Vijayanagara, the Bahmani Sultanate and Shivaji: Rulers, Treaties and the Ashtapradhan

The Deccan Triangle: Three Powers, One Region

While Delhi was busy with the Tughlaqs, Lodis and Mughals, the south and the Deccan produced three powers that every medieval-history paper tests. The Vijayanagara Empire (1336) was the great Hindu kingdom south of the Tungabhadra. The Bahmani Sultanate (1347) was its Muslim neighbour and rival to the north. Centuries later, Shivaji built the Maratha state (1674) against the successors of the Bahmanis and the Mughals. Exam questions are rarely deep; they ask who founded what, where the capital stood, which ruler was the greatest, which battle ended the kingdom, and which treaty or title belongs to whom. This short gives you the one-line identifier for each, in the order exams usually test them.

1. Who founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336?

2. Who wrote the Telugu work Amuktamalyada?

3. In which year was the Vijayanagara Empire effectively ended by the Battle of Talikota?

4. Who founded the Bahmani Sultanate in 1347?

5. Which of the following was NOT a successor state of the Bahmani Sultanate?

6. In which year was Shivaji crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad?

7. The Treaty of Purandar (1665) was signed between Shivaji and which Mughal commander?

8. In Shivaji's Ashtapradhan, the head of the council of eight ministers was the: