TMarathas account
Source: TW
As per contemporary Maratha Bakhar of Rakshas Tagadi (Talikota), and Rayavacakamu, a contemporary eye-witness epilogue, the grand war between Vijaynagar and Deccan Sultanate Alliance started due to CASTE issues.
The emissary of Adilshahi Empire had visited the Vijaynagar court. It has to be noted that original great Bijapur City had been ruined by Vijaynagar’s armies (WITHOUT permission of the Samrat) just few years ago and tensions were always present. Even though Adilshahi Emperor respected Vijaynagar Samrat, his noblemen had not forgotten anything.
The Dombari folk singers impressed the Vijaynagar court with their performance and the Hindu Samrat offered to reward them. The Dombaris requested high-quality pigs for consumption, and were granted with ten highest breed pigs available. The timing of this event was tragic. The uppity, orthodox Musallmān Emissary of Bijapur was obviously disgusted due to his own religious taboo beliefs, “How can you (Hindus) eat such a filthy creature?” The clever Vijaynagar Samrat retorted, “Musallmāns consume Chicken, which is like eating dirt!”
The Vijaynagar Samrat’s comment pricked his ego, and a strange counter-remark was made by the Adilshahi Emissary, “You (Hindus) are all low-caste eaters of filthy animals!” This was brushed off as a joke, but the Vijaynagar Samrat had decided to teach the Musallmān a lesson.
In the nighttime many Pigs were rounded up and locked in a building and well fed with millet grain. By next morning they had pooped out a lot of turd. The Vijaynagar Samrat took the Bijapur Emissary on a walk the next morning, and brought him to this building. Chicken were then set upon the Pig-Turd Dungeon. The undigested millet grains in the feces were poked upon by the chickens and eaten.
The Hindu Samrat then said, “We may eat pigs, but you Musallmāns eat animals that lives off the feces of pigs. So who is the low-caste now?!” The Bijapur Emissary was shaken completely and requested permission to leave immediately. The Samrat calmed him down, and then saluted him farewell. The Bijapur Emissary went straight back to the Sultan Ali Adilshah and did his best to provoke him. “Islam has been humiliated”, “the whole Karnataka has been usurped by Vijaynagar”, etc. Usual Qatabūllāh whining after being shown their place.
Sultan Ali Adilshah is said to have REFUSED to take action against the Hindu Samrat Ramraya on grounds of calling himself his son. Just like Najib-Ud-Daulah Rohilla did with Durranis, Awadhi Nawabs, etc during Panipat Era, this Bijapur Emissary went to other Sultanates’ rulers and concocted more and more provocative conspiracy theories.
Rayavacakamu portion then merges with the Bakhar narrative. All the other Deccan Sultanate rulers are incensed at the inaction of Bijapur Sultan who was calling himself the son of a Hindu! The text covers that in initial phase of the campaign, Bijapur & Vijaynagar worked to not let the Deccan Sultanate armies pass through Bijapur lands! Eventually like Shujah-Ud-Daulah, the Bijapur Sultan succumbs to the pressure of Jihad. In the ultimate triumphant manoeuvre, the reserve Deccan Sultanate cavalry throws itself upon Vijaynagar infantry, and it is none other than Sultan Ali Adilshah who beheads Samrat Ramaraya!
It has to be noted that the Bakhar does not remain contemporary towards the ending portions, but has interpolations as late as 1684 CE, towards the end of Bijapur Sultanate at the hands of Aurangzeb, another Musallmān Badshah bent on Jihad.
Head of Samrat Ramaraya was humiliated in all Deccan Sultanate cities for centuries until Bhonsale Chattrapatis took over Bijapur & avenged them. Rubble of Bijapur, brick by brick was broken & used to build buildings in Satara, Capital of Maratha Empire.
Shiva Subrahmanyam account
Indeed, such an insistence on the courtly insult persists even in later vernacular texts. One of these is the Kannada text Rāmarājana bakhairu (date uncertain), of which a shorter Marathi version also exists.70 This complex text retains traces of many of the narrative sequences we have already seen, although it reorganizes them in its own fashion and adds characters and episodes that do not occur in either the Persian or the Portuguese materials. The relevant part of the text deals with the arrival in Vijayanagara of an envoy from Ali Adil Shah, who bore the title of *mahaldār. This envoy was received and lodged but was kept waiting by Rama Raya until he sent a petition to him. When the envoy was fi nally admitted to the *darbār, things went well at first. But, subsequently, a group of Telugu acrobats appeared in the court, and they were so successful in their tricks that they were rewarded with a herd of pigs. This naturally caused deep offense to the Muslim envoy, who was present and protested; this in turn led to an exchange of insults in open court between him and Rama Raya regarding the relative cleanliness of those who ate pork and those who ate fowl.
Determined to humiliate the envoy, the Vijayanagara chief produced an elaborate mise- en- scène. Large numbers of pigs were confi ned in a space, and its fl oor was covered with grains of millet. The next day, a fl ock of fowl was brought in, and they began to pick at the grain that was by now thoroughly mixed with the pigs’ excre-ment. Rama Raya then brought the mahaldār to witness this scene of the fowl consuming grain while “picking them out of the fi lth of the swine.” How clean were those who ate fowl then? he asked sarcastically.