Which of the following was NOT one of the five Deccan sultanates that emerged from the break-up of the Bahmani kingdom?

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.