Vijayanagara, (Aravidu) Kingdom of

As Muslims extend their rule into southern India, only the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar remains immune (until it too falls in 1565).

There are also kingdoms independent of Delhi in the Deccan, Gujarat, Malwa (central India), and Bengal.

Nevertheless, almost all of the area in present-day Pakistan remains generally under the rule of Delhi.

Tirumala usurps the throne of the rump Vijayanagar Empire at Penukonda in 1570, officially inaugurating the Aravidu dynasty.

Rebellions and banditry have arisen in many areas.

Tirumala appeals to Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar for aid against a Bijapuri invasion that reaches Penukonda.

He now joins Ahmadnagar and Golconda in a campaign against Bijapur.

Tirumala accepts the new states of the Nayakas of the south, retains the allegiance of Mysore and Keladi, and appoints his three sons as governors of the three linguistic regions of his kingdom—Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil.

Bijapur and Ahmadnagar are drawn into a series of conflicts over the forts in the Maratha region and the Konkan coast.

A treaty between the two in 1571 reveals their interest in restoring a balance in the political situation.

Biijapur recognizes the right of Ahmadnagar to annex Berar and Bidar in return for recognition of Bijapur's right to occupy extensive territories in the south, particularly portions of Vijayanagar.

Tirumala retires in 1572, and his son Sriranga I tries to continue the process of rebuilding while struggling to maintain his place among the Muslim sultanates without any support from the major Telugu houses.

An invasion by Bijapur is repulsed with the aid of Golconda.

Subsequent invasions by Golconda result in the loss of a substantial amount of territory in the east.

Ahmadnagar has not annexed Bidar, owing to intervention by Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda, but the sultanate does acquire Berar in 1574.

The government of the diminished Hindu Vijayanagar state, ruled by Sriranga, relocates from Penukonda, which has sustained two sieges launched by Bijapur and Golconda, to ...

...Chandragiri, the site of a fort dating from CE 1000, which is now improved.

Sriranga's difficulties partly stem from the lack of aid from his brothers, who rule their separate regions, and partly from the dissensions of his nobles and the semi-independent status of some of them.

Many nobles have apparently decided that it is no longer in their best interests to give full support to the larger state and that, in the absence of overwhelming power, the development of smaller, subregional states is both possible and potentially more profitable.

Sriranga dies in 1585 without issue and is succeeded by his younger brother Venkata II, whose ability and constant activity, combined with a relative dearth of interference by the Muslim sultanates, prevents the further disintegration of centralized authority.

Bijapur had been unable to take full advantage of the opportunities for expansion to the south during the 1570s because of factional disputes among the nobles, as well as Golconda's interests in the areas controlled by Vijayanagar.

Ahmadnagar had thus managed to retain a slightly superior position.

The tide had began to turn in the 1580s, however, with the establishment of a stable regency at Bijapur, fortified by a series of marriage alliances with other royal lines in the Deccan and ...

...by the political deterioration of Ahmadnagar under the rule of the slightly mad Murtada Nizam Shah.