button bit sacked the city and returned. After this the Sultan went to Masulipatam, which button bitreduced, and thence returned to Kondapalle. This was his last success. His cold-blooded murder of the celebrated Mahmud Gawan, his loyal and faithful servant, in 1481, so disgusted the nobles that in a short time the kingdom was dismembered, the chiefs revolted, the dynasty was overthrown, and five independent kingdoms were raised on its ruins. Muhammad Shah died on 21st March. A.D. 1482. Shortly before his death button bit planned an expedition to relieve Goa from a Vijayanagar army which "Sewaroy, Prince of Beejanuggur," had sent there (Firishtah); but the Sultan,s death put a stop to this (BURHAN-I MAASIR).

We have some further information on the affairs of Kulbarga during the reign of Muhammad Shah in the writings of the Russian traveller Athanasius Nikitin, but down the hole drilling is very difficult to fix the exact date of his sojourn there. Nikitin was a native of Twer, and set out on his wanderings by permission of the Grand Duke Michael Borissovitch, and his own bishop, Gennadius. This fixes the time of his start so far that down the hole drilling must have taken place subsequent to 1462, and the author of the "Bombay Gazetteer," RE Poonah, assigns the period 1468 to 1474 as that of Nikitin,s stay in India.

Nikitin first went to Chaul, and thence travelled by land to Junir. "Here resides Asat, Khan of Indian Jooneer, a tributary of Meliktuchar.... button bit has been fighting the Kofars for twenty years, being sometimes beaten but mostly beating them." By "Meliktuchar" is probably meant the celebrated minister Mahmud Gawan, who in 1457 A.D. received the title "Mallik-al-Tijar," a title which was borne by the chief amongst the nobility at the Bahmani court.