Muhammadan Invasions

In this reign occurred the Muhammadan invasions from Delhi which eventually brought the Hoysala rule to an end. The first of these was led in 1310 by Malik Kafur, the general of Ala-ud-din Khilji, in the course of which the country on the route of the army was laid waste. King Ballala was defeated and taken prisoner. Dorasamudra was sacked and the enemy returned to Delhi "literally laden with gold". Ballala, however, was soon liberated and set up a semblance of a rule again at Dorasa­mudra, which he rebuilt about1316. But the second Mnhammadan invasion by Muhanimad-bin-Tughlaq in 1326 completely demo­lished it. Ballal thereafter, appears to have retired to the south and settled first at Tondannr (Tonnur near Srirangapattana) and later at Annamale (Tiruvannamalai in the South Arcot district). This state of affairs is depicted in the last two Hoysala inscriptions in this district(119), dated 1328 and 1338. The former of these states that the king, attended by four princes, had gone away to reside at Annamale and the latter says that the king's house-minister, Hiriya Ballappa Dannayaka, was ruling the kingdom.

Courtesy : Gazetteer of India, Chitradurga District, 1967.