a III. in 1278, when a disputed succession
caused its downfall and gave the Pandyas the opportunity of gaining for
a few years the upper hand in the south. In 1310, however, the
Mahommedan invasion under Malik Kafur overwhelmed the Hindu states of
southern India in a common ruin. Though crushed, however, they were not
extinguished; a period of anarchy followed, the struggle between the
Chola kings and the Mussulmans issuing in the establishment at Kanchi of
a usurping Hindu dynasty which ruled till the end of the 14th century,
while in 1365 a branch of the Pandyas succeeded in re-establishing
itself in part of the kingdom of Madura, where it survived till 1623. At
the beginning of the 15th century the whole country had come under the
rule of the kings of Vijayanagar; but in the anarchy that followed the
overthrow of the Vijayanagar empire by the Mussulmans in the 16th
century, the Hindu viceroys (_nayakkas_) established in Madura, Tanjore
and Kanchi made themselves independent, only in their turn to become
tributary to the kings of Golconda and Bijapur, who divided the Carnatic
between them. Towards the close of the 17th century the country was
reduced by the armies of Aurangzeb, who in 1692 appointed Zulfikar Ali
nawab of the Carnatic, with his seat at Arcot. Meanwhile, the Mahratta
power had begun to develop; in 1677 Sivaji had suppressed the last
remnants of the Vijayanagar power in Vellore, Gingee and Kurnool, while
his brother Ekoji, who in 1674 had overthrown the Nayakkas of Tanjore,
established in that city a dynasty which lasted for a century. The
collapse of the Delhi power after the death of Aurangzeb produced
further changes. The nawab Saadet-allah of Arcot (1710-1732) established
his independence; his successor Dost Ali (1732-1740) conquered and
annexed Madura in 1736, and his successors were confirmed in their
position as nawabs of the Carnatic by the nizam of Hyderabad after that
potentate had established his power in southern India. After the death
of the nawab Mahommed Anwar-ud-din (1744-1749), the succession was
disputed between Mahommed Ali and Husein Dost. In this quarrel the
French and English, then competing for influence in the Carnatic, took
opposite sides. The victory of the British established Mahommed Ali in
power over part of the Carnatic till his death in 1795. Meanwhile,
however, the country had been exposed to other troubles. In 1741 Madura,
which the nawab Dost Ali (1732-1740) had added to h