Bahmani Kingdom History Tnpsc Notes

Bahmani Kingdom History

Bahmani Kingdom’s History starts with Hasan Gangu. The Bahmani kingdom was founded by Hasan Gangu also known as Alauddin Bahman Shah in 1347 and it was ruled by fourteen sultans.

Capital of Bahmani Kingdom

The capital of bahmani dynasty is Gulbarga. Then the capital was shifted from Gulbarga to Bidar by Ahmad Wali Shah. During Muhammad Shah III, the power of the Kingdom reached its zenith.

The kingdom extended from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. In the west, the kingdom extended from Goa to Bombay. On the east, the kingdom extended from Kakinada to the mouth of the river Krishna.

By the directions and services of minister Mahmud Gawan, Muhammad Shah was very success full.

Bahmani kingdom and its territories
Bahmani kingdom map

Services of Mahmud Gawan to the Bahmani Kingdom

The Bahmani kingdom reached its peak of power and territories under to services of Mahmud Gawan. Mahmud Gawan was a Persian merchant who joined the services of the Bahmani Kingdom when came to India age of Forty Two.

Due to his personal qualities, loyalty to the kingdom, simple life, etc Mahmud Gawan slowly became Chief Minister. Mahmud Gawan was a learned scholar and had great knowledge of Mathematics.

He made donations or endowments to build a college in the Persian style of architecture in Bidar. Mahmud Gawan a military genius, led the successful war campaign against the Vijayanagar kingdom, Orissa, and pirates on the Arabian sea.

His conquest also includes Konkan, Goa, and Krishna-Godavari Delta. Mahmud Gawan’s administrative reforms were aimed to increase the control of the sultan over the nobles and provinces.

Royal officers were appointed to each province to make Sultan have power over the provinces. Most of the forts were under the control of the Royal Officers.

Allowances of the nobles were reduced who are doing the responsibilities properly. Deccani nobles who were against Mahmud Dawan decided to plot against Mahmud Dawan.

Sultan punished him to death and the Bahmani kingdom began to decline. Weak ruler succeeded Muhammad Shah, and the provincial governor declared their independence.

Bahmani kingdoms

By 1526, Bahmani Kingdoms were divided into pieces, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Berar, Golkonda, and Bidar. This five-kingdom were collectively known as Deccan Sultanates.

Note: The about notes is taken from old Tamil State Board Books for Tnpsc exams

The Bahmani Kingdom founder – Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah

Between Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, There is Raichur which is a fertile area. To capture Raichur, there was a war happened between Bahmani and Vijayanagar Kingdom. The war went almost two centuries.

These wars started in the Bahamni Kingdom. East of Warangal and Orissa rules also faced conflict with Bahman Shah.

For administration purposes, Delhi Sultan divided the area under his rule into four divisions. These territorial divisions are called  Tarafs. The divided four-division was appointed with one governor in each administrative division.

These governors were responsible for the command over the army. These divisions are Gulbarga, Daulatabad, Bidar, and Berar. These governors were also responsible for the administration, tax collection, etc.

This governance method worked well for good kings and went into danger by the inefficient kings. For almost eleven years Bahman Shah ruled well for effectively controlling his enemies.

Bahman Shah took efforts to collect revenue from Warangal and Reddy’s Rajamundry, Kondavidu that led to many wars. In all the wars Bahman Shah won. To remember all his victories, he minted coins in the name himself as the second alexander.

The Second Bahmani Rule – Mohammed I 

His era is from 1358 to 1375. After Bahman Shah, Mohammed I came to the rule. He fought long wars with the Vijayanagar empire. Even after so many wars and so many losses between the two sides, nobody is fully able to control that region. He leads to two massive wars, but there is no benefit for him.

In 1363, he took a war on Warangal and captured it. The Warangal gave him massive resource loss but it fetched him Golconda fort, with treasures and precious gems. The turquoise throne from Golconda fort became the Bahmani king’s throne.

Bahmani kingdom administration under Mohammed I

Mohammed-I followed good governance. He followed governance and administration similar to the Delhi Sultanate, this system of governance inspired Marathas in the future. He created a system of eight ministers to take care of the governance.

Administration of Bahmani kingdom

  • Vakil-us-sultana is Chief of the Army, he is subordinate to the government.
  • Waziri-Kull is one who supervises the other ministers.
  • Amir-i-Jumla is the finance minister.
  • Wasir-i-ashraf is the external affairs minister, government affairs, and responsible for government ceremonies.
  • Nazir is subordinate to the Finance minister.
  • Peshwa is a lieutenant of the government forces.
  • Kotwal is the head of the Police department and judge or magistrate in the capital.
  • Sadr-i-Jahan is the Chief Justice and Religious department minister.

Administrative Measures

Mohammed-I took strong measures against the robbery on the highways. He laid a strong foundation for the kingdom by strengthening the institution and consolidation of the land or the territories.

Then he raised two mosques in Gulbarga, one of the completed by 1367. It was a great one. After Mohammed Shah I, some sultans ruled the kingdom but they do not have strong rules and were involved in constant wars.

In 1425 Warangal and its territories in the east were captured by Orissa rulers. Due to this loss, the capital was shifted from Gulbarga in 1429 to Bidar. After that Mohammed-III came to the rule from 1463 to 1482, who got great minister and statement Mohammed Gawan.

Mohammed Gawan or Mahmud Gawan

Mohammed Gawan was born in Persia had good knowledge of Islam, Persian, Maths, and was a good poet and writer. He started a madrasa in Bidar, and he constructed a very large library inside it.

The library contained 3000 manuscripts inside it. It shows his mastery of writing and knowledge. Mahmud Gawan as Prime minister of the Bahmani Kingdom gave good governance to Mohammed-III.

Mohammad Gawan also led a successful war campaign against the rulers of Konkan, Orissa, Vijayanagar kingdoms. Gawan learned the explosive technology from the Persian scientists and used it in wars.

He used explosives or gunpowder against the Vijayanagar kingdom at Belgaum. Mahmud Gawan by his skills controlled the governors and laid the foundation of good governance to the Bahmani kingdom.

He divided the Bahmani kingdom into eight provinces for easy governance for the kingdom. The easy area is well defined with the boundaries and the territories, the governor was appointed for each province.

Gawan brought some districts under his direct control. He also reduced the military powers of the governors. Mahmud Gawan reduced the number of forts. Because of it, only one fort is assigned to each governor. The rest of the forts came under the control of the Bahmani Sultanate.

The government officers were paid with land in place of salaries. The schemes introduced by Gawan, increase the efficiency of the Bahmani Kingdom. But the power of the provincial chiefs was reduced. These provincial chiefs were mostly from the Deccan.

Deccani pardesi conflict

Already there were two groups in the Deccan, one Deccan Muslims and other Muslims who were foreigners or called Pardesi. The conflict between these groups, paved the way to a fall in administration and governance.

This conflict killed Mohammed Gawan. These Deccan chiefs were jealous of Gawan, created a plot to kill Gawan. They wrote a letter to the Bahmani Sultan that Mohammad Gawan is planning to kill the Bahmani Sultan.

Already, Sultan was unhappy with the domination of Gawan over him. Gawan tried to convince the sultan by apologizing for the happenings. But the sultan was not ready to forgive him.

Finally, Gawan was killed, by false allegation to kill the Sultan.

The Decline of Bahmani Kingdom

After Gawan’s death, the Mohammed-III kingdom started to fall. Bahmani kingdom fell after the death of Mohammed III. After his death Mohammed III, a descendant ruled the kingdom.

The break-up of Bahmani kingdom

Then the Bahmani kingdom was divided into four independent kingdoms namely Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Berar, and Golconda. Last and fifth kingdom formed in Bidar. After some time, Bijapur emerged as a strong kingdom. Then Bidar, Berar was joined to Bijapur.

In the battle of Talikota or Rakshashi-Tangradi in 1565, all the five Bahmani Kingdoms fought against the Vijaya Nagar Kingdom. The result is the Vijayanagar Kingdom was defeated brutally.

But after the Talakota war, all the Deccan sultanates were annexed with the Mughal emperor.

// Note: This note is taken from Tamilnadu Samacheer Kalvi’s book. Useful for Tnpsc Exams and other Public service exams.

Some Extra Information about the Bahmani Kingdom

bahmani
Bahmani Kingdom map

Bahmani Sultanate is one of the important Indian Kingdoms during medieval India. The Bahmani sultanate was from Deccan or South India. It is a Muslim state of Persian background.

It got split into five independent kingdoms known as Deccan Sultanates. After the battle with the Vijayanagara Empire, at Raichur in 1520, the last Bahmani kingdom was separated from the main kingdom.

This sultanate was formed by Alauddin Bahman Shah. It is established after the Bahman Shah fought with Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq from the Delhi Sultanate. Bahman Shah was succeeded by his son. His name was Mohammed Shah I.

In 1429, Bidar was chosen as the capital for the Bahmani Kingdom. The other guys who came to power are Humanyun Shah, Nizamuddin Ahmad-3, Muhammad Shah-3 Lashkari. All three of them ascended the thorn at a very young age.

Muhammad Shah was assisted from a young age to a mature age by a Wise man named Mahmud Gawan and was a great scholar. He built a religious school called Mahmud Gawan Madrasa, where the teaching is both religious and secular.

mohammed gawan madrasa

Gawan was sentenced to death by Muhammad Shah-3, for sedition. After the death of Mahmud Gawan, the Bahmani sultanate started to decline. The last strong ruler was Mahmood Shah Bahmani-2 who succeeded his father Muhammad Shah II.

The later rulers were only King for the namesake, they were in the control of Prime Ministers of Barid Shahi. It was broken one by one after 1518. It was broken into five Kingdoms. These five kingdoms were collectively called Deccan Sultanates.

Bahmani Kingdom History started to decline after this.

The five states of Deccan Sultanates:

  1. Adil Shahi of Bijapur
  2. Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar
  3. Barid Shahi of Bidarm Qutb Shahi of Golconda
  4. Imad Shahi of Berar.

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara gave the final blow to the Bahmani Kingdom then it became part of the Mughals.

Bahmani Kingdom History Tnpsc Pdf download

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Shaikh A. BAHMAN
Shaikh A. BAHMAN
2 years ago
* * All the Notes in this blog, are referred from Tamil Nadu State Board Books and Samacheer Kalvi Books. Kindly check with the original Tamil Nadu state board books and Ncert Books.
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