The Ahoms, Vijayanagara and the Nayakas

The Ahoms of Assam kept their independence for almost six centuries (1228-1826). Why did they last so long? Ask 'why did this work?':

• They knew the land. Their commanders knew Assam's forests, rivers and monsoon cycles, which invaders did not; so they avoided head-on battles.
• Alliances and guerrilla tactics.
• The Paik system, which organised people for both military and administrative work.
• A navy of light, fast bachari boats built for river war, better than the Mughal fleets.

Ahoms against the Mughals:

• 1615: the first clash, near Samdhara; the Mughals under Abu Bakr gained at first but had to retreat, and by 1616 the Ahoms had recovered their land.
• 1662: Mir Jumla captured the Ahom capital, Garhgaon, and forced a treaty on King Jayadhvaj Singha; but within a year of the Mughals leaving, the king renounced the treaty.
• 1671: Lachit Borphukan, the Ahom commander, beat a Mughal fleet in the Battle of Saraighat, making the Brahmaputra a firm boundary.

Vijayanagara, the 'City of Victory'. In the south, the Sultanate's campaigns had weakened the old kingdoms: Alauddin Khilji's general Malik Kafur attacked cities and temples at Warangal, Belur and Madurai, and later a Madurai Sultanate came up. In 1336, Harihara and Bukka founded Vijayanagara, near present-day Hampi in Karnataka, to check the Sultanate. A big river and rocky land gave it natural defence. It grew south of the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, became one of the richest states, and supported literature in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit.

• 1342: the ageing Hoysala king Vira Ballala III fought the Madurai Sultanate at Kannanur; the Sultan counter-attacked by surprise and executed him.
• Vijayanagara struggled with Madurai for almost four decades, until Kumara Kampana, Bukka's son, killed the Sultan and ended the Madurai Sultanate. He also put the deities back in two great temples: the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam and the Rajasimheshwara Temple at Kanchipuram.
• Under Krishnadevaraya (who died in 1529) the empire reached its peak.
• 1565: an alliance of Deccan sultanates defeated Vijayanagara at Talikota; the city was sacked and the empire broke into smaller Nayaka kingdoms.

The Nayakas kept the spirit of defiance. A local tradition tells of Muthu Virappa Nayak III of Madurai. Rulers were expected to receive the Mughal emperor's royal slipper at their border, as a sign that they accepted his supremacy, and pay tribute. Muthu Virappa refused to go to the border, made the envoys carry it to his palace, would not bow to it, put his own foot in it and asked mockingly why the Badshah had not sent the pair, and then expelled the messengers.