[Advaita-l] More records - last part

[Satish Arigela]

Most records that I read through are not readily available for quote but here is 
an interesting one on Ahobilam. This is recorded in the history of the Ahobilam 
temple.

Notice that it is not us i.e. Hindu-s saying the desecration killed the Muslim 
guy. It seems the persians themselves record that something strange happened to 
the Sultan and that the demons(read nR^isiMha? or the nigraha karma of a 
nR^isiMhopAsaka?) of Ahobilam killed the Sultan!  :-))

From their description the sultan seem to exhibit some of  the lakShaNa-s of 
being subjected to an abhichAra(we dont really know - just making a possible 
guess from the description) though the article does not explicitly say so.

If you observe the second episode relating to Tirupati in this post you will 
clearly see how mantra prayoga-s played a role but a honest observer will also 
note that these prayoga-s may work and aid us but they are definitely not a one 
stop solution to the problems that Hindus(or people in general) face. The 
prayoga-s are just one of the many tools used in protecting dharma. This is all 
I have to say.

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Actually, it appears it was the 6th Jeer of the Mutt (1499-1513) who
was associated with Mukundadeva of Kalinga. It was the 11th jeer
about whom I mentioned in my previious post. He was remarkable. He
did lead an army to recapture Ahobilam from the Muslims. After the
fall of V.N kingdom, in 1565 at Talikote, the Hindu chief Tirumala
shifted the capital to Penukonda. In 1579 the Sultan of Golconda,
Ibrahim Ali, (attacked through his son) Ahobilam and completely
destroyed the temple. The gold and silver alloy idol of Narasimha
was taken away to Golconda. It is said that something strange
happened, when the Sultan saw the idol. The sultan was stunned and
became dumb. He died the same night (5th June1580). This appears in
a slightly different way in the Persian history by Farishta also. He
says the demons of Ahobilam killed the Sultan! It appears after
this event the Sultans mellowed a little bit towards Hindus. The son
Kuli Kutub Shah became the next Sultan and no worship took place in
Ahobilam for several years. It was at this time the 11th Jeer
approached the left over Hindu king Ranga Raya and asked him to
recapture Ahobilam. It is said that he had a dream in which he knew
that he would get support from the king. He asked the king to give
him the help of his commanders Venkataraju and Tirumalraju to lead a
contingent to Ahobilam. The Jeer gave instructions to the two Chiefs
about field placements of the troops. The recapturing of the temple
was celebrated by a victory pillar (You can still see it in
Ahobilam!) with a Telugu inscription of 1584 A.D. 
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Tirupati:
 
 Shriranga contacted Shahji and asked him to open negotiations for peace with 
Mustafa. Shahji duely did so and was trying to buy time for the Vijayanagarans, 
when Shriranga thought he might succeed by launching a preemptive strike on the 
Moslems. However, he was mistaken-- while outwardly the Moslems seemed to be 
negotiating peace as per Shahji's moves, they were themselves preparing to 
strike. So Shriranga's element of surprise was completely blown off and the 
Moslems slaughtered his forces in the battle and seized Vellore. However, Shahji 
helped him escape with life. While the Adil Shahi army was tied with Shriranga, 
Shahji's son Shivaji captured the Kondana fort from the Moslems, while his elder 
son Sambhaji quite deposed a Moslem palegar in the Raichur Doab and was bringing 
territory under his control in contrivance with the local Hindu population.

The brahmins met at the Tirupati temple and bank-rolled a Hindu army using 
temple revenues under the surviving Nayakas to counter the Moslem depredations. 
Alarmed at the growing Hindu counter-attack the Sultans ordered a major 
offensive with two Jihadi armies under Mustafa Khan and Afzal Khan from Bijapur 
and the zealous Mir Jumla from Hyderabad. The Hindus at first fought the Moslem 
army at Virinchipuram, where despite their defeat staved of the Moslem army by 
inflict heavy losses on them. The surviving Nayaka, Rupa Nayaka went over to 
Jinji and from this excellent fort began operations against the Moslems with the 
Tirupati funds. He kept hitting the Moslem armies repeatedly and kept retreating 
to his fort. Sambhaji kept providing the Nayaka secretly with intelligence and 
was thus coming of his own in concieving a nationalist Hindu cause, much as his 
brother was in Maharashtra.The brahmins at the Tirupati meet also decided to 
take a second course of action and selected a set of expert tantriks to perform 
a series of abhicAra rites on the Sultan of Bijapur. The abhichAra had its due 
effect and the Sultan's limbs were paralyzed. Mustafa Khan and Mir Jumla enraged 
over the developments launched a major attack on Jinji. Shahji and Sambhaji were 
asked by Mustafa Khan to join him against the Nayaka at Jinji. Shahji proved an 
obstructionist and kept interfering by shielding various Nayakas and delaying 
encounters. Mustafa Khan furious over these actions had him arrested with the 
help of Shahji's treacherous relative Baji Ghorpade when the former was offguard 
due to a wild party. Shahji was put in chains by Afzal Khan and taken with him 
to Bijapur. Mustafa himself was targetted by a mAraNa prayoga laid by the 
brahmins and is said to have died in a week there after. But his successor 
Muhammad Khan continued the siege and finally killed Rupa Nayaka and captured 
Gingi.