Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/184

 AN OLD BATTLEFIELD OF BERAR. THE early history of Balapur, like that of most respectable Indian villages, is " lost in the mists of antiquity." Even tradition is silent as to the name of its founder and the period of its foundation, helping us no further than the conjecture that it was founded by one of the rajas of olden times. But the old town was, from the date of its first mention in authentic history down to the time when British rule was firmly established in India, a place of importance from a military point of view. We are first introduced to it by Firishta, who informs us that when Khalaf Hasan Basri, in 1437 in the reign of Ala-ud-din Bahmani II, marched northwards from Daulatabad to meet Nasir Khan Faruqi of Khandesh, who had invaded Berar by the invitation of the treacherous nobles of that province, he sent the Khan-i-Jahan, governor of Berar under the Bahmani Sultan, to garrison Ellichpur and Balapur with his Deccani troops, apparently with a view to checking the irruptions of the Korkus with whom Nasir Khan had allied himself. Whether Balapur was attacked or not we are not told, but it is pretty certain that it did not fall; for Nasir Khan was, within a very short time, driven out of Berar.

More than a century and a half passes before we hear anything more of Balapur. In 1595 Ahmadnagar, the capital of the Nizam Shahi Sultans, was the scene of fearful struggles between the different parties in the state. Their mutual animosity reached such a pitch that one party committed the fatal error of appealing for aid to Sultan Murad, the second surviving son of the emperor Akbar, who was then in Gujarat awaiting the opportunity of interfering in the affairs of the Deccan. The prince and his commander-in-chief, the Khan-i-Khanan, at once marched southwards through Berar as far as Ahmadnagar, to which capital they laid siege. Those who had invited the prince to interfere now bitterly repented of their rash action, and, for a time at least, all parties were united in their opposition to the invader. The siege dragged on and the heroic endeavours of the Sultana Chand Bibi had already dis-