Chapter VI: Mallikarjuna II
Part 2: Butcher (1446-1448)
Holy War
As we've discussed, it's hard to be certain just what ailed Mallikarjuna. What started as a stoic and dull disposition slowly morphed as he grew. Occasional bouts of hyperactivity took place as he hit puberty and seemed to escalate into unfocused manic episodes as he took the throne.
This is all conjecture however. Naturally there are no medical records, and anyway the proper testing and psychoanalysis was still centuries away. Further, Imperial records become very scattered and unreliable during this time. It's possible there was some purge of documentation, or simply that observers grew more hesitant to journal what they saw. We do know the Imperial government grew more strained holding it's fractitious elements together and threatened to dissolve entirely.
(Distracted Government goes to Strained)
His sudden appearance at a meeting of the Regency Council in May 1446 effectively ended their rule. When he (rather) cheerfully asked why armies weren't marching to the border his step-mother, Perundevi, explained the situation. She correctly assessed his mood and described the merchants' reluctance to finance their campaign.
Mallikarjuna and Raghbir Koyande said:
- "Is this true?"
- "It is, rajah. There is nothing to be gained from this war. We should instead invest in..."
- "Investing sounds boring." (To his guards) "Kill him."
He then summoned
Senapaati Chatterji to his throne room and informed him they would join the war. As for money to pay for it, he'd simply take it.
(New Mission: Accumulate Money)
The plan, following a series of suggestions and reforms, saw Chatterji, Mallikarjuna and the western armies secure access through Gujarati territory and so punish the Sind for their anti-Hindu stance. Chatterji hoped this would take one of the smaller powers out of the war. Mallikarjuna saw an easy conquest.
The Jeoomal brothers would secure the east - better to keep at least one formerly disloyal commander away from the rajah, Chatterji reasoned. One would hold the Gondwana border against counterattack and possibly advance on Mount Varanasi, while the other would try to force Bengal out of the fight.
It wasn't a bad plan, but since Mallikarjuna was nominally in charge of the western armies there were plenty of naysayers. Chatterji did his best to shield his rajah from questions, but all Mallikarjuna had to do was open his mouth to betray his complete lack of military understanding.
(Incompetent Military Leadership: -5 Discipline)
Upon arriving at the Gujarati border, Mallikarjuna summoned one of his officials. He was to go to Baroda and seek the Gujarati sultan. There he would demand access or 'watch his lands scorched, his people fed to the dogs, and his harem given to the soldiers.' He was to demand this in the name of the Vijaynagaran Emperor.
(-1 Prestige, -1 Diplomat)
The official refused, reminding his rajah that the Gujarati were proud and more likely to respond to a few gentle words than an overt threat. Enraged, Mallikarjuna drew his own knife and thrust it into the diplomat's stomach. They started avoiding him after that.
On the eastern front, free from their rajah's overt interference, Vijaya Jeoomal set up garrisons along the Gondwana/Delhi border while their prince, Hirade Sahi III, marched towards Mount Varanasi. Vijaya's brother, Immadi, invaded Jharkand in western Bengal. There he fought the Bengali marshal Azam Mukashee and routed his army in July. He lacked the strength to follow up and requested his brother's help.
After leaving a small sieging force behind, the two headed towards the Bengali capital. In September they once more met Mukashee and the bulk of the Bengalese army and forced them east towards Assam. In both battles the Imperials lost more men (some 2,600 vs. 1,700). Further, the sweltering heat and a type of jungle fever killed or incapacitated hundreds more. After resting for several weeks the Jeoomal brothers marched towards what they expected to be a final battle.
During this time the western front remained stagnant. The Gujarati simply ignored the handful of advisors Mallikarjuna shoved across the border to negotiate.
(No diplomats.) Only Chatterji's continued presence kept him from rashly throwing his armies into Gujarat.
The War Spreads
Despite his best efforts, Chatterji couldn't stop a Rajputana diplomat from visiting his sovereign. It seemed that the Muslims of Kashir, hoping to catch Rajputana while they were distracted elsewhere, declared war along with their 'foul brethren' which happened to include Gujarat. Mallikarjuna didn't even hesitate: He leapt to his feet, pointed his sword at the diplomat, and swore Vijayanagara's support.
(KASHMIR, Chagatai, Gujarat, Bahmanids vs. VIJAYANAGAR, Rajputana,Gondwana, Nepal. We ended up being alliance leader.)
Strangely, Mallikarjuna lost all interest in the Gujarati (or Sind for that matter.) There were far closer, far easier people to kill.
This new campaign forced Chatterji to part company with Mallikarjuna. Fortunately he surrounded the rajah with men he could trust - and more importantly the men could trust. Those that survived the first tense weeks learned to placate their emperor, then discuss among themselves how to make his plans actually work.
(Mallikarjuna (and staff): F2 Sh2 M0 Sg0)
As his army crossed into the Sultanate of Ahmandanagar, Mallikarjuna found not a Bahmanid army, but a handful of Delhi diplomats led by their senior statesman, Ishwari Singh. Singh went through the proper ritualistic greetings and spoke:
Ishwari Singh said:
...for indeed, dread emperor, we have heard of your many exploits even in distant Delhi. Because of this, my sultan asks for your forebearance in this current matter. As you must strike down those who would attack your friends, so we must respond to those who would attack us. We have no quarrel with you. Let us end this.
Delhi's motive was clear: Removing Vijayanagara from the war would free up Bengali troops and possibly turn the tide in the east where Gondwanan and Nepalese troops ran freely. As for Mallikarjuna, he'd lost all interest in Sind and agreed.
(White Peace)
In distant Bengal, the Jeoomal brothers learned their campaign had been for naught. Angry and frustrated, they gathered their armies for the long march home... only to find their way blocked.
...And Spreads
Hirade Sahi III of Gondwana learned of Vijayanagar's withdrawal with disbelief and anger. Finally convinced (by the advance of Bengalese troops) that this wasn't a mistake or a joke, he wrote his 'brother' to the south.
Hirade Sahi III said:
One wonders how you can call yourself a rajah when you display a chital's (spotted deer) courage and a snake's honor. I have heard the gods deprived you of (common) sense or mind, but I did not know they tore away your backbone as well. Go, then. Crawl under your rock, twisted shadow of Lord Hanuman. (A Hindu monkey god renowned for courage, power and faith.) Hide and watch how men fight.
(Event: Diplomatic Insult)
Mallikarjuna literally choked on his wrath, so that no record of his reply exists. It is a sign of his distress that the messenger, fleeing for his life, made it back to Gondwana at all. Whatever his reply was, the two nations closed their borders to each other and Hirade commissioned another three regiments of foot soldiers.
(I canceled Military Access.)
Meanwhile, in Ahmandanagar, Chatterji's army arrived and moved north to engage the Bahmanids under Ahmad Koduri. To Chatterji's surprise and dismay, his rajah forced him to wait several days. Mallikarjuna learned that Ahmad planned to destroy the Gondwanan army in Bastar and he wanted his new enemies to suffer.
Through the winter of 1446, Imperial armies sieged Ahmandanagar and the Bahmanid stronghold at Golconda. During this period Mallikarjuna's tactics - burning villages, taking what supplies his armies needed and destroying the rest - might be seen as harsh, but certainly not over-the-top or even unreasonable. Chatterji theorized that his 'advisors' helped keep the young rajah in check as he finally marched to Bastar to meet Koduri's army.
The Emperor's first real taste of combat came in January when locals formed a militia army of perhaps one thousand to try and break the siege of Golconda. These men were poorly trained and desperate, unarmored with what knives and implements they could find and poorly organized. Even the Rajah couldn't fail in the ensuing battle when his experienced foot soldiers easily broke their line while horsemen harassed their retreat. Over five hundred surrendered outright.
Mallikarjuna's growing bloodlust finally broke through. He ordered the prisoners bound to each other with a long line of rope and penned within sight of the city. He then ordered his archers to fire into the tethered mass. His foot soldiers recoiled at such an order. Certainly prisoners died in war, usually due to momentary bloodlust or necessity (an army on the move or with low supplies), but deliberate slaughter sickened many. It didn't help that one of the prisoners began leading a long, involved Muslim prayer so that a number of them chanted and swayed as they were butchered.
Word of this atrocity spread through the nearby Muslim world. Khandesh, the only Muslim nation in India either not actively fighting or in the midst of a truce with Vijayanagar, sent a stern warning which only put them squarely in the Emperor's sights behind Gondwana.
(Warning not to go to war, etc.)
In Bastar an allied Hindu force of ten thousand under the command of Chatterji and Hirade Sahi III met Koduri's eight thousand. Gondwanan war elephants formed the center of the line with foot soldiers on either flank and Imperial cavalry in reserve, while Ahmad Koturi's Muslims deployed in two separate lines on either side of the elephants. There they rained arrows down as the allied army charged forward.
The war elephants managed to maintain formation but proved ineffectual as brawls between opposing footmen broke out on either side. After perhaps an hour Koduri's army retreated north having lost almost two thousand men to 750 Hindus.
Chatterji pursued him to Nagpur, but here fresh reinforcements from the countryside supported by Khandesh mercenaries frustrated him. He did manage to outflank another two Bahmanid regiments and force them to yield, but he lost 1,000 men in the exchange and retreated towards the relative safety of Bastar.
Unfortunately he would not find any friends there.
Nom nom nom
In April 1447 Gujarati officials, pointing out that other than occasional low-scale raids no one had actually crossed the border, suggested to their Imperial counterparts they call the whole thing off.
(White Peace) The strained and frustrated government happily agreed.
It's interesting to note that while Mallikarjuna fought his enemies and slowly yielded to madness, life within the Empire during this period remained relatively peaceful. A discerning eye would have noted that bureaucrats and other tax officials showed in the outlying provinces less often, and when they did they seemed disorganized and confused. They would have seen a generation of young men training in the fields and heard rumors about how many men the Imperials lost to attrition, but there were no desperate riots nor starvation. Goods continued to flow to and from the Orient. In some ways the Imperial government yielded to a dozen regional groups who made up for their lack of coordination with a greater understanding of what each state or province needed.
(Monarchists and Religious Factions from Disgruntled to Neutral)
All this began to change in May when Mallikarjuna proudly declared war on Gondwana.
First there were the Jeoomal brothers. Finding the Gondwana border closed to them, their army settled in camp cities along the border and lived through raiding and banditry. They simply had no choice other than starvation, and that's just what some of them did. Disease and desertion answered for far more. In May the Jeoomals 'invaded' Gondwana with no intention of doing anything but going home to regroup and rebuild. Of the fourteen thousand men who marched into Bengal, perhaps three thousand would make it home.
Second,
Senapaati Chatterji retreated to Bastar expecting to find friends. Instead he found a token Gondwanan force blocking the road to Telingana. Chatterji rode forward to demand an explanation.
Here the histories get confused. The most likely scenario is the Gondwanan commander, an inexperienced general named Pukha, ordered his archers to kill the commander. They managed to wound him and he fell off his horse. Chatterji's men, enraged, charged forward, engulfed and destroyed the smaller army. By now word of the Golconda massacre reached their ears, and seeing Chatterji lying on the ground a number of them decided their king might have the right idea after all. Not one Gondwanan would make it home.
Once more reports vary, but following this scenario Chatterji was overcome with grief at the declaration of war and what his men had done. He refused to be moved (Some say one of the arrows paralyzed him) and begged the universe to allow him to transmigrate and make up for his failure. He died that night.
Now no one could stop Mallikarjuna, whose madness only deepened when he learned of his mentor's death. He gathered his military 'advisors' and pointed east towards Golconda.
Mallikarjuna II said:
It was Golconda's ill luck to fall the next day. Mallikarjuna himself led a bloody swath through the streets of the Bahmanid stronghold butchering the handful of people on the streets followed by the handful of supplicants begging for mercy. His men took their own liberties and Mallikarjuna did nothing to stop them. Rape, murder and theft became the order of the day and for three full weeks Golconda writhed. It might have gone longer, but Ahmad Koduri had gathered the last of his men and were marching to break the siege at Ahmadanagar.
By now Mallikarjuna's men had devolved from an organized, disciplined army into a mob of debauched killers. Nonetheless they were debauched killers who followed willingly. Their rajah had no sense of what it took to control an army and his more professional 'advisors' were quietly leaving for home. His men approved of Mallikarjuna's apparent lenience: He couldn't effectively lead them, and they no longer wanted to be led.
In June, Mallikarjuna arrived to find Ahmadanagar in Imperial hands and Koduri closing rapidly. Koduri's army consisted of four thousand cavalry and some eighteen hundred infantry. The Imperial mob didn't bother with tactics and mere slammed into Ahmad's center. Sniping fire from the flanking horsemen couldn't save Koduri from the sheer ferocity of the Imperial attack and he recoiled having lost over 1,100 men.
Days later a rider returned begging for peace.
Chaos
Up to now the Gondwanan war consisted of the Jeoomals fleeing to Parlakimidi to recruit what men they could while Chatterji's successors did the same in Telingana. The strains of ongoing warfare started to show as over ten thousand men left their homes for an uncertain future. A Biharan envoy meanwhile located the rajah in Ahmandanagar and begged:
Bihar Envoy and Mallikarjuna II said:
- Surely you realize the Gondwanans were and our are best hope for recovering Mount Varanasi. I beg you, cease this despicable oppression of your fellow Hindus. I must beg you...no, I must insist. The lands of Varanasi are holy. You must allow the Gondwanans to continue their quest. Vishnu commands it!
- You don't look like Vishnu
And so the envoy lost his tongue and watched as it was thrown into a flame.
Hirade Sahi III meanwhile hoped to force Vijayanagar to surrender by a sharp counterattack against the Imperial capital itself. Mallikarjuna learned of this, gathered his 'mob' and marched across the subcontinent to relieve the anticipated siege.
Neither man expected the remnants of Chatterji's army to be recuperating in Telingana. In late September 1447 they threw themselves in Hirade's path. It was a hopeless contest: The Imperial army wasn't much smaller (5,000 vs. 6,000), but months of hard fighting left them exhausted and disorganized. Hirade's men were better rested and organized and he was a much better commander. He 'retreated' into the hills to nullify the Imperial cavalry advantage. There would be no classic set piece battle, but rather a series of grueling, grinding slugfests across the countryside. By the time the Imperials had to retreat towards the capital, they'd lost 4,000 men but took over 2,600 with them.
Mallikarjuna returned home to the cautious cheers of those who'd heard of the terrible things he and his men had done, but saw him as their best hope to preserve the capital. Mallikarjuna allowed his men one week to rest and recoup - a week during which the city of Vijayanagara trembled in fear as law and order threatened to collapse entirely - before marching into the surrounding foothills to wait. And wait.
The Imperial sacrifice had lasted long enough. Hirade may have been a fine commander, but even he couldn't replenish his armies instantly. His army numbered some three thousand by this point. Meanwhile the Jeoomal brothers had replenished their battered force to some four thousand. They caught Hirade's men foraging in the countryside and forced a sharp battle. The Gondwanans fled towards Indravati.
News reached Mallikarjuna in December just as representatives of the
Pradhana came to him complaining of continued excesses by some of the rajah's men. The emperor flew into a rage.
Mallikarjuna II said:
These are the men who are protecting you, and you want to chain them with your rules? I spit on them as I spit on you! Vijayanagara is not a place where one man is beholden to another's will because a piece of paper says so! Tell your alleged victim that she lies, and that if she thinks she can fare better with the Gondwanas she is welcome to try!
He then marched half a regiment into Vijayanagara, seized the Imperial library and ordered it burned to the ground 'in the name of freedom.' Deprived of five generations of records and legal precedent, the proud Imperial bureaucracy teetered and folded in on itself. The
Pradhana dispersed simply because there was nothing left to rule. For all intents and purposes, except for a few diehards, the Vijayanagaran Empire ceased to exist.
Which did nothing to stop Mallikarjuna from issuing a stern warning to the Jeoomal brothers:
Mallikarjuna II said:
I know you: A viper with two heads, each more poisonous than the next. You wanted to embarrass me by defeating (Gondwana) and taking the glory for yourself. You have failed! Your armies are broken and wasted through your own incompetence. You camped in Parlakimdi to rest? Fine. Stay there unless sent for - which I won't. I will finish Gondwana on my own. The day either of you set foot on their soil is the last day of your life.
End Game
This infuriated the Jeoomals but they obeyed, more to watch their Emperor fall on his face than from any fear of retaliation. Mallikarjuna took their silence as compliance and marched his mob into Indravati. He ordered the remnants of Chatterji's army - now reinforced to 3,000 - to come and secure the city as he pursued Hirade Sahi to the Gond capital.
And lost.
On May 5, 1448 Mallikarjuna attacked the Gond army in a frontal assault. There were no lines or other signs of unit cohesion. They simply charged across the field into a withering display of Gond firepower. Mallikarjuna's horsemen simply found excuses to retire from the field as four thousand Imperials slammed into seven thousand Gonds. Ferocity and a certain elan - a belief in their invincibility - answered and Hirade Sahi's center buckled backwards. Vijayanagaran foot soldiers pursued only to find themselves surrounded as Hirade enveloped their flanks.
The Imperials lost over 3,300 infantry in three hours with detached company strength units, gangs loyal to each other, routing westward. Hirade lost about 1,500 men.
On the home front Imperial recruiters hoping to replenish the Jeoomals' battered forces attempted to conscript men and boys from the villages around Madurai. When one man refused they killed him sparking a riot that soon engulfed the countryside. Within two weeks protests reached Madurai and the frightened governor closed the city gates. Soon he found himself under siege by his own people, people demanding freedom from Vijayanagaran oppression and eternal warfare.
(Maduraian Nationalists revolt)
Still the Jeoomals did nothing, obstinately obeying their orders to stand by. In fact they stayed until late July when word reached the pair that Hirade Sahi was marching north to destroy the sieging army at Indravati.
By now the brothers led an army numbering eleven thousand. They discussed their options - attack or continue to 'stand by' - and reasoned that good men shouldn't die because their Rajah was a fool. They invaded Gondwana.
Mallikarjuna had not been idle however. Bloodied by his loss and now quite insane, he spread terror along the Gond/Bahmanid border putting several villages to the torch and massacring hundreds. Finally he rallied those men he could and chased Hirade southward.
Immadi reached the Gond army first and deployed for battle about six miles away. Hirade's men marched stubbornly onward: Immadi Jeoomal's men outnumbered the Gonds, but they were determined to protect their homeland as well as put some distance between themselves and the madman in their wake.
Mallikarjuna's army appeared on the Gond flank perhaps three miles away. Rather than coordinate a joint strike however, the furious Rajah confronted Immadi in front of his commanders.
Mallikarjuna II said:
I now have proof of your treason! You have proven it! You were ordered to wait and yet here you are. Traitor! Fool! How dare you disobey the word of your prince? This is the end of your games and the end of you!
Here he turned to Vijaya Jeoomal.
Mallikarjuna II said:
You! Kill him. Kill him and scatter the body so his soul cannot find release. Let it stagnate there, trapped and alone until the end of days. Well? What are you waiting for? Do you want to share his fate? Strike! Strike now!
Vijaya Jeoomal struck.
For 112 years the Sangama dynasty ruled Vijayanagara beginning with grim determination and ending with the ravings of a madman. It was time to let someone else try.
Vijayanagara Empire said:
Population: 2,671,000
Largest City: Madras (71,000)
Religion: Hindu (91%), Sunni (7%), Shiite (1%) Other (1%)
Culture: Tamil (48%), Telegu (23%), Kannada (15%), Other (14%)
Tech: Gov 4, Pro 4, Trd 3, Lnd 4, Nvy 4
Prestige 16, MP 595, Gold 83, Stab 0, Infamy 8.4, Inflation 14.4, Legitimacy 30
Army: 23 Foot soldier, 7 Horse Archer
Navy: 3 Carracks, 1 Cog
The heir's MIL skill of 4 will be a tremendous improvement when he finally comes to the throne. 
