Bahmani Kingdom: Hasan Gangu, Gulbarga, Bidar and the Bahmani Sultans

Overview

The Bahmani kingdom, also called the Bahmani Sultanate, was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan, founded in 1347 by Alauddin Hasan, known as Hasan Gangu, after the Deccan nobles revolted against Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Its capitals were Gulbarga and later Bidar. For a century and a half it fought Vijayanagara for the Tungabhadra doab and the coasts, and it acted as a cultural bridge between north and south. After the execution of Mahmud Gawan in 1481 it broke up into five sultanates.

Foundation of the Bahmani Kingdom in 1347

Hasan Gangu and the Deccan Revolt of 1347

Muhammad bin Tughlaq had even moved his capital to Daulatabad, the old Devagiri, to hold the south, but his attempt to rule the Deccan from Delhi broke down in the 1340s. The officers he had posted to the Deccan revolted, set up a ruler of their own at Daulatabad, and in 1347 their leader, Zafar Khan, took the throne himself. This revolt of the Muslim officers appointed from Delhi founded the Bahmani kingdom, with Gulbarga as its capital.

Zafar Khan, the founder, was Alauddin Hasan, an Afghan adventurer. At his coronation he took the title Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, and the kingdom took its name from that title. He claimed descent from Bahman Shah, a half-mythical hero of Iran. A popular legend told by the historian Ferishta gives another story: Hasan had risen in the service of a brahmana named Gangu, which is why he was known as Hasan Gangu, and the title honoured that patron.

By the time Bahman Shah died in 1358, his kingdom ran from the Wainganga river in the north to the Krishna in the south, and from Bhongir in the east to Daulatabad in the west, and he had already fought Vijayanagara several times.

Gulbarga and Bidar: The Two Bahmani Capitals

Gulbarga, today's Kalaburagi in north Karnataka, was the first capital. Bahman Shah greatly enlarged its fort after breaking with Delhi, and the Jama Masjid built inside it in 1367 is among the earliest Islamic monuments of south India.

Bidar became the capital under Ahmad Shah I. With its fort, its palaces and the tombs of the Bahmani kings at Ashtur, it was the seat of the kingdom in its later years.

Map of the Deccan with the Wainganga, Godavari, Krishna and Tungabhadra. Bahmani core: Gulbarga, the first capital; Bidar, the later capital; Daulatabad, where the revolt of 1347 began. Western ports: Chaul, Dabhol and Goa, taken by Mahmud Gawan. Doab and rival: Raichur in the doab, Mudkal of the war of 1367, and Vijayanagara. Later gains: Warangal, annexed, and Berar, won after the defeat of Kherla. Successor sultanates: Golconda, Ahmadnagar and Bijapur.

Bahmani Administration: Tarafs, Tarafdars and the Nobility

The Bahmani kingdom was divided into provinces called tarafs, each governed by a tarafdar who also commanded the troops of his province. The tarafdars were powerful men, and it was their revolts that finally broke the kingdom apart. The provinces and the nobles were organised on these lines:

  • Eight provinces: Mahmud Gawan, the Iranian merchant who became chief minister in the kingdom's later years, divided the kingdom into eight tarafs, so that no governor held too large a territory.
  • Salaries and troops: The salary and obligations of each noble were fixed; for maintaining 500 horses a noble received 1,00,000 huns a year, paid in cash or by assigning a jagir.
  • Royal land: In every province a tract of land, the khalisa, was set apart for the Sultan's own expenses.
  • Revenue: Efforts were made to measure the land and fix the cultivator's dues, with Deccani brahmanas prominent in revenue work from the reign of Firuz Shah Bahmani onwards.
Diagram. The Sultan at the top kept khalisa land in every province. Below, a taraf or province was governed by a tarafdar who also led its troops; the tarafdars' revolts later broke the kingdom apart. Beside it, Mahmud Gawan's checks, namely eight tarafs so that no governor held too large a territory, pay fixed at 1,00,000 huns a year for maintaining 500 horses, khalisa land set apart for the Sultan, and land measured with the cultivator's dues fixed.

The nobility itself was divided into old-comers and newcomers. The Deccanis were nobles whose families had long been settled in the Deccan, while the Afaqis, also called gharibs, were newcomers from Iran, Iraq and Central Asia whom the Sultans invited. Deccani brahmanas in the revenue administration added weight to the old-comers' side, and the rivalry between the two parties grew sharper over time.

Bahmani Sultans and the Wars with Vijayanagara

Muhammad Shah I and the Early Wars with Vijayanagara

The interests of the Bahmani Sultans and the Vijayanagara rulers clashed over three areas, namely the Tungabhadra doab, the Krishna-Godavari delta and the Konkan with the port of Goa. Wars between them were almost a regular feature and lasted as long as both kingdoms did.

Bahman Shah's son Muhammad Shah I fought the first great war. In 1367 Bukka I of Vijayanagara stormed the fortress of Mudkal in the doab and killed its garrison. The Sultan crossed the Tungabhadra, the first Bahmani Sultan to enter Vijayanagara territory in person, and won, thanks largely to his artillery and cavalry; this war saw both sides use artillery for the first time. It ended with the doab shared and an agreement to spare unarmed people in future wars.

The Bahmanis also pressed Warangal, whose ruler accepted Golconda as the Bahmani boundary and presented a throne set with jewels, said to have been made for Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Muhammad Shah I sat on this Turquoise Throne, and the alliance with Warangal lasted over fifty years.

Firuz Shah Bahmani (1397 to 1422): Learning, Hindus in Office and War

Firuz Shah Bahmani was the most learned of the Bahmani Sultans. He knew the religious sciences and loved the natural sciences, was a calligraphist and a poet, and spoke Persian, Arabic and Turkish as well as Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. He meant to make the Deccan the cultural centre of India, drawing learned men from Delhi, Iran and Iraq. His reign is remembered for four things:

  • Hindus in office: His most remarkable step was bringing Hindus into the administration on a large scale; from his time Deccani brahmanas dominated it, especially revenue work.
  • Science and trade: He built an observatory near Daulatabad and developed the ports of Chaul and Dabhol, which drew ships from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
  • Berar: He began the advance into Berar by defeating Narsing Rai of Kherla, who gave 40 elephants, 5 maunds of gold and 50 of silver.
  • Vijayanagara: He defeated Deva Raya I in 1406, married his daughter and received Bankapur in dowry, but in 1419 Deva Raya I defeated him.

He also built a new city, Firozabad, a few kilometres south of Gulbarga. The defeat of 1419 weakened him, and in 1422, ill and facing the revolt of his brother Ahmad, he gave up the throne to him.

Ahmad Shah I Wali: The Conquest of Warangal and the Move to Bidar

Ahmad Shah I is called a wali, a saint, for his association with the Sufi Gesu Daraz. Gesu Daraz, also known as Khwaja Bande Nawaz, was the best-known Sufi of the Deccan, and his dargah stands at Gulbarga. Ahmad Shah is the only Bahmani king venerated as a saint, and his tomb at Ashtur near Bidar still holds an annual urs.

He could not forget that Warangal had sided with Vijayanagara in the last two battles the Bahmanis had lost. He invaded Warangal, killed its ruler and annexed most of its territory, and moved his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar to hold the new lands. The loss of Warangal changed the balance of power in the south.

He then turned to Malwa, Gondwana and the Konkan. After long conflict it was agreed that Kherla in Gondwana would go to Malwa and Berar to the Bahmanis.

Bahmani-Vijayanagara Wars over the Raichur Doab

The wars with Vijayanagara ran through the whole life of the kingdom. They were fought over the Tungabhadra doab, also called the Raichur doab, the land between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, and over the eastern delta and the western ports. Both sides sacked towns and villages and enslaved their people; Ferishta wrote that the population of the Carnatic was so reduced that it did not recover for ages.

Table 1. The main Bahmani-Vijayanagara wars
Year Bahmani ruler What happened
1367 Muhammad Shah I War after Bukka I took Mudkal; first use of artillery; doab shared
1406 Firuz Shah Deva Raya I defeated; Bankapur in dowry
1419 Firuz Shah Defeated by Deva Raya I
1472 Muhammad Shah III, with Mahmud Gawan as minister Goa and Dabhol taken from Vijayanagara
1512 None (the kingdom had broken up) The doab passed finally to Vijayanagara under Krishnadevaraya

Religion did not decide these wars. The Sultans married Hindu princesses and the Rayas recruited Muslim archers; political and strategic interests and control of trade mattered more. The doab passed finally to Vijayanagara only in 1512, under Krishnadevaraya, after the Bahmani kingdom had broken up.

Bahmani Architecture and Persian Culture at Gulbarga and Bidar

The Bahmani kingdom was a Persianate state. When it was founded, troops, saints and scholars moved from Delhi and north India to the Deccan, and the Sultans later drew learned men from Iran and Iraq; Persian building styles left a lasting mark on its capitals.

  • Gulbarga: The enlarged fort and its Jama Masjid, built in the Persian style.
  • Bidar: The fort built by Ahmad Shah I and the Bahmani tombs at Ashtur with their murals.
  • Mahmud Gawan's madrasa: Built at Bidar, three storeys high and decorated with coloured tiles, it housed a thousand teachers and students fed and clothed free, and drew famous scholars from Iran and Iraq.
  • Crafts: Ahmad Shah I brought Persian artisans to Bidar, among them a master of Bidriware, the inlay of silver on dark metal for which Bidar is still known.

Mahmud Gawan and the Break-up of the Bahmani Kingdom

Gawan's Execution and the Five Deccan Sultanates

The kingdom reached its widest extent under Mahmud Gawan, chief minister for almost twenty years. He took the western coast, including Dabhol and Goa, a heavy blow to Vijayanagara.

As a newcomer, Gawan never won the trust of the Deccanis. His enemies turned the young Sultan against him, and on 5 April 1481 he was executed at over seventy years of age. The kingdom then came apart, for several reasons:

  • Party strife: The Deccani and Afaqi factions fought on, more bitterly after Gawan's death.
  • Weak Sultans: Mahmud Shah (1482 to 1518), who succeeded Muhammad Shah III, was the last ruler with real power, and the four Sultans after him were puppets of Amir Barid of Bidar.
  • Powerful tarafdars: The governors of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Berar declared independence in 1490, Bidar followed in 1492 and Golconda in 1518.
  • Endless war: The long wars with Vijayanagara and Malwa drained the kingdom.

The Bahmani kingdom formally ended in 1527. Its five successors were Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar, the Deccan Sultanates, and of these Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda led the Deccan until the Mughals absorbed them.

One box splitting into five. The Bahmani kingdom, from 1347 to the 1480s, broke up after party strife and Mahmud Gawan's execution in 1481 into Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar. Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda led the Deccan until the Mughals.

Sources

Editorial Disclaimer

This article draws on the current NCERT history textbooks for Classes 8 and 12, the Government of Karnataka's history of the state and of Kalaburagi district, and encyclopaedia articles on the period. Some dates of this period differ by a year or more between sources.

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