Krishnadevaraya Takes Raichur
Raichur was a fortress town in the doab between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, the strip of land Vijayanagara and the sultanates to its north had been fighting over since both existed, and in 1520 Krishnadevaraya took it. The immediate cause was a stolen sum of money: a Vijayanagara envoy sent to Bijapur with gold to buy horses defected with it, and Ismail Adil Shah declined to return either the man or the money. The underlying cause was the doab, which Bijapur had held since 1512. Krishnadevaraya marched with an army the Portuguese chronicles put in the hundreds of thousands - a figure to be treated as an impression of scale rather than a count - and invested the fortress. The siege stalled against the walls until the field army of Bijapur came up to relieve it and offered battle across the river. The Vijayanagara army let the Bijapur force cross, then broke it against the bank where it could not retreat, and the relieving army was destroyed in the water and the mud behind it. The fortress surrendered shortly afterwards, and the garrison was allowed to leave. Portuguese matchlock men serving with the Vijayanagara army are credited in the accounts with clearing the ramparts during the final assault, which is an early instance of European firearms mattering to the outcome of an Indian siege. Domingo Paes was with the army and his chronicle is the fullest surviving narrative of the campaign, which is why a provincial siege in 1520 is better documented than most Indian battles of the century. Krishnadevaraya then offered peace on the condition that the Sultan come to him and kiss his foot, which was refused, and the war continued at a lower temperature. The victory marked the furthest extent of Vijayanagara power and did not settle anything permanently: Raichur was lost again within a generation, and the humiliation was among the grievances the Deccan sultanates recalled when they finally combined in 1565.
- Year: 1520 CE
- Category: War
