Hoysala Raja Veera Ballala III

[AS16], made his mark suppressing numerous revolts in his kingdom and fended off an Yadava invasion in AD 1303, proved his real mettle as the sole torchbearer of the Southern Hindu resistance of to Jihad. - “Malik Kafur led his 3rd expedition & decided to use Devagiri as his base to mount his operations on south India. Hoysala Ballala was away on military expedition in the Pandya country. Ramadeva of Devagiri who had become a vassal of Delhi offered to assist Kafur in his invasion. Kafur swooped down upon the Hoysala capital at Dwarasamudra & ransacked it. There was virtually no resistance. Ballala hastened back & now became a vassal himself. It was Ballala’s turn to now aid Kafur. Ballala personally accompanied Kafur & guided his army over the mountain passes (which would be unknown to an imvader) & led him on to the capital of Vira Pandya. As Vira Pandya fled from place to place an immense booty on the backs of 120 elephants fell into the hands of Kafur. Kafur in hot pursuit ransacked Kanchipuram.” At this point he has to even send his son vIra virUpAxa to delhi - he returned in 1313. - “He ruled from 3 capitals, 2 of them in present Tamil country after his main capital in Dwarasamudram (Halebidu)… After hearing of the atrocities meted upon Hindus in Madurai by Al Damaghani and troubled by the Madurai Sultanate’s repeated attacks on his territory, in AD 1342 the 80 year old King Veera Ballala III assembled a large army of over 100,000 soldiers to launch an attack on Madurai. …In an inexplicably stupid move, however, Al Damaghani was allowed to retreat to Madurai under a truce as Veera Ballala III made his way to the ancient city… Under the cover of darkness, as the Hoysala camps slept around the walls of Madurai, Al Damaghani and a small force of loyal Muslims set out and fell upon the sleeping Hoysala army. " The emperor was then captured. His son, virUpAxa baLLALa (baLLALa 4) was crowned king in June 1343 - but his treasury was emptied trying to ransom his father, nobles such as General ballappa daNDanAyaka had deserted and joined vijayanagara.