Gulbarga was selected by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Bahman Shāh (r. 748–59/1347–58), the founder of the Bahmanī dynasty (r. 748–934/1347–1527 in the northern Deccan), as the second capital of his kingdom, after the short-lived initial choice of Dawlatābād. Gulbarga is in present-day northern Karnataka and straddles the boundary between the Indo-Aryan Marathi (Marāt’hī) and Dravidian Kannada languages. Its fertile black soils of basaltic origin, rich in crops such as sugarcane, sunflower, gram (whole pulses), and bajra …