How the Brutal Delhi Sultanate Gave Birth to the Vijayanagara Empire

In the medieval era, the Delhi Sultanate repeatedly invaded South India, which led to widespread rebellion and the birth of the Vijayanagar Empire. The history of these invasions involve many fascinating events and leaders, like Alauddin Khilji, Malik Kafur, Muhammed bin Tughlaq, Prataparudra, and Harihara.

Today, the ruins at Warangal and Hampi (a UNESCO world heritage site) offer a glimpse into the grand history and drama surrounding the Vijayanagar Empire and its long-time rival, the Bahmani Sultanate. But most visitors have only a vague understanding of the Indo-Turkic Delhi Sultanate’s role in creating this new and prosperous political order -- one that would ultimately prove among the greatest in the subcontinent's long history.

Welcome to my animated history video about this interesting era. Enjoy!

#delhisultanate #vijayanagarempire #indianhistory

For further reading, I highly recommend "Rebel Sultans" by Manu S. Pillai. I would caution readers against John Keay's work, as -- despite the fact that it is well-researched -- he tends to ignore context when interpreting primary sources, such as inscriptions and court proclamations. In that way, Keay's scholarship is reminiscent of most British Raj historians studying Indian history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

[OddCompass]

Hope you enjoy the first of a few videos on the Vijayanagar Empire! Quick Editorial Correction: Chatagai Mongols should actually be "Chagatai" Mongols.


Now, just a couple of ground rules: 1) please keep discussion civil, and 2) let's avoid modern political talk. Modern political narratives often infect discourse around history, and this is especially true of Indian history. We deserve better.

Consider, for example, the modern political discourse around Alauddin Khilji. People often characterize Alauddin as a religious fundamentalist, but in truth, he was likely just a brutal opportunist. Few realize that he was actually blasphemous and attempted to found a new religion with himself as the prophet and Ulugh Khan (and others) in high positions. Ulugh Khan warned him that doing so could lead to widespread rebellion, and so Alauddin decided against founding this new religion.

Interesting stuff.

Anyways, thanks so much for watching. I promise, the best is yet to come!

[anirudhsharma]

You might find this interesting to know that the disaster of devgiri/daulatabad move by Tughlaq was so bad that even today many people in many parts of India still use "Tughlaq" as an insult to call someone stupid. I have heard many of my fellow telugus use it.

[sidakbhatia]

Great content! At last a youtuber who is covering Indian history without any ideological bias. Hope u make more videos on Indian history since it is so less known. You have earned a subscriber.

[seanras]

The sage who reconverted Bukka and Harihara back to Hinduism is Vidyaranya.

[IPlayWithFire]

Is it a sign that I, an American, have played too much Europa Universalis that I know a lot of these cultural and regional terms without ever having opened a book on Indian history or paid much attention to India?

[ateium]

Burka and HariHara did what is called a Pro Gamer move .

[chaitanyareddymuthyala]

The telugu warriors are very underrated, they defended the South by resisting the invaders, if you see warangal today, you can see the level of destruction by the invaders, destroyed 100s of temples and converting the people into Islam by force, and the main thing is the real owner of the kohinoor diamond is warangal badhrakali amma

[indiafirst]

350 years later Aurangzeb faced the exactly same problems in Deccan as Tughlaq had

[shishirs]

We are playing our own Game of thrones in Higher levels..

[rajbagwe]

Just discovered your channel through the Rajendra Chola video, and I am loving it. We Indians never learn these things cause our syllabus is limited to Indus Valley, Mauryas, occasional Guptas, Delhi Sultanate, Mughals, Independence Struggle. Love your animations and non biased accounts too. Please continue making such great content. Trust me you are gonna blow up soon.

[purethoughtts]

I generally feel telugu fighting spirit was so underated than marata brothers... Telugus in the 12 century shaped and decided the Future of Sub continent... For the next 500 Years

[surajkumarn]

iam from warangal, but i learnt a new thing today about prathaparudras death that he was given poison(of course all these are speculations, i read about a speculation where he jumps into narmada river), and that the first invasion route was from eastern end.
good one @oddCompass keep going

[absmalhotra]

The research, the production, the music - this channel is a gem I'm thankful to have discovered. Looking forward to many more untold stories deserving to be told!

[vitaminprotein]

Vijayanagara Kingdom stopped Arab conquer towards south for 310 yrs or 3 centuries.... And nobody teaching that in school.

[shkarthikeyan]

The pandiyan lost their capital madurai to sultan's in 1311 ..But shifted thier capital further south to tenkasi and ruled upto 1650s... Meanwhile madurai were under sulthans till 1370 and under vikayanagar governors till 1525 and under telugu madurai nayaks from 1525.. but until 1650s pandians tried to recapture madurai later vanished ..
The last pandian clan ruled from tenkasi

[vkaeshala]

@odd compass is the only one covering this part of Indian history good going

[shashanks]

When the dehli sultans came to south India, they massacred 12000 devotees who were trying to protect their temple. They looted the Srirangam and Madurai temples and killed anyone standing on their way. Its described that the heads of Brahmins were hung like coconuts on trees.

[Yearning.Astrophile]

Please Make videos and timeline on Karnataka Kannada empires
1. Kadambas
2.Gangas.
3.Badami Chalukyas.
4.Rashtrakutas.
5.Western Chalukyas.
6.Hoysalas.
7.Vijayanagara Empire.

[natashadandavati]

This is my favorite of your videos yet! It breaks down a complex topic in a very clear way, and I really like the addition of the map keys to keep track of things. Really great illustrations too, awesome job!

[Econohistory]

For your next video, you can cover the Gajapatis of Orissa. Oft neglected by regular historians, the Gajapatis fought both the Vijayanagara and the Bengal Sultanate.