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Bahmani Sultanate in Vidarbha: Forts, Coins and Forgotten Power

Bahmani Sultanate in Vidarbha: Forts, Coins and Forgotten Power
Bahmani Sultanate in Vidarbha: Forts, Coins and Forgotten Power

The eastern reaches of medieval Deccan, the region of modern-day Vidarbha, once lay under the sway of the Bahmani Sultanate.


This Muslim dynasty, founded in 1347 in Gulbarga (Karnataka), quickly organised the Deccan into provinces, one of which was Berar (the old name for parts of Vidarbha). Over the next century and a half, Bahmani sultans and their governors established authority here, building forts and mosques, raising armies, and laying the foundations for successor states.


Stone forts rising above the Satpura hills, Persian inscriptions on gateways, and even buried treasure troves of coins all testify to this forgotten chapter. Historians now piece together those fragments, references in old chronicles, architectural studies, local legends and recent archaeological finds, to tell how the Bahmanis ruled in Vidarbha and how that era gave way to new Deccan sultanates.


Bahmani Provinces and Expansion into Berar


From its outset, the Bahmani kingdom was divided into military provinces or tarafs. When Sultan Ala-ud-din Bahman Shah created the state, he divided his kingdom into four tarafs or provinces, Gulbarga, Daulatabad, Berar, and Bidar, each with a near-sovereign governor.


In practice, that meant Berar (covering much of what is now Vidarbha) was part of the Bahmani administrative map from the 14th century onwards.

As early as the late 1300s and early 1400s, Bahmani rulers began to press into central India. Under Sultan Firoz Shah (r. 1397–1422), the Bahmanis made notable advances into Berar, and his successor Ahmad Shah I (r. 1422–1436, known as “Wali”) further strengthened the eastern frontier.


Local records and tradition suggest the high hills of Berar were already contested between the Bahmanis and Hindu or Gond rulers. According to chroniclers, when Firishta, the historian, travelled the Deccan in the 16th century, he noted that Ahmad Shah Wali built Gawilgarh in 1425 while on campaign at Ellichpur (Achalpur). In practical terms, by the mid-15th century, Bahmani governors in Berar were asserting independence.


One such governor was Fatehullah Imad-ul-Mulk. In the Bahmani capital chronicles, he appears as a capable commander, and by 1490, with the central Sultanate in disarray, Fatehullah seized all of Berar and crowned himself ruler of the newly independent Berar (Imadshahi) Sultanate.


During the Bahmani era, Berar’s role was strategic. It offered a buffer against north Indian powers and a base for campaigns.

The province contributed troops to the Bahmani wars against Vijayanagara and other rivals. It was also a place of mixed cultures, where Persianate Muslim rulers coexisted with Marathi-speaking subjects and tribal groups.


Yet much of what happened daily is lost. We rely on fortress inscriptions and later histories to fill in the picture.


What is clear is that for about a century, Berar (Vidarbha) was a Bahmani realm, governed by Persianized sultans and nobles who built monuments and minted coins in the region.


Fortresses of the Eastern Deccan


In Vidarbha, the clearest marks of Bahmani rule are its forts and mosques. The hill forts of Gawilgarh and Narnala, now in Amravati and Akola districts, were especially important.

Historian Nalini K. Tembhekar observes that Gawilgarh and Narnala are the significant forts of the Bahmani Sultanate, marvels of engineering and stone carving, dated to about 1350–1500 CE.

These mountain strongholds guarded key passes and trade routes. Gawilgarh, for example, crowns a steep ridge near today’s Melghat Tiger Reserve. Its inner fort has seven gateways, each with Persian inscriptions recording its building during the Bahmani times.


The massive mosque atop Gawilgarh, with bulky stone domes and a seven-arched hall, was built by Ahmad Shah I during this period.


Narnala (also called Shanur) is similarly perched atop a Satpura peak. Though originally a much older fort, it too was repaired and held by Bahmani forces in the 15th century. Local traditions and fragments of inscriptions show that Bahmani commanders used Narnala as a fortress.


It later passed to Fatehullah Imad and then into the hands of Ahmadnagar’s Nizamshahi sultans. The style of both forts reflects a fusion of Deccan design, blended arches, lattice screens, and sturdy gateways typical of Bahmani masons. Indeed, one scholar finds that Gawilgarh’s great gateway exhibits Persian motifs, lions, eagles and palm-trees carved in stone, characteristic of Bahmani art.


Beyond these citadels, the Bahmani influence appears in other sites. For example, at Balapur (near present-day Akola), there is a later Mughal fort, but it stands on older foundations once important under the sultanate.


Local mosques and tombs in Berar, built of stone with pointed arches, date to the Bahmani period as well.

A parkland shrine or village mosque may still bear Persian calligraphy naming a Bahmani patron. Coins found here, like those recovered by a Nagpur farmer in 2014, often carry Bahmani royal titles and Persian legends. These physical remnants, forts, mosques and artefacts, form the concrete heritage of the Bahmani era in Vidarbha.


The Rise of the Berar Sultanate


By the very end of the 15th century, the story in Vidarbha turned. As the Bahmani state weakened through court quarrels, Berar slipped from central control.


In 1490, Fatehullah Imad-ul-Mulk, once a Bahmani governor, declared his independence and set up the Imadshahi dynasty at Ellichpur (now Achalpur).

The new Berar Sultanate, ruled by the Imadshahis, ruled the region for the next eight decades. For a time, local chronicles may not have distinguished the Bahmani from the Berar sultans. After all, they spoke Persian and traced their offices to the earlier sultans. But the change meant Vidarbha was no longer a Bahmani province; it was an independent kingdom.


This shift did not occur without struggle. In 1572, the last Imadshahi sultan of Berar was deposed in palace intrigue, giving Ahmadnagar’s rulers a pretext to invade. Within two years, the Nizamshahi sultans of Ahmadnagar captured the fortress of Narnala and much of Berar.


Soon after, the Mughal emperor Akbar formally annexed Berar (1596) as a Subah of his empire. Thereafter, the old Bahmani border forts fell to the Mughals and later to the Maratha Bhonsle of Nagpur, by 1818 they were in British hands. In other words, the lands of Vidarbha moved through several empires, Bahmani, Berar, Ahmadnagar, Mughal, Maratha, each leaving layers of history.


Throughout these changes, some Bahmani practices lingered. The administrative divisions (sarkars) set up under Akbar in Berar often followed the old provincial boundaries.

Many local families that served the Bahmanis kept their status under the new sultans. And the built legacy remained, mosques continued to be used or repurposed, and the defensive designs of the Bahmani forts proved so effective that armies fought repeatedly to control them.


In essence, the Bahmani chapter in Vidarbha ends with the emergence of new states, but its influence lived on in governing customs and material culture.


Archaeology, Inscriptions and Coinage

Archaeology, Inscriptions and Coinage of the Bahmani Sultante in Vidarbha
Archaeology, Inscriptions and Coinage

Modern inquiry into this history is piecemeal but growing. Scholars comb archives for mentions of Deccan campaigns, and archaeologists survey forts and monuments.


Hard evidence sometimes turns up unexpectedly, for instance, in 2014, a Nagpur farmer digging in Gondpipri unearthed 2,604 copper coins in a pot.

Experts identified Bahmani motifs and inscriptions on the coins, noting that this Vidarbha site had indeed been under the domain of the Bahamni dynasty centuries earlier. Coins like these help date the Bahmani presence in specific locations. Experts in Amravati have found similar hoards around the region, confirming long-standing trade and administration under Bahmani rule.


Inscriptions provide another key. At Gawilgarh’s Delhi Gate, a Persian epigraph mentions repairs made in the reign of Muhammad Shah I (mid-14th century), evidence that Bahmani governors invested in the fort’s maintenance.


Similarly, in Narnala’s precincts, one finds carvings recording 15th-century Bahmani or Berar commanders erecting mosques. Even where inscriptions are lost, the style of stonework, calligraphy bands, tile mosaics, and courtyard layouts betrays Deccani Sultanate craftsmanship. These material clues, when read alongside texts like the Bengal court historians or regional gazetteers, let historians sketch the Bahmani era in more detail than ever before.


Local historians have begun to piece it together. Dr. Nalini K. Tembhekar of Amravati has chronicled Vidarbha’s medieval architecture, observing that Gawilgarh’s stone mosque is a fine example of lattice work built by Ahmad Shah. She notes that the hill forts played a prominent role in the politics of Vidarbha as military centres for successive dynasties.


On another front, site-walks and surveys by the state archaeological department have identified old fortifications and villages that map onto early Bahmani records. Each discovery adds context, a fallen gateway, an old bastion, a ruined madrasa, all point back to those decades when Gulbarga’s sultans sent governors to rule here.


Ultimately, the Bahmani chapter of Vidarbha is being rebuilt one fragment at a time. Every coin hoard or carved stone offers a data point.

Even submerged structures lurk beneath centuries of earth around these forts. Scholars keep examining archives for royal farm records or court decrees mentioning Berar, while enthusiasts map out the satellite forts once manned by these Deccan sultans. In doing so, they are reviving a story that has no obvious monument like a grand palace, but is instead written across the landscape.


The once-isolated hills of eastern Maharashtra thus carry the imprint of Bahmani rule for those willing to seek it.


In the fields of Vidarbha, as in the pages of old histories, the Bahmani Sultanate’s influence can still be traced. When farmers turn over old coins or treks lead climbers to hilltop ruins, each encounter raises new questions. How deep did the Bahmani administration penetrate? Which local customs did it leave behind?


While some answers remain out of reach, the emerging picture is clear enough. Between 1347 and the 1490s, the sultans of Gulbarga and Bidar extended their power into Berar, forging a chapter of history that is now being rediscovered.


References




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