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

army. Partly owing to this fear, the Muslims retreated from Vijaynagar, content with whatever they could sack there. 917. Another reason that was responsible for this speedy retreat was the opening of the ‘old sores’ among the Muslim Sultans! Their belonging to different sects, like the Shias and Sunnis, had always created bickerings amongst them. Naturally, as soon as the hostilities with the Hindu state of Vijaynagar ended, their temporary alliance went to pieces and fresh warfare ensued. A little later, when their arch-enemies, the Muslims in the North, the Moghal Emperors, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, invaded them with their invincible armies, they could not help looking for support from the then growing Maratha chieftains and their sturdy followers in Maharashtra. Being most mercilessly hammered from the North by the powerful Moghal armies and being internally eaten away by the very Maratha Sirdars who were called for help, these Muslim powers in the South perished one after another! Shahaji, the Valiant! 918. The most prominent of all these Maratha Sirdars, and the one in whom always blazed the secret ambition to establish a Hindu power was Shahaji, the valiant of the Bhosale family. 919. It has been already stated that after the collapse of Vijaynagar, Tirumalrai and other Hindu princes fled to the South and established another independent Hindu principality at Penukonda in A.D. 1567. Shreerang, Tirumalrai’s son, removed his capital to Chandragiri after his father’s death. Other princes, too, founded their small States, but they were in fact, the fragments of the old Vijaynagar empire, now set adrift after the deluge of the different ‘Nayaks’ (Subhedars) of the Vijaynagar empire; a few now consolidated their power and ruled independently. Some called themselves ‘Palegars’ and founded the states of Jingi, Tanjawar and other ‘small Hindu states. So, even after the collapse of Vijaynagar, the whole region south of the capital right up to Rameshwaram was under the Hindu sway. Later still, with the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan of Vijapur, Shahaji, as a Vijapuri Sirdar, established his “ de facto’ overlordship in the south and brought them all under his unifying control. Shahaji exerted a great influence as an able political and military leader, because of his victories, right from Ahmednagar to Rameshwaram under every Muslim power, from the Moghals of Delhi to the moribund Sultanate of Vijapur. He was equally known everywhere as the staunch supporter of the Hindus! His