Resistance to the Delhi Sultanate

All through its rule, the Delhi Sultanate faced resistance from many sides, and the chapter names who and where.

In the east, the Eastern Ganga kingdom of Kalinga was never conquered. It included present-day Odisha and parts of Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Its ruler Narasimhadeva I, in the mid-13th century, pushed back several Sultanate attacks and defeated its governor of Bengal. Partly to celebrate those victories, he built the famous Sūrya (Sun) temple at Konark. So a temple standing today is also a record of successful resistance.

In the Deccan, in the time of the Tughlaqs, the Musunuri Nayakas (Telugu chieftains) brought over 75 other chieftains together into a confederacy (an alliance), defeated the Sultanate's forces, and drove Muhammad bin Tughlaq's army out of Warangal around 1330–1336.

Think what bringing 75 leaders together meant in an age with no fast communication: the organising was as impressive as the fighting.

In the south, the Hoysalas ruled parts of present-day Karnataka and fought off several attacks, staying the only independent kingdom in the south. Weakened by those attacks and by quarrels inside, they declined and were absorbed into the Vijayanagara Empire in the mid-14th century.

Their name comes from Kannada folklore: a young man, Sala, fought a lion to save his guru, who cried 'Hoy (strike)! Sala'. Their temples at Belur and Halebidu still stand.

Resistance also came from regional Sultanates breaking away: the Bahmani Sultanate, in the mid-14th century, controlled much of the Deccan, and powerful Sultanates also grew in Gujarat, Bengal and elsewhere.

In the west, parts of Rajasthan stayed out of Delhi's reach. In the 15th century, Rana Kumbha of Mewar resisted both Delhi and the later sultanates, and built Kumbhalgarh Fort in the Aravalli hills, famous for a wall 36 kilometres long, one of the longest continuous walls in the world.