भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

pearls. Foreign travellers have written that thousands of citizens were to be
seen adorned with ornaments of gold, jewels and pearls, Portuguese
traveller Paes asserts that the area of Vijaynagar was as extensive as that of
Rome.
898. Even before the reign of Maharajadhiraj Krishnadevrai, the Hindu
Empire of Vijaynagar had been renowned as the most powerful in the
whole of Deccan. The five fragments of the former Bahamani Kingdom
were beset with internal dissensions and fratricidal wars, to the immense
advantage of Vijaynagar Empire, and the then Hindu political leaders did
have the sense to utilize this opportunity for the extension of its boundaries
and for teaching a lesson to the Muslims. The Muslim Sultans could do
nothing independently without the help or consent of the ‘Rais’ of
Vijaynagar! Every one of the Muslim cliques laboured hard to secure the
support of the Hindu rulers of Vijaynagar. As has already been said above,
the absurd patronization by the Hindus and their indulgence of the Muslim
soldiers, as in the times of the weak and imbecile King Devrai, had been
abandoned. Those of the Hindu Kings, who built masjids for the Muslims
in their own capital, did so in order to win them over and to parade their
religious tolerance. But now that ‘cowardly’ religious tolerance had given
place to valiant aggression on the Muslim States and the retaliatory
demolition of the Muslim mosques and masjids. Forbearance, due to the
perverted sense of virtues, began to give the palm of honour of the real
virtue of retaliation!
899. Maharaja Krishnadevrai died in A.D. 1530; just four years before it,
Babar had captured Delhi. Rana Sang was his contemporary. He was
succeeded by his brother, Achyutdev with Salur Timma as his Chief
Minister, who for all practical purposes ran the administration. Achyutdev
died in A.D. 1542 and then after an insignificant King Sadashivrai, the
nephew of Achyutdev, ascended the throne. But Ramrai, the son of the
Chief Minister, Timma had done so much in helping Sadashivrai become
the king that within a very short time, all the real power passed into his
hands. This Ramrai himself is called Ramrajah.
Ramrai, the valiant defender of Religion!
900. All the five Muslim States in Maharashtra tried to obtain help from
the powerful army of Ramrai to fight their fratricidal wars. Although these
five Muslim rulers knew well enough that Shree Ramrai was a strict
adherent of Hinduism and hated all Muslims alike as equally treacherous