He tells us that in the Hijra year 801 (13th September 1398 to 3rd
September 1399), month not given —
"Dewal Roy of Beejanuggur, with thirty thousand horse and a vast army of foot, invaded the royal territories between the rivers, with a design to reduce the forts of Mudkul and Roijore" (Raichur).
And in a later passage we are told that the campaign was at an end a few months before the end of Hijra 801; I.E. a few months before the end of August A.D. 1399. The first movement of the Hindu army must therefore have taken place at the beginning of the cold season of A.D. 1398, probably not earlier than December in that year, when the great cotton plains across which the troops had to march were passable. It can hardly be supposed that King Harihara II., then quite old and always a lover of peace, would without motive have waged this sudden war and himself led his armies into the field, and it seems more likely that the invasion was a bold dash made by his son with the king's permission. The Muhammadan historians admit an unbroken peace of twenty years previous to this date.
It seems, therefore, that the chronicles of Nuniz, the writings of
Firishtah, and the extant inscriptions all agree together, and that
we must place the death of Harihara II. at the close of the year
A.D. 1399. Little more can be said about the events of his reign.
The new king, his eldest son, Bukka II., must have been a man of middle age, as he had a son old enough to take the field with him before he himself came to the throne.
"This king ('Pureoyre')," says Nuniz, "had a son, who by his death inherited the kingdom, who was called Ajarao; and he reigned forty-three years, in which time he was always at war with the Moors."
I can give no explanation as to why Nuniz calls the successor of Harihara II "Ajarao," nor as to his estimate of forty-three years for his reign. The names and lengths of reigns given to "Ajarao's" successors by our chronicler prove that by "Ajarao" he means two kings, Bukka II. and his successor, Deva Raya I.; and the period covered by their combined reigns was only fourteen years, not forty-three.
Nuniz states that the successor of Harihara II. greatly improved the city of Vijayanagar, raising fresh walls and towers, increasing its extent, and building further lines of fortification. But his great work was the construction of a huge dam in the Tungabhadra river, and the formation of an aqueduct fifteen miles long from the river into the city. If this be the same channel that to the present day supplies the fields which occupy so much of the site of the old city, it is a most extraordinary work. For several miles this channel is cut out of the solid rock at the base of the hills, and is one of the most remarkable irrigation works to be seen in India. No details are given of the wars he engaged in, except that, besides his campaigns against the Moors, he took "Goa, Chaul, and Dabull," and reduced the Choromandel side of the peninsula to loyalty and obedience to his rule.
We learn a great deal more about the doings of Bukka II. and Deva Raya I. from Firishtah than from Nuniz, and I make no apology for quoting copiously from the former author, whose writings throw much light on the period.
Bukka's first war began with the invasion already alluded to. It took place during his father Harihara's reign, apparently about the month of December A.D. 1398 (rather later than earlier). The wide cotton plains of that tract are only passable during prolonged dry weather, and the prince would certainly not have risked an advance while there was any likelihood of rain falling. Bukka's son accompanied his father, and the objective was the country of the Doab, and particularly the fortresses of Mudkal and Raichur, then in the hands of the Bahmani Sultan. Sultan Firuz moved to meet him, slaughtering on the way a Hindu chief or zamindar and seven or eight thousand of his followers, "who had always been very troublesome and refractory." The Raya had advanced to the northern frontier of the debatable land and was encamped on the river Krishna, then in full flood, having large bodies of troops posted to oppose the passage of the Muhammadans.