Medieval History of the Deccan (Set of 2 Volumes))

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The present publication of Sri S. K. Sinha, I. A. S., on the "Adil Shahis of Bijapur", one of the five important dynasties which came to power on the decline of the Bahmani kingdom, supply the long felt want of a fairly complete critical edition of the glorious period of the Adil Shahis of Bijapur. The author dealt the subject with enough ta- lent and expertise and has taken a great care in gleaning the necessary information from epigraphical records, Contemporary literature and other sources to present an authentic account of this glorious period. It is highly gratifying to note that he has compiled in his work the requirements both of serious students and of the general reader, and an attempt has been made to present a complete picture of all such events as are necessarily be included in order to enable the students to acquire a thorough grasp of the subject. While minor details and scholastic discussions have generally been omitted.

It is our sense of pride in the virtue of our past and in the equipment of the present that alone is going to give us an outlock in life which goes a long way to promote harmonious blending. I quite agree with the opinion of the great savant late Dr. Pannikkar that so far as the past is concerned we must seperate the good from the bad, the healthy from unhealthy, the gold from the base and the grain from the chaff. It is then that our respect for the past acquires a substance which enables us to mould it to our present needs. It is only in this approach to the past and the present that we can build up healthy foundation for the future.

The various parts of Karnataka had given rise to and nurtured extensive and powerful kingdoms which played, at several times, decisive roles in the history of India. They made also exceedingly brilliant contributions to our cultural heritage. The Adil Shahs of Bijapur had organised a vigorous rule embracing a large part of the Deccan, in a crucial period. Some of them were celebrated patrons of arts and architecture and have left behind magnificent monuments like the Gol Gumbad, Ibrahim Roza and Jame Masjid, which have attained world renown for their superb workmanship, engineering skill and immensity of structure. India is rightly proud of them.

Any attempt to add to our knowledge of those eventful times would be welcome. But it is essential that the treatment should be entirely objective, couched in temperate language looking upon all facts as sacred and giving an integrated picture. Then only, a historical work would help to appreciate the panorama of the past correctly and to profit by it There is a wholesome tradition of academic literary and histrionic pursuits in spare time among quite a few of our citizens and it needs to be encouraged and kept up.