| Conflict: | Battle of Talikota |
| Partof: | Deccan sultanates–Vijayanagara conflicts |
| Date: | 23 January 1565 |
| Place: | Around the villages of Rakkasagi and Tangadagi near Talikota in present-day Karnataka |
| Result: | Deccan Sultanates alliance victory |
| Combatant1: | |
| Combatant2: | Vijayanagara Empire |
| Commander1: | |
| Commander2: | Rama Raya Venkatadri Tirumala Deva Raya Achutappa Nayak |
| Map Type: | Karnataka |
| Map Relief: | y |
The Battle of Talikota, also known as that of Rakkasagi–Tangadagi (23 January 1565), was a watershed battle fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and an alliance of the Deccan sultanates. Despite the Vijayanagara army being larger, they were comprehensively defeated. The battle resulted in the defeat and death of Rama Raya, the de facto ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire, which led to the immediate collapse of the Vijayanagara polity and reconfigured South Indian and Deccan politics.
The specific details of the battle and its immediate aftermath are notoriously difficult to reconstruct in light of the distinctly contrarian narratives present across primary sources. The defeat in this battle is usually blamed on the gap in relative military prowess of the combatants.[1] Orientalist and nationalist historians claimed the battle as part of a clash of civilizations between Hindus and Muslims. Contemporary scholars reject such characterizations as flawed.
Rama Raya, after his installation of a patrimonial state and emerging as the ruler, adopted a political strategy of benefiting from the internecine warfare among the multiple successors of the Bahmani Sultanate, and it worked well for about twenty years of his reign.[2] [3] [4]
However, after a series of aggressive efforts to maintain hold over Kalyan[5] and diplomatic dealings with the Sultanates laden with insulting gestures by the Sultanates, the four Muslim Sultanates – Hussain Nizam Shah I and Ali Adil Shah I of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur to the west, Ali Barid Shah I of Bidar in the center, and Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali of Golkonda to the east – united in the wake of shrewd marital diplomacy and convened to attack Rama Raya, in late January 1565.
There exist multiple contemporary chronicles (literary as well as historical) documenting the war:[6]
The details of the battle and immediate aftermath are often distinctly contrarian and even accounting for biases, reconstruction is difficult, if not impossible.[7] [8]
The exact venue of clash has been variously mentioned as Talikota, Rakkasagi-Tangadigi and Bannihatti, all on the banks of river Krishna.[9] There exists debate as to the precise dates.[10] Span-lengths vary from hours to days; descriptions of battle formations and maneuvers vary too.
Rama Raya was eventually beheaded either by Sultan Nizam Hussain himself or by someone acting on his behest despite Adil Shah, who had friendly relations with Raya, intending against. In the resultant confusion and havoc, Raya's brother Tirumala deserted with the entire army; he did try to regroup in Vijaynagara but failed and moved to the outskirts. His other brother Venkatadri was blinded and likely killed in action.
Vijayanagara side was winning the war, state Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund in a survey of Indian history, until two Muslim generals of the Vijayanagara army switched sides.[11]
The Sultanates' armies went on to plunder Vijayanagara, unopposed. Popular accounts and older scholarship describe Vijayanagara falling to ruins, in light of the widespread desecration of sacred topography; however, this view has been contested.[12] Contemporary historians and archaeologists warn against conflating the state with the town as little evidence exists about any damage inflicted beyond the Royal Center; they further underline the politically strategic nature of destruction and arson, since sites associated with sovereignty, royal power, and authority were subject to more wanton means.
Nonetheless, the battle caused a political rupture for the state of Vijayanagara and permanently reconfigured Deccan politics. Patronage of monuments and temples ceased, the Vaishnava cult perished from the city of Vijayanagara due to the cessation of royal patronage, and the Royal Center was never rebuilt.[13] The Bijapur Sultanate reaped maximum gains but their alliance with the other Deccan sultanates did not last long.[14] Tirumala went on to establish the Aravidu dynasty, which held sway over fragments of the erstwhile empire and even operated out of Vijayanagara for two years, before shifting to Pengonda. But faced with succession disputes, rebellions by multiple local chieftains—primarily Telugu Nayak houses—who did not wish for the reemergence of any central authority, and continuous conflicts with the Bijapur Sultanate—who might have been invited by Rama Raya's son—, it moved southwards before disintegrating in the late 1640s.[15]
Colonial era historiography (e.g. the work of Robert Sewell and Jonathan Scott), drawing from the accounts of Firishta and others, placed this battle within the context of a larger "Clash of civilizations" metanarrative. In this account, the battle pitted, on the one hand, Hindu civilization, represented by the "Rama-rajya" of Vijayanagara, against Islamic civilization on the other hand, represented by the alliance of Deccan sultanates. The result of the battle, according to this view, was the fall of the last "Hindu bastion" of South India to "Mohammed" zealotry and expansionism. In the modern post-colonial era, a number of South Indian nationalist historians (Aluru Venkata Rao, B. A. Saletore, S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri) have continued to endorse this view or one like it. This view has been associated with the far-right Hindutva ideology.[16]
However, in recent decades, a number of historians have criticized or rejected this view. For example, Richard M. Eaton denies any religious motives behind the battle and describes the clash of civilizations hypothesis as emblematic of flawed Orientalist scholarship. In support of his position, Eaton cites a number of lines of evidence, including the multiple alliances of Rama Raya with various Muslim rulers at different points in time, (motivated by political rather than religious factors); the thorough perfusion of Persian Islamate culture within the Vijaynagara Kingdom, as evident from court sanction and patronage of Islamic art, architecture and culture; and the strategic alliances of Rama Raya's heirs (the Aravidus) with the heirs of the Deccan Sultans that fought at Talikota. Romila Thapar, Burton Stein, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Muzaffar Alam, and Stewart N. Gordon have concurred with this perspective on the basis of similar analyses. Additional arguments include the fact that the Muslim Berar Sultanate did not join the battle, the fact the Sultanate-alliance dissipated soon after the battle, and the existence of harmonious Hindu-Muslim relations in the Vijayanagara Empire, which extended to the placement of Muslims in high positions in the royal court of Vijaynagara.
The battle has been adopted into a play by Girish Karnad titled "Rakkasa Tangadi" (English title: "Crossing to Talikota"). Karnad based it on Eaton's analysis.[17] [18]