Vijayanagara built its army around elephants — then artillery broke it

By the mid-sixteenth century the Vijayanagara Empire was the dominant Hindu power in southern India. Its military strength rested on feudal nayaka levies, heavy cavalry and war elephants — the prestige arms that had prevailed against older regional kingdoms. The court believed that numbers, wealth and elephant charges would keep any coalition at bay.

In 1565 the five Deccan Sultanates combined against Vijayanagara and met the imperial army at Talikota. Their forces were smaller but included mobile field artillery and disciplined cavalry drawn from Perso-Turkish military traditions. The Sultanates also shared a single objective: break the empire.

Rama Raya's army had cannon but could not integrate them with elephant charges. When the guns opened fire, the elephants panicked and trampled their own lines. The nayaka command structure fragmented. The imperial centre collapsed, the baggage and treasury were lost, and the victorious Sultanates advanced on the capital.

The city of Vijayanagara was abandoned after the battle. The empire survived in a reduced form for another century, but it never again dominated the Deccan. The army built to win the previous style of Indian warfare had been defeated by an enemy that had moved on to gunpowder.