a boy goes through a detailed course of the history of his own country and is only given a general outline of the history of other nations. In India, the reverse seems to be the case. A general system is laid down for the whole of India, which does not embrace local and provincial history. The present volume therefore is an attempt to make Deccan readers more familiar with the history of their own country. Bearing this object in view, I have endeavoured to collect the fragments to be found in the various histories, and to piece them together, so as to form. a connected history of the Deccan from the commencement of the 14th century up to the establishment of the present dynasty. This period of nearly 400 years is full of the most interesting and romantic episodes. Sir Henry Elliot's and Professor Dowson's most admirable history is a storehouse of raw material of which as yet but little use has been made, and the Bombay Gazetteers of the different Deccan Districts are replete with researches, archæological, historical and local, which comparatively unknown beyond an official circle, furnish admirable materials for a detailed. history of the Deccan. These materials, old and new, I have made use of without scruple. I can claim nothing of originality; -in a history the absence of this quality is perhaps desirable and what I have attempted is merely a collation of historical events relating to the Deccan from the time of the Mahomedan invasion. It only remains for me to acknowledge the sources from which my information has been drawn. To Ferishta, as translated by Scott, a book which is now becoming scarce, my first thanks are due. The different historians collected by Elliot and Dowson, throw from time to time considerable light upon Deccan affairs, and I have transcribed from them verbatim whenever occasion required. My thanks are also due to the Bombay Government for permission to make use of the material provided in their most. excellent Gazetteers of Kanara, Bijapur and Ahmednagar, a permission of which I have gladly availed myself. Colonel Meadows Taylor's historical romance of "A Noble queen" has enabled me to go at some length into a most interesting episode of Bijapur history, and the "Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Nizam's Dominions" by Messrs. Wilmott and Seyd Hoossein Belgrami, has enabled me to give a description of those places which I have not been able to visit in person. To Mr. Herrman Linde my most cordial thanks are due for the beautiful original sketches with which he has so kindly provided me, and the excellent photographs of the Deccan cities have been furnished by the well-known photographer Mr. Lala Deen Dayal of Secunderabad and Sudore, whilst those of the Vijayanagar ruins are from Mr. Nicholas of Madras. Some of the portraits have been reproduced from a collection of old paintings found in the royal city of Bieder, and the genealogy of H.H. the Nizam (who has graciously accepted the dedication of the work) was kindly furnished to me from the palace by Nawab Sarvar Jung the Peshi Secretary to His Highness. Hyderabad (Deccan) J. D. B. GRibble. 23 IV. THE GULBURGA SULTANS.-MUHAMMAD SHAH THE GULBURGA SULTANS FROM 1374-1397, A.D. SULTANS GHAZI-UD-DIN AND SHUMS-UD-DIN THE CITY AND KINGDOM OF VIJAYANAGAR A detailed list of all the Illustrations, Maps, Plans, Genealogical Tables, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Up to the end of the thirteenth century the Mahomedans had not invaded the Deccan. It was to them an unknown country peopled by pagan idolaters, as they called them. Scarcely anything is known of the inner condition of the vast country in which are included the Deccan and Carnatic of modern times. There seems to be some doubt regarding the origin of the name itself, and it is supposed by some to be derived from the Dandaka or forest to which Rama went into voluntary banishment, but the most probable derivation is that Deccan is a corruption of Dakkhin the Prakrit form of the Sanscrit Dakshin, the left or south. The country was occupied by many ancient Hindoo kingdoms, the history and origin of which are lost. The two northernmost of these kingdoms had their capitals at Deogiri and Warangal. The former extended to the western coast, and far away south to Mysore, and the latter included Orissa and probably all the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad and Madras. That these kingdoms were very great and powerful there can be no doubt, but there remain now nothing but ruins, which, however, are sufficient to show how advanced they were in civilisation. Deogiri, the modern Dowlatabad, was not only a |