Option C is wrong because Muhammad Shah I was Hasan Bahman Shah's son and successor, who organised the kingdom into four tarafs but inherited rather than created it. Option D is wrong because Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the Delhi Sultan against whom the Deccan nobles revolted; the Bahmani kingdom was carved out of his empire, not founded by him.

The correct answer is C, 1336. Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the sons of Sangama, founded the city and the empire of Vijayanagara in 1336 on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra, at the site now known as Hampi in Karnataka. Tradition links the foundation to the sage Vidyaranya of Sringeri, and the kingdom took Virupaksha as its tutelary deity. Option A is wrong because 1210 falls in the early Delhi Sultanate, the year Qutbuddin Aibak died, and no southern empire was founded then. Option B is wrong because 1315 belongs to the closing years of Alauddin Khalji, when Malik Kafur was raiding the far south; the Deccan then had no independent Hindu empire of this size. Option D is wrong because 1368 is a date after the foundation, by which time the Sangama rulers were already fighting the Bahmanis over the Raichur doab. Remember the pair 1336 for Vijayanagara and 1347 for the Bahmanis.

The correct answer is B, Krishna Devaraya. Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty ruled from 1509 to 1529 and his reign is treated as the golden age of Vijayanagara: the Raichur doab was won back, Odisha's Gajapati ruler was humbled, Telugu literature flourished under the eight court poets called the Ashtadiggajas, and the Vitthalaswamy and Hazara Rama temples were raised. He himself wrote the Telugu work Amuktamalyada. Option A is wrong because Vira Narasimha, his half-brother and predecessor, ruled only briefly from 1505 to 1509 and spent that time putting down rebellions. Option C is wrong because Sadashiva Raya was a figurehead of the later Tuluva line in whose name Aliya Rama Raya ruled, and the disaster of Talikota in 1565 falls in his reign. Option D is wrong because Achyuta Deva Raya, who ruled from 1529 to 1542, was the weaker successor of Krishnadevaraya and saw the empire begin to slip.

The correct answer is A, Humayun Shah. Humayun Shah Bahmani ruled from 1458 to 1461 and the chronicles of the Deccan record his punishments as so savage that he was nicknamed Zalim, the cruel or the tyrant. His short reign is remembered mainly for that title and for the fact that Mahmud Gawan served on his council. Option B is wrong because Firuz Shah Bahmani, who ruled from 1397 to 1422, was the most learned sultan of the line, a patron of astronomy who built an observatory at Daulatabad and married a daughter of Deva Raya I. Option C is wrong because Mujahid Shah, who ruled from 1375 to 1378, is known for his campaign against Vijayanagara and his murder by his uncle, not for tyranny. Option D is wrong because Ahmad Shah Wali, who ruled from 1422 to 1436, is remembered for shifting the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar and for his reputation as a saintly figure.

The correct answer is B, Ahmad Shah Wali. In 1425 Ahmad Shah Wali moved the Bahmani capital from Gulbarga to Bidar, which he renamed Muhammadabad, and Bidar remained the seat of the kingdom until it broke up. The move pushed the centre of power north-east, closer to the Telangana frontier and away from the Vijayanagara border. Option A is wrong because Firuz Shah Bahmani, his predecessor, ruled from Gulbarga and is remembered for learning and for his observatory, not for moving the capital. Option C is wrong because Muhammad Shah III ruled from Bidar half a century later; the capital he inherited was already there, and his reign is known instead for Mahmud Gawan's reforms and conquests. Option D is wrong because Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, the founder, made Gulbarga his capital in 1347 and renamed it Ahsanabad. The pair to remember is Gulbarga in 1347 and Bidar in 1425.

The correct answer is C, 1565. On 26 January 1565 the combined armies of the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar defeated the Vijayanagara forces led by Aliya Rama Raya at Talikota, a battle also named Rakshasi-Tangadi after two nearby villages. Rama Raya was captured and killed, and the capital was sacked over several months and never reoccupied. Option A is wrong because 1526 is the first Battle of Panipat, in which Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi and founded Mughal rule. Option B is wrong because 1556 is the second Battle of Panipat, fought between Akbar's forces under Bairam Khan and Hemu. Option D is wrong because 1576 is the Battle of Haldighati between Akbar's army and Maharana Pratap. Examiners often place Talikota among these Panipat dates precisely because the years look alike, so fix 1565 firmly.

The correct answer is B, Krishnadevaraya. Amuktamalyada is a Telugu poem on the life of the Tamil saint Andal that also sets out the duties of a king, and it was composed by Krishnadevaraya himself, which is why he is remembered as a poet-king with the title Andhra Bhoja. Option A is wrong because Allasani Peddana, the foremost of the eight court poets called the Ashtadiggajas, wrote Manucharitam and is honoured as Andhra Kavita Pitamaha, the grandfather of Telugu poetry, but not Amuktamalyada. Option C is wrong because Deva Raya II of the Sangama dynasty, known as Gajabetekara, ruled almost a century earlier and is remembered for recruiting Muslim archers into his army and for the visit of Abdur Razzaq. Option D is wrong because Harihara I was the founder of the empire in 1336 and left no literary work. Remember the pair Krishnadevaraya with Amuktamalyada and Peddana with Manucharitam.

The correct answer is B, Deva Raya II. Abdur Razzaq was sent by Shah Rukh, the Timurid ruler of Herat, and reached Vijayanagara in 1443, when Deva Raya II of the Sangama dynasty was on the throne. His account describes the seven concentric walls of the capital, its bazaars and the wealth of the court, and it is one of the main outside sources for the empire in the fifteenth century. Option A is wrong because Harihara II ruled at the close of the fourteenth century, before Razzaq's embassy. Option C is wrong because the travellers at Krishnadevaraya's court were the Portuguese Domingo Paes and Duarte Barbosa, not the Persian envoy. Option D is wrong because Aliya Rama Raya belongs to the middle of the sixteenth century and to the defeat at Talikota. The standard pairs are Conti with Deva Raya I, Razzaq with Deva Raya II, Paes with Krishnadevaraya and Nuniz with Achyuta Deva Raya.

The correct answer is B, Bidar. Mahmud Gawan, the Persian-born wazir of Muhammad Shah III who held the title Malik-ut-Tujjar, built a madrasa at Bidar in 1472. It was a three-storeyed building in the Persian manner, faced with coloured tiles and equipped with a library, lecture rooms and quarters for teachers and students, and its ruins still stand. Option A is wrong because Gulbarga was the earlier Bahmani capital, famous instead for its Jama Masjid with a fully roofed courtyard. Option C is wrong because Daulatabad was the fort city of the Yadavas and later of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, and was only a Bahmani taraf headquarters. Option D is wrong because Golconda rose as the capital of the Qutb Shahis after the Bahmani kingdom broke up, and its great buildings belong to that later dynasty. Mahmud Gawan was executed in 1481 on the strength of a forged letter.

The correct answer is D, Khandesh. Khandesh was ruled by the Faruqi dynasty, which set itself up in the Tapi valley in the late fourteenth century independently of the Bahmanis, and it was annexed by Akbar in 1601; it never formed part of the Bahmani kingdom and so did not emerge from its break-up. Option A is wrong as a choice because Bijapur, under Yusuf Adil Shah, was one of the five successor states, the Adil Shahi kingdom. Option B is wrong because Ahmadnagar, founded by Malik Ahmad, became the Nizam Shahi kingdom and was the state Chand Bibi defended against the Mughals. Option C is wrong because Golconda became the Qutb Shahi kingdom under Quli Qutb Shah and later gave Hyderabad the Charminar. The fifth successor states were Berar under the Imad Shahis and Bidar under the Barid Shahis, and four of these five combined to win Talikota in 1565.