The Battle of Talikota was a watershed battle fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and an alliance of the Deccan sultanates. The battle resulted in the defeat and death of Rama Raya, the de facto ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire, set forth the collapse of the Vijayanagara polity and reconfigured South Indian and Deccan politics.
The specific details of the battle and its immediate aftermath are notoriously difficult to reconstruct in light of the distinctly contrarian narratives present across primary sources. The defeat in this battle is usually blamed on the gap in relative military prowess of the combatants. Orientalist and nationalist historians claimed the battle as part of a clash of civilizations between Hindus and Muslims. Contemporary scholars reject such characterizations as flawed.