Overview
The Deccan Sultanates were five Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan Plateau, the region between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range, that took the place of the Bahmani Sultanate. They were Bijapur under the Adil Shahi dynasty, Golconda under the Qutb Shahi dynasty, Ahmadnagar under the Nizam Shahi dynasty, Berar under the Imad Shahi dynasty and Bidar under the Barid Shahi dynasty. Four of the founders were Bahmani provincial governors, or tarafdars, and the fifth, at Bidar, was the chief minister; all five broke away between 1490 and 1527. The five fought one another for land and forts for most of their history, and four of them combined in 1565 to defeat Vijayanagara at Talikota. Between 1574 and 1687 they were absorbed one by one, two of them by their neighbours and three by the Mughals.
Break-up of the Bahmani Kingdom, 1481 to 1527
Tarafdars and the Weakening of Bahmani Authority
The Bahmani kingdom, founded in 1347, was divided into provinces called tarafs, each governed by a tarafdar who commanded the troops of his province. Its nobles were split into two factions. The Deccanis were the local Muslim elite, descendants of Sunni immigrants from northern India, while the Afaqis were newcomers from the west, mostly Shia. Mahmud Gawan, an Afaqi who governed as regent from 1466, increased the provinces from four to eight to ease the burden of administration. His opponents, led by Nizam-ul‑Mulk Bahri, forged a treasonous letter in his name, and Sultan Muhammad Shah III ordered his execution in 1481.
After Mahmud Gawan's execution the Bahmani sultans lost control of their governors. Mahmud Shah Bahmani, who reigned from 1482 to 1518, could not hold them, and the four sultans after him were puppets in the hands of Amir Barid I of Bidar. Factional strife and the revolts of its most powerful nobles split the kingdom into five states.
Bahmani Nobles Break Away, 1490 to 1527
The break-up came in stages:
- 1490: Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I at Ahmadnagar, Yusuf Adil Shah at Bijapur and Fathullah Imad-ul‑Mulk in Berar declared their independence.
- 1492: Qasim Barid I became the real ruler at Bidar, while a Bahmani sultan remained on the throne in name.
- 1518: Sultan Quli Qutb-ul‑Mulk, governor of the Telangana region, made Golconda independent.
- 1527: The Bahmani kingdom formally came to an end when its last sultan, Kalimullah, fled, leaving Amir Barid I of Bidar independent in practice.
NCERT's history textbook dates Golconda's independence to 1518, while NCERT's art textbook and other accounts give 1512.
All five successor states based their claim to rule on being heirs of the Bahmani kingdom, and they continued to use Bahmani coins instead of issuing their own.
The Five Sultanates: Dynasties, Founders and Capitals
Ahmadnagar under the Nizam Shahi Dynasty
Ahmadnagar lay in the north-western Deccan, between the Gujarat Sultanate and Bijapur. Its founder, Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I, was the son of Malik Hasan Bahri (Nizam-ul‑Mulk), the leader of the Deccani party who had plotted Gawan's fall. As governor of Junnar, Malik Ahmad defeated a Bahmani army on 28 May 1490 and declared his independence. His first capital was Junnar; in 1494 he laid the foundation of a new capital, Ahmadnagar, and in 1499 he secured the fortress of Daulatabad.
His son Burhan Nizam Shah I came to the throne in 1510 as a boy of seven. In 1538, under the influence of Shah Tahir, he made Nizari Shia Islam the state religion. Husain Nizam Shah I, who ruled from 1554 to 1565, led Ahmadnagar into the alliance against Vijayanagara. His son Murtaza Nizam Shah I annexed Berar in 1574, which brought the kingdom to its greatest extent.
Bijapur under the Adil Shahi Dynasty
Bijapur lay in the south-western Deccan, across today's southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, and faced Vijayanagara across the Tungabhadra. Its founder, Yusuf Adil Shah, had risen in Bahmani service to become governor of the province of Bijapur, and in 1490 he made himself independent. His origin is uncertain: He may have been a Georgian slave bought by Mahmud Gawan, and other accounts describe him as Persian or Turkoman. He proclaimed Shia Islam as the faith of the state.
Bijapur lost its port of Goa to the Portuguese in 1510, the year of Yusuf's death. His son Ismail Adil Shah was defeated by Krishnadevaraya in the Battle of Raichur in 1520 and lost the fort of Raichur to Vijayanagara. Ali Adil Shah I, who came to the throne in 1558, joined the alliance of 1565. Bijapur gained the most from the defeat of Vijayanagara, and in 1619 it annexed its neighbour Bidar.
Golconda under the Qutb Shahi Dynasty
Golconda lay in the south-eastern Deccan, in the Telangana region and the Krishna and Godavari deltas. Its founder, Sultan Quli Qutb-ul‑Mulk, a Shia of Turkoman origin, came to India from Persia and served the Bahmani sultans before becoming governor of the Telangana region. He made Golconda independent in 1518 and soon took the title of Qutb Shah. Ibrahim Qutb Shah, who ruled from 1550 to 1580, was the Golconda sultan at Talikota.
Golconda was the wealthiest of the Deccan kingdoms by the end of the sixteenth century. Its revenue came mainly from a land tax, but the sultans also held a monopoly of diamond production from mines such as Kollur, and Masulipatnam was their chief port for diamonds and textiles. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah moved the capital to the new city of Hyderabad, 8 kilometres east of Golconda, where he built the Charminar in 1591.
Berar under the Imad Shahi Dynasty
Berar's founder, Fathullah Imad-ul‑Mulk, was born a Kannadiga Hindu, was captured as a boy during a Bahmani campaign against Vijayanagara and was brought up as a Muslim. Mahmud Gawan had made him governor of Berar, and in 1490 he declared his independence. His capital was Ellichpur (Achalpur), in the north of the Deccan, and he fortified Gavilgad and Narnala.
Berar was the first of the five to disappear. Its rulers faced repeated pressure from Ahmadnagar, and Berar did not join the alliance of 1565. When the minister Tufail Khan usurped the throne of the young Burhan Imad Shah, Murtaza Nizam Shah I of Ahmadnagar invaded and annexed Berar in 1574.
Bidar under the Barid Shahi Dynasty
Bidar, the smallest of the five, lay in the central Deccan and held the old Bahmani capital. Its founder, Qasim Barid I, rose in Bahmani service to become chief minister, and from 1492 he was the real ruler of the Bahmani kingdom while the Bahmani sultan kept the throne in name. His son Amir Barid I kept that control, and after Kalimullah fled in 1527 he was in practice independent, though he never took a royal title.
Ali Barid Shah I, who succeeded in 1542, was the first of the line to take the title of Shah, and he fought at Talikota in 1565. After his death in 1580 a series of disputed successions weakened the kingdom. In 1619 Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur defeated the last ruler, Amir Barid III, and annexed Bidar.
| Sultanate | Dynasty | Founder | Broke away | Capital | End of the kingdom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmadnagar | Nizam Shahi | Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I | 1490 | Junnar, then Ahmadnagar | Annexed by the Mughals, 1636 |
| Bijapur | Adil Shahi | Yusuf Adil Shah | 1490 | Bijapur | Annexed by the Mughals, 1686 |
| Berar | Imad Shahi | Fathullah Imad-ul‑Mulk | 1490 | Ellichpur (Achalpur) | Annexed by Ahmadnagar, 1574 |
| Bidar | Barid Shahi | Qasim Barid I | 1492 (independent in practice from 1527) | Bidar | Annexed by Bijapur, 1619 |
| Golconda | Qutb Shahi | Sultan Quli Qutb-ul‑Mulk | 1518 | Golconda, then Hyderabad | Annexed by the Mughals, 1687 |
Rivalry Among the Deccan Sultanates and Vijayanagara
Wars over Frontiers, Forts and the Raichur Doab
The Deccan Sultanates were rivals far more often than allies. Ahmadnagar and Bijapur fought over Solapur and Kalyana, Ahmadnagar pressed on Berar until it annexed that kingdom in 1574, and Bijapur besieged Bidar in 1529 and annexed it in 1619. In 1514 a dispute over the Gulbarga province brought Ahmadnagar, Bidar and the governor of Telangana, the future founder of Golconda, together against Bijapur. Gulbarga, where the Bahmani kingdom had first set its capital, came in the end partly under Bidar and partly under Bijapur. Alliances shifted from one war to the next, and no one kingdom became strong enough to rule the others.
Vijayanagara, to the south, took part in these wars. Its kings and the Bijapur sultans fought for the Raichur Doab, the land between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra, which Krishnadevaraya acquired in 1512 and confirmed with his victory over the Sultan of Bijapur in 1520. Relations were not always hostile. Krishnadevaraya supported some claimants to power in the sultanates and took pride in the title "establisher of the Yavana kingdom", and the Sultan of Bijapur intervened to settle disputes over the Vijayanagara succession after Krishnadevaraya's death.
The Alliance of 1565 and the Battle of Talikota
Rama Raya of the Aravidu family, who held real power at Vijayanagara from 1542, made the most of the sultanates' quarrels. He allied now with one sultanate and now with another, and in the early 1560s he joined Bijapur in a war against Ahmadnagar. His demands for territory and his insulting conduct towards the sultans in the years that followed united them against him.
Four sultans formed the alliance: Husain Nizam Shah I of Ahmadnagar, Ali Adil Shah I of Bijapur, Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda and Ali Barid Shah I of Bidar. Berar stayed out. On 23 January 1565 their armies defeated Vijayanagara at the Battle of Talikota, also called Rakshasi-Tangadi, near the Krishna. Rama Raya was captured and beheaded, and the city of Vijayanagara was sacked over several months. NCERT names the combined armies of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda at the battle, while other accounts also count Bidar among the allies.
The alliance did not outlast its victory. Bijapur recovered the Raichur Doab and pushed south into the Karnataka region, while Ahmadnagar and Bijapur were at war again by 1567.
Politics and Society in the Deccan Sultanates
Deccanis, Afaqis and the Habshi Nobles
The factional quarrel of the Bahmani court passed into every successor kingdom. The Deccanis, who spoke Dakhni (also written Dakhani), and the Afaqis, who favoured Persian, competed for office. At Ahmadnagar under Ismail Nizam Shah, the Deccani leader Jamal Khan led massacres of the foreign nobles, and the Persian nobles, including the historian Firishta, fled to Bijapur.
A third group, the Habshis, men of African origin who came to the Deccan as slaves, also rose to high office. Changiz Khan, a former Habshi slave, became chief minister of Ahmadnagar. He bought Malik Ambar, who was born in Ethiopia in 1548 and had been sold from place to place by slave merchants. Malik Ambar rose to be Peshwa, or prime minister, and the real ruler of Ahmadnagar from 1600 until his death in 1626.
Religion, Language and Hindu Officials
The state religion followed the balance of factions at court. At Bijapur, after the founder's Shia beginning, Ibrahim Adil Shah I turned to Sunni Islam and replaced most Afaqi nobles with Deccanis, and Ali Adil Shah I restored Shia Islam. At Ahmadnagar Jamal Khan set Shia Islam aside while he held power, and Burhan Nizam Shah II reinstated it as the state religion. The Qutb Shahis of Golconda remained Shia, and their court was at first wholly Persian in culture.
Hindus served the sultans in high posts. At Bijapur Hindu officers managed accounts and administration and kept their records in Marathi. At Golconda Ibrahim Qutb Shah appointed Murari Rao as Peshwa, second only to the Mir Jumla, the finance minister, and in the early seventeenth century Telugu was raised to an official language of the court. Maratha commanders also served them: Shahaji, the father of Shivaji, held a jagir at Pune while in the sultans' service.
Culture of the Deccan Sultanates: Language, Music, Painting and Buildings
Dakhni Literature and Ibrahim Adil Shah II
The most lasting cultural contribution of the Deccan Sultanates was Dakhni, a language that began under the Bahmani sultans and grew into an independent spoken and literary language by borrowing from Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Kannada and Telugu. It was later called Dakhni Urdu to distinguish it from the Urdu of north India. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda wrote poetry in Dakhni, Persian and Telugu and left a large collection of Dakhni poems, the Kulliyat-i-Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. The Qutb Shahis patronised literature in Persian as well as Telugu, and Kshetrayya and Bhadrachala Ramadasu were Telugu poets of this period.
Ibrahim Adil Shah II, sultan of Bijapur from 1580 to 1627, was the great patron of the age. He came to the throne as a boy of nine, and Chand Bibi, the widow of Ali Adil Shah I and a princess of Ahmadnagar, served as regent during his minority from 1580 to 1590. He wrote the Kitab-i-Nauras, a book of songs in Dakhni set to ragas and raginis, in which he praised the Hindu goddess Sarasvati together with the Prophet and the Sufi saint Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesudaraz of Gulbarga.
He was tolerant of other religions and is known in Indian history as Jagadguru Badshah. He spoke Marathi, Dakhni and Kannada, employed Hindus in high posts, and in 1599 began building a new township, Nauraspur, as a city of music. The Persian poet Muhammad Zuhuri was his court poet, and Firishta composed the Tarikh-i-Firishta at his order.
Deccani Painting, Monuments and Bidriware
The courts of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda each developed a distinct school of court painting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, marked by intense colour and dense composition. The earliest examples are the miniatures in a volume of poems celebrating the reign of Husain Nizam Shah I of Ahmadnagar. At Bijapur the encyclopaedia Nujum al‑Ulum, dated 1570, carries 876 miniatures, and Ali Adil Shah I and Ibrahim Adil Shah II were both patrons of painting. Golconda's painters showed the gold jewellery of its court, and Dutch merchants carried portraits of its sultans to Europe in the late seventeenth century.
The sultans built tombs, mosques, palaces and forts in a style of their own, and their capitals hold the best-known monuments of the Deccan.
| Monument | Place | Dynasty | Built | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gol Gumbaz | Bijapur | Adil Shahi | Left unfinished, 1656 | Tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah; dome 44 metres across, with a whispering gallery |
| Ibrahim Rouza | Bijapur | Adil Shahi | Completed 1626 | Paired tomb and mosque of Ibrahim Adil Shah II and his family |
| Charminar | Hyderabad | Qutb Shahi | 1591 | Four minarets at the heart of the new capital |
| Golconda Fort | Golconda | Qutb Shahi | Early Qutb Shahi period | Fortified first capital, near the Qutb Shahi tombs |
| Tomb of Ali Barid Shah | Bidar | Barid Shahi | 1577 | Domed chamber open on four sides, in a four-square garden |
| Farah Bagh | Ahmadnagar | Nizam Shahi | Completed 1583 | Centre of a palace complex |
Bidar also gave its name to Bidriware, metalwork of a dark zinc alloy inlaid with silver, brass and sometimes copper.
Mughal Conquest of the Deccan Sultanates, 1595 to 1687
Akbar, Chand Bibi and the First Mughal Gains
The Mughals began to press on the Deccan in Akbar's last years. In 1591 Akbar asked the four remaining sultanates to accept his supremacy, and none did. In 1595 a Mughal army under Prince Murad besieged Ahmadnagar, which Chand Bibi defended as regent for the infant Bahadur Nizam Shah. On 23 February 1596 she made peace by ceding Berar to the Mughals. The Mughals returned, and after Chand Bibi's death in 1600 they took the city of Ahmadnagar and imprisoned Bahadur Nizam Shah.
The Nizam Shahi kingdom did not end with the loss of its capital. Malik Ambar and other officers raised Murtaza Nizam Shah II to the throne in 1600 and moved the capital first to Paranda, then to Junnar and finally to a new city, Khadki, later renamed Aurangabad.
Malik Ambar's Resistance and the End of Ahmadnagar, 1636
Malik Ambar held off the Mughals for a quarter of a century. He raised a large army, is regarded as a pioneer of guerrilla warfare in the Deccan, and challenged both the Mughals and the Adil Shahis of Bijapur. He also carried out a revenue settlement of much of the Deccan that later settlements took as their basis. He died in 1626 with the Nizam Shahi kingdom still standing.
His son Fateh Khan surrendered Daulatabad to the Mughals in 1633 and handed over the young sultan Husain Nizam Shah III, who was sent as a prisoner to the fort of Gwalior. Shahaji, with help from Bijapur, then placed another infant prince on the throne as a last stand. In 1636 Aurangzeb, then the Mughal viceroy of the Deccan, defeated Shahaji and annexed what remained of the kingdom.
Treaties of 1636 and Aurangzeb's Conquest of Bijapur and Golconda
The settlement of 1636 bound the two surviving kingdoms to the Mughals. Bijapur, which had held off Shah Jahan's siege in 1631, agreed to pay tribute and acknowledge Mughal authority, and in return shared the conquered Nizam Shahi lands. Golconda also accepted Mughal suzerainty and paid tribute. Bijapur then reached its greatest extent under Muhammad Adil Shah, but after his death in 1656 Aurangzeb, still viceroy, attacked it in 1657 and annexed the fort of Bidar and other forts.
Two new pressures weakened Bijapur after 1656. Shivaji, whose father Shahaji had served Bijapur, killed its general Afzal Khan in 1659 and went on to take control of much of the Adil Shahis' original territory. As emperor, Aurangzeb then led his armies into the Deccan in person. The two kingdoms ended within a year of each other:
- Bijapur, 1686: The Mughal siege began in April 1685, and on 12 September 1686 the sultanate came to an end; the last Adil Shahi sultan, Sikandar Adil Shah, was sent into Mughal captivity.
- Golconda, 1687: Aurangzeb directed an eight-month siege of Golconda Fort, which was won only through treachery. Abul Hasan Qutb Shah was imprisoned in Daulatabad Fort for the rest of his life, and his kingdom became the Mughal province of Hyderabad.
Significance of the Deccan Sultanates in Indian History
Legacy for the Deccan and the Mughal Empire
The Deccan Sultanates shaped the south for nearly two centuries. Their alliance broke the power of Vijayanagara in 1565, and their wars with one another kept the Deccan divided until the Mughals arrived. Their fall did not bring peace, for the Marathas still stood in the way of Mughal control of the Deccan. Aurangzeb spent the last 25 years of his life at war there, and the cost of those armies depleted the empire's treasury. The sultanates had also trained the Marathas who fought him: Shahaji served Ahmadnagar and Bijapur in turn, and Shivaji built his early power on lands the Adil Shahis had held.
Their cultural legacy outlasted their kingdoms. Dakhni grew into a literary language, the painting of Golconda evolved into the Hyderabad style, and the monuments of Bijapur, Hyderabad, Golconda and Bidar remain the best-known buildings of the Deccan. The courts also show how Persianate rulers drew Hindu officials, Marathi and Telugu records and local musical traditions into their government and culture.
Previous Year UPSC‑CSE Questions
Each question is explained option by option.
- UPSC Prelims 2004How did the dynasty of Nizam Shahis of Ahmadnagar come to an end?
How to approach this Prelims question
Approach: Test each option against the last years of the Nizam Shahi kingdom. Malik Ambar ruled Ahmadnagar in fact until his death in 1626. In 1633 his son Fateh Khan surrendered Daulatabad to the Mughals and handed over the young sultan Husain Nizam Shah III, who was sent as a prisoner to the fort of Gwalior. In 1636 Aurangzeb, as Mughal viceroy of the Deccan, annexed what remained of the kingdom. Only option (a) matches this sequence.
Trap to watch: Malik Ambar is the name students link most closely with Ahmadnagar's resistance, so option (d) attracts them; but he died in 1626, and the dynasty ended with the sultan's surrender and imprisonment, not with a massacre.
Why each option is right or wrong:
- (a) Ahmadnagar was annexed into Mughal empire and Husain Shah was consigned to life imprisonment: Correct. The young sultan Husain Nizam Shah III was handed to the Mughals in 1633 and kept a prisoner in Gwalior fort, and the kingdom was annexed in 1636.
- (b) Mughal troops destroyed Daulatabad fort and killed Nizam-ul‑Mulk of Ahmadnagar: Wrong. Daulatabad was surrendered to the Mughals by Fateh Khan in 1633, and Nizam-ul‑Mulk (Malik Hasan Bahri), a Bahmani noble of the 1480s, was the father of the dynasty's founder.
- (c) Fateh Khan usurped the throne from Nizam-ul‑Mulk: Wrong. Fateh Khan, Malik Ambar's son, did not take the throne; he surrendered to the Mughals and handed over the young sultan.
- (d) Malik Ambar was defeated in a battle with Mughals in 1631 and the entire royal family was killed by the Mughal troops: Wrong. Malik Ambar died in 1626, five years before that date, and the last sultan was imprisoned, not killed.
Answer: (a) Ahmadnagar was annexed into Mughal empire and Husain Shah was consigned to life imprisonment. The Mughals annexed Ahmadnagar in 1636, and the young sultan Husain Nizam Shah III was kept a prisoner in Gwalior fort.
- UPSC Prelims 2003Consider the following statement:
- Kitab-I-Nauras, a collection of songs in praise of Hindu deities and Muslim saints, was written by Ibrahim Adil Shah II
- Amir Khusrau was the originator in India of the early form of the musical style known as Qawwali.
Which of these statements is/are correct?
How to approach this Prelims question
Approach: Judge each statement on its own. Statement 1 is about the Bijapur court and statement 2 about Amir Khusrau.
- Statement 1: Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur wrote the Kitab-i-Nauras, songs in Dakhni in which he praised the goddess Sarasvati together with the Prophet and the Sufi saint Gesudaraz; correct.
- Statement 2: Amir Khusrau, in the late thirteenth century, fused Persian, Arabic, Turkic and Indian singing traditions to create qawwali and is regarded as the father of qawwali; correct.
Both statements hold.
Trap to watch: A student who links music only with the Mughal court may doubt that a Bijapur sultan wrote a book of songs praising Hindu deities, and so pick (b); Ibrahim Adil Shah II's tolerance is exactly what the statement tests.
Why each option is right or wrong:
- (a) Only 1: Wrong. Statement 2 is also correct, because Amir Khusrau is credited with creating qawwali in the late thirteenth century.
- (b) Only 2: Wrong. Statement 1 is also correct, because Ibrahim Adil Shah II wrote the Kitab-i-Nauras and praised both Sarasvati and Muslim saints in it.
- (c) Both 1 and 2: Correct. Ibrahim Adil Shah II wrote the Kitab-i-Nauras, and Amir Khusrau originated qawwali.
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2: Wrong. Both statements are correct.
Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2. Ibrahim Adil Shah II wrote the Kitab-i-Nauras, and Amir Khusrau is regarded as the father of qawwali.
- UPSC Prelims 2000Which one of the following Muslim rulers was hailed as the 'Jagadguru' by his Muslim subjects because of his belief in secularism?
How to approach this Prelims question
Approach: Identify the ruler who bore the title Jagadguru. Ibrahim Adil Shah II, sultan of Bijapur from 1580 to 1627, is known in Indian history as Jagadguru Badshah; he praised Sarasvati together with Muslim saints in his songs, spoke Marathi, Dakhni and Kannada, and employed Hindus in high posts. None of the other rulers named carries this title.
Trap to watch: All four options name real Muslim rulers, so a student who remembers a tolerant ruler but not the title may guess among them; the deciding fact is the title Jagadguru Badshah, which belongs to Ibrahim Adil Shah II.
Why each option is right or wrong:
- (a) Husain Shah: Wrong. Alauddin Husain Shah was Sultan of Bengal from 1494 to 1519; the title Jagadguru belongs to the Bijapur sultan.
- (b) Zain-ul‑Abidin: Wrong. Zain-ul‑Abidin was the sultan of Kashmir from 1420 to 1470, more than a century before the Bijapur court that coined the title.
- (c) Ibrahim Adil Shah: Correct. Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur is known in Indian history as Jagadguru Badshah.
- (d) Mahmud II: Wrong. The best-known ruler of this name, the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II, reigned from 1808 to 1839, far from India and long after the Deccan Sultanates.
Answer: (c) Ibrahim Adil Shah. Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur is known in Indian history as Jagadguru Badshah.
Sources
- NCERT: Exploring Society, India and Beyond, Class VIII Part I, Chapter 2, Reshaping India's Political Map
- NCERT: Exploring Society, India and Beyond, Class VIII Part I, Chapter 3, The Rise of the Marathas
- NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part II, Class XII, Theme 7, An Imperial Capital: Vijayanagara
- NCERT: An Introduction to Indian Art Part II, Class XII, Chapter 4, The Deccani Schools of Painting
- Wikipedia: Deccan sultanates
- Wikipedia: Bahmani Kingdom
- Wikipedia: Ahmadnagar Sultanate
- Wikipedia: Bijapur Sultanate
- Wikipedia: Golconda Sultanate
- Wikipedia: Berar Sultanate
- Wikipedia: Bidar Sultanate
- Wikipedia: Battle of Talikota
- Wikipedia: Rama Raya
- Wikipedia: Hussain Nizam Shah I
- Wikipedia: Ibrahim Adil Shah II
- Wikipedia: Chand Bibi
- Wikipedia: Malik Ambar
- Wikipedia: Siege of Golconda
- Wikipedia: Gol Gumbaz
- Wikipedia: Amir Khusrau
- Wikipedia: Alauddin Husain Shah
- Wikipedia: Zain-ul‑Abidin
- Wikipedia: Mahmud II
- Vijayapura District, Government of Karnataka: Gol Gumbaz
- Kalaburagi District, Government of Karnataka: History
- Hyderabad District, Government of Telangana: Charminar
- UPSC: Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination question papers
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