Page:Historic Landmarks of the Deccan.djvu/85

 In 1347 the Bahmani dynasty was founded by Ala-ud-din Bahman Shah, who wrested the Deccan from the emperors of Delhi. Kanhayya Naik profited by the campaigns of Bahman Shah, which rendered impossible the transmission of tribute to Delhi, to assume an unobtrusive independence, but, when the new Sultan had established himself on his throne and reduced the minor Hindu pretenders to obedience, he turned his attention to Telingana and captured the picturesque rock fortress of Bhongir, a structure surmounting one of the largest of those strange mammiform masses of solid rock which occur in Telingana. The ruler of Warangal wisely refrained from provoking the Muslim king to advance on his capital, and agreed to remit to Gulbarga, the capital of the new kingdom of the Deccan, the tribute which Prataparudradeva II had been accustomed to remit to Delhi, thus safeguarding his semi-independent kingdom against the interference of the Musalmans. Bhongir became the frontier post of the Bahmani kingdom and eastern Telingana was left undisturbed. Later in his reign Bahman Shah divided his kingdom into four tarafs or provinces, the capitals of which were Gulbarga, Daulatabad, EUichpur, and Bidar. The last named town was regarded as the capital of western Telingana, which formed part of the Bahmani kingdom. The extent of the province may be estimated with some approximation to correctness by the names of the principal towns, Bidar, Kandhar, Indur, and Kaulas, which it contained. Bhongir is not mentioned, and it would appear that this fortress had been allowed to fall quietly into the hands of the Hindus and that a line running due north and south through a point a little to the east of Indur formed at this time the eastern boundary of the Bahmani dominions. Bhongir was perhaps exchanged for Kaulas, which is mentioned as a place which was specially ceded by the Raja of Telingana to Bahman Shah.

In 1358 Ala-ud-din Bahman Shah died and was succeeded by his eldest son, Muhammad I. This king became involved in a dispute with Bukka I, Raya of Vijayanagar, who claimed the Raichur Duab as part of his kingdom and demanded that it should be restored to him. The Raja of Telingana, who seems to have been the Kanhayya Naik already mentioned, seized this opportunity and preferred a request for the retrocession of the fort of Kaulas. He explained that his son