The Deccan Sultanates defeat Rama Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota, resulting in over 100,000 casualties and the destruction of the capital Vijayanagara.

The Deccan sultanates is a historiographical term referring to five late medieval to early modern Persianate Indian Muslim kingdoms on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range. They were created from the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate and ruled by various dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. The five sultanates owed their existence to the declaration of independence of Ahmadnagar in 1490, which was followed by Bijapur and Berar in the same year. Bidar became independent in c. 1492, and Golconda in 1512.

Aliya Rama Raya was a statesman of the Vijayanagara Empire, the son-in-law of Emperor Krishna Deva Raya and the progenitor of the Aravidu dynasty of Vijayanagara Empire, the fourth and last dynasty of the empire. As a regent, he was the de facto ruler of the empire from 1542 to 1565, although legally the emperor during this period was Sadasiva Raya, who was merely a puppet ruler. Rama Raya was killed at the Battle of Talikota, after which the Vijayanagara Empire fragmented into several semi-independent principalities paying only nominal allegiance to the empire.

The Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Kingdom, was a late medieval Hindu empire that ruled much of southern India. It was established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty, belonging to the Yadava clan of Chandravamsa lineage.

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.