Humayun drove Bahadur Shah of Gujarat to flight before Chitor and captured Mandu and Champanir (1535) but lost both through a year of inaction. The same fault and treachery of his brothers lost the empire to the nayakas.
The nayakas established rule at Madurai, longest-lived of the nayaka “little kingdoms.” Also established were two other prominent nayaka centers at Tanjuvur (defeated by the 1670s) and the territory controlled by the Senji Nayakas (defeated by the 1630s, this territory passed first to Bijapur and then to the Mughals). Marked economic change in these territories caused by introduction of new crops, expanded sphere of manufacturing production, and creation of important marketing centers. Revenues collected by the states on agriculture and trade permitted them to build towns and large temple complexes and to develop a new kingly ethos of consumption that altered the philosophical and ideological definitions of kingship, especially in terms of the relationship of the king to the communities of his realm.
Sur dynasty of the Afghan Sher Shah (1539–45), who had consolidated his power in Bihar and had driven Humayun to seek refuge in Persia, whence he returned precariously to Delhi and Agra (1555). In north India, Sher Shah began administrative experiments that later served as the basis for the Mughal system of governance.
Akbar's marriage to a Rajput princess of Amber (mother of Jahangir) and abolition of the jizya tax on non-Muslims (1564) marked a new policy of impartiality and conciliation of subjects. Marriage alliances and taxation policies served as aspects of new cultural system focused on elite loyalty to the emperor who, in turn, reinforced connections to the populace through patronage of various cultural activities.
A coalition of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur Bidar, and Golconda decisively defeated Vijayanagar at Talikota and led to the execution of the rajah. In 1574 Ahmadnagar annexed Berar, which had hindered the allied campaign.
