INSCRIPTIONS. 



215 



D. 



An Historical Inquiry about Gore Gangaya and 

 Vithala. 



The inscription on the inner wall of the fort of Racuru 

 (Raichore) relates to a period of Indian history which is 

 involved in deep darkness. For the twenty years which 

 preceded the Mahomedan conquest of the Dekkan by 'Ala- 

 nd-din only a very few valuable inscriptions or other records 

 have come down to us which elucidate these sombre pages of 

 the chronicles of India. One need not be surprised that the 

 conquered Hindus did not feel any inclination to commemo- 

 rate these sad times, from which dates the destruction of 

 their political ascendency and national independence, but it is 

 rather astonishing that the annals of the victors also contain 

 only meager accounts of events, which laid the foundation for 

 the sway of Islam over a great part of Southern India. 



The aspect of the political aifairs in the Dekkan towards 

 the end of the thirteenth century is painful indeed. It 

 presents a dismal picture of internecine wars, caused either by 

 religious intolerance or by greed for territory. Nothing 

 promoted, in fact, so much the success of the invaders as the 

 continual dissensions among Hindu chieftains, who appealed 

 occasionally for help to the common enemy, and who in- 

 dulged in their fratricidal contests, even at a time when it 

 ought ft) have been apparent to all that the only chance of 

 avoiding utter destruction lay in the close union of all. More- 

 over, the manner in which the Hindu princes generally dis- 

 posed in those days of their crown-lands was very impolitic. 

 "When a king had more than one son, he usually assigned to 

 each of them a particular province, thus destroying the state, 

 for whose consolidation he had labored hard and which he 

 had perhaps founded himself. 



The stone inscription bears the date of Sunday {Raviva- 

 ram) the 10th day of the bright fortnight of Margasira after 

 the expired Saka year 1216, which coincides with the present 



