Kan: ವಿಜಯಪುರ vijayapura
‘Victory City’ City/District, Karnataka (Kar)
From Skt: vijaya, ‘victory’, ‘triumph’; and pur(a), ‘(fortified) city’
After the fall of the Bahmani Sultanate in the late 15thC the Adil Shai Sultans emerged as the key rulers in the Deccan with five separate states, one of which was here at Bijapur,
Bijapur was in its heyday during the Sultanate period. Its fort was 1.5 km in circumference with 6m walls, 96 bastions and an array of large, powerful cannons.
The 16thC Malik-i-Maidan, ‘Master of the (Battle)-Field’, was 4.2m long, 1.5m thick and weighed 55 tons, It was simply too large and too heavy for the East India Company to take home as a prize.
The city changed its name from Bijapur to Vijayapura in 2014.
Vijayapura is Karnakaka’s 9th largest city and, with many of its most important relics still intact, it is an important heritage city.
Bijapur Fort Gosahin