What might have occurred it is needless to enquire, though imagination readily depicts the impetuous Ballalas sweeping down from the ghats and succeeding in subverting the ancient dynasties of the plains ; but a new power now appears on the scene, which was destined to acquire universal dominion in course of time—the power of the Musalmāns.
Delhi had been captured by the Ghaznī Ghōrians in 1193, and a dynasty established there which lasted till A.D. 1288. The Khiljis succeeded (1288–1321), and 'Alāu-d-dīn Khilji despatched the first Muḥammadan expedition into the Dakhan in A.D. 1306. Four years later the Musalman armies under Malik Käfur swept like a torrent over the peninsula.
Devagiri and Orangal were both reduced to subjection, the capital of the Hoysala Ballalas was taken and sacked, and the kingdoms both of the Cholas and Pandiyans were overthrown. Anarchy followed over the whole south-Musalman governors, representatives of the old royal families, and local chiefs being apparently engaged for years in violent internecine struggles for supremacy. The Ballalas disappeared from the scene, and the kingdoms of Devagiri and Orangal were subverted. A slight check was given to the spread of the Muḥammadan arms when a confederation of Hindu chiefs, led by the gallant young Ganapati Rāja, withstood and defeated a large Muḥammadan army; and the aspect of affairs was altered by the revolt of the Dakhāni Musalmans against their sovereign in A.D. 1347, which resulted in the establishment of the Bahmanī kingdom of the Dakhaṇ. But the whole of Southern India was convulsed by this sudden aggression of the Muḥammadans, and all the old kingdoms fell to pieces.
This period, then, about the year A.D. 1310, is to be noted as the second great landmark in South Indian history, the first being about the period 1023-1070, when the Cholas became almost supreme over the south.
While the Bahmani rebels were consolidating their kingdom in the Dakhan, another great power was being formed south of the Krishna. This was the kingdom of Vijayanagar. Established on the ruins of the Hoysala Ballălas and the other Hindu sovereignties, it speedily rose to a height of power such as no southern kingdom had yet aspired to, and it held the Muḥammadans in check for two centuries. From 1336 till 1564 A.D. we have ely to consider, roughly speaking, two great powers-that of the Musalmans north of the Krishna and that of Vijayanagar to the south.
The Bahmani kingdom fell to pieces at the close of the fifteenth century, being succeeded by five separate kingdoms founded by rival Musalmän leaders. Their jealousies aided the Vijayanagar sovereigns in their acquisition of power. In 1487 Narasimha of Vijayanagar completely subverted the Pandiyan country, Chola having fallen long before, and by the close of the fifteenth century the power of Vijayanagar was acknowledged as paramount through the entire peninsula. Small principalities existed, such as that of Maisur, the Reddi chieftainship of Kondavidu south of the Krishna (which lasted from 1328 till 1427), and the always independent principality of Travancore, but Vijayanagar was supreme. At the beginning of the sixteenth century Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar further extended the power of his house by the reduction of refractory chiefs far and wide, till his dynasty arose in his day to its greatest height of glory.
In 1564 (the third landmark) all this collapsed. The Muḥammadan sovereigns of the Dakhan combined, and in one grand effort swept over Vijayanagar, sacked the capital, put to death the powerful chief who had ruled over the destinies of the empire, and for ever crushed out all semblance of independent Hindu power from the south of India. Even the very family that governed Vijayanagar divided, so that it becomes almost impossible to trace their history, and for a second time the whole of the peninsula was thrown into confusion.
Naturally the minor chiefs seized this opportunity for throwing off all fealty to their sovereign, and throughout the peninsula arose a large number of petty Polegars and small chieftains, whose quarrels and wars and struggles for supremacy kept the whole country in confusion for two-and-a-half centuries. The only chiefs that attained to real power were the Madura Nayakkas, formerly viceroys of Vijayanagar, who speedily became independent and reduced to subjection almost the whole of the old Pāṇḍiyan kingdom, their compatriots, the Nayakkas of Tanjore, holding sway over Choladega. The Rajas of Maisur, too, became independent, and established a kingdom, though not a very powerful one.
Over all this distracted country the Muḥammadans gradually pressed downwards, securing the dominion of the countries south of the Tungabhadra, and eastwards to the sea, and encroaching southwards till they had reached the southern confines of the Telugu country by the middle of the seventeenth century, and by the beginning of the eighteenth were in power far south. The Mahrattas had established themselves in Tanjore in 1674 and remained there till the English supremacy. In 1786 the Musalmāns obtained possession of Madura,
