Vijayanagara and the Bahmanis

In the fourteenth century, as the Delhi Sultanate weakened, two great powers emerged in the Deccan and south: the Hindu empire of Vijayanagara and the Muslim Bahmani Sultanate. They fought for the Raichur doab, traded with Arabia and Southeast Asia, and built cities that impressed foreign visitors. A concrete example is Vijayanagara's capital Hampi, where Abdur Razzaq described fortified walls, markets and temples on a scale that rivalled contemporary Delhi. Their rivalry shaped south Indian politics for two centuries.