Sira

Sira was a fortified town and provincial capital on the southern Deccan plateau. Founded by the Nayaka Rangappa, it became an important administrative centre under the Mughals, whose province south of the Tungabhadra included several districts and tributary states. Its mosques, gardens and palaces reflected the wealth of the governors who ruled from the town.

Bijapur forces took Sira in the seventeenth century, and after the Mughal conquest of Bijapur it became the seat of a new province around 1687. Under Dilawar Khan the town prospered, and his palace later inspired buildings at Bangalore and Srirangapatna. The Marathas took Sira in 1757; Haidar Ali captured it in 1761 and assumed the title of Nawab of Sira. Further struggles with the Marathas followed before Mysore secured the town again.